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TwitterAs recalls, apologies and possibly more recalls line up for Toyota, one thing is for sure, its reputation is skidding along with its brakes.
On Friday, President Akio Toyoda, gave a ‘heartfelt apology’ for the massive worldwide recall affecting over 8 million vehicles due to its accelerator problems. However he did not disclose what steps the world largest automaker would take to pacify harrowed customers & car owners alike.
In a press conference that lasted around an hour, Mr Toyoda insinuated that they would establish ‘a global quality committee’ to re-evaluate the company’s engineering, sales and marketing practices. Shares of Toyota which have stooped since the crisis, climbed in New York trading on Friday. The company’s American depositary shares rose 3.4% to $74.23 on the New York Stock Exchange, but are still well off the $90 price they fetched in mid-January.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda
Also he did not seem to have any answers to the more recent complaints about the 2010 Prius – a Hybrid car that has been a very popular, profitable brand for Toyota, besides being the symbol of the company’s technology leadership. Of 171 complaints filed by 2010 Prius owners with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 111 involved brake problems, the agency’s database shows, and at least two led to driver injuries.
Toyota has acknowledged a design flaw, and claims that depending upon the road conditions the brakes were sometimes slow to respond when drivers kept pressing them lightly. When the automatic braking system is enabled under certain road conditions, the car switches from regenerative braking to hydraulic braking. The brief time lag between the two braking systems results in cars stopping a little later than the drivers expected.
After its launch last May, Toyota sold 311,000 of its third-generation Prius world-wide in 2009.On Thursday Toyota said that it had rewritten the program in January to improve the braking system. All cars assembled since then carry the modified version of the software in their braking systems but it remains to be seen what will be done for the cars that they had already sold by then.
It is now expected that the company will start a recall, or voluntary repairs to fix the braking system of this car. Most speculate that the service for the owners of the newest Prius may start as soon as Monday and will require a 20-30 minute rewriting of a software program.
Meanwhile, Toyota is facing at least 30 class-action lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada connected to multiple recalls over sudden acceleration of its vehicles. More than half of these lawsuits blame Toyota’s electronic throttle control system for these events.
The going is certainly getting tough for Toyota. Mr. Toyoda said on Friday that he considers the company’s priority to be on safety rather than sales and profit. “Quality is our lifeline,” he said.
We hope so too.
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