Opinion: Turning the tide at Toyota?
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/safety/" rel="tag">Safety</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/toyota/" rel="tag">Toyota</a></p><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/02/toyota-logo-building-opt.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; margin: 4px 0px;" /><br />
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What price a reputation? That's what <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/make/toyota/">Toyota</a> will be learning in the months and years ahead as it struggles to recover from the <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/toyota_recall/guide">safety scandal</a> that has enveloped the company since it announced the first recall for unintended acceleration in October 2009.<br />
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<strong>There wasn't a single Toyota model that didn't land on the recall list at least once last year.</strong></div>
Going into the recession, certainly no company seemed better suited to weather the perfect storm than the Japanese giant, which had positioned itself as the leader in quality, reliability and dependability, or QRD in industry speak, as well as the benchmark for green mobility. Having ousted <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/make/gm/">General Motors</a> as the global king-of-the-hill, the Asian automaker seemed unstoppable.<br />
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Yet nearly seven years ago, I wrote a column suggesting Toyota might become the next GM if it weren't careful, and even as the company's sales continued growing, there were subtle signs of trouble in the offing - most notably in its slippage on the quality charts.<br />
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But few would have anticipated the sudden acceleration crisis, or the series of additional recalls that followed, month after month. In 2010, there wasn't a single Toyota model that didn't land on the recall list at least once - some repeatedly.<br />
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<em><img alt="Paul Eisenstein" border="1" class="right border" hspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/11/paul-eisenstein-small-opt.jpg" vspace="4" />Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of </em><a href="http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/"><em>TheDetroitBureau.co m</em></a><em>, and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.</em></div>
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[Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]<p><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/17/opinion-turning-the-tide-at-toyota/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Opinion: Turning the tide at Toyota?</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/17/opinion-turning-the-tide-at-toyota/">Opinion: Turning the tide at Toyota?</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:29:00 EST. Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/17/opinion-turning-the-tide-at-toyota/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19848118/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/17/opinion-turning-the-tide-at-toyota/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

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