Filed under: Safety, Toyota
What price a reputation? That's what
Toyota will be learning in the months and years ahead as it struggles to recover from the
safety scandal that has enveloped the company since it announced the first recall for unintended acceleration in October 2009.
There wasn't a single Toyota model that didn't land on the recall list at least once last year.
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
General Motors as the global king-of-the-hill, the Asian automaker seemed unstoppable.
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.
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.
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Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, 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.
[Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]
Continue reading Opinion: Turning the tide at Toyota?
Opinion: Turning the tide at Toyota? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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18-02-2011, 02:30 AM
