Over the past several months Toyota has ended up in on the front page of news reports around the world. The Japan based car company has announced an enormous recall for a design flaw that can cause the gas pedal to become stuck and continue accelerating. The number of recalls for this problem is said to be in the millions, as Toyota has many makes and models. The faulty accelerator pedals are not tied to any specific make/model. A class action lawsuit has been filed by two people in California against the company back in November. Authorities in various parts of the country have found, after rigorous investigations, that this flaw has been the cause of many fatalities and injuries from car crashes. The company had originally said the fault was due to gas pedals becoming stuck to the floor mat; however, this does not seem to be the complete answer. Some of the recent company's makes/models have a new version of electronic throttle control system called the ETCS-i. This has been found to be the main cause of sudden acceleration in the automobiles.
On top of this issue, the brand new 2010 Prius has just recently been linked to having design flaws with its braking system (Yahoo News - Toyota Recall). All of this bad press has begun to make stockholders wary about the company as a whole, causing its stock price to plummet.
Of the Toyota and Lexus brands under recall to fix these problems are:
* 2004-2009 Toyota Prius
* 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon
* 2005-2010 Toyota Tacoma
* 2007-2010 Toyota Camry
* 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra
* 2006-2010 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350
* 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350
* 2009-2010 Toyota RAV4
* 2009-2010 Toyota Corolla
* 2009-2010 Toyota Matrix
* 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon
* 2010 Toyota Highlander
* 2008-2010 Toyota Sequoia
** 2010 Toyota Prius (Braking System)
If you own any the above models, notify your dealership so they can repair the faulty pedal. If your pedal does become stuck and it becomes an extreme case, don't "pump" the brakes because it will weaken your power brakes, instead press and hold the brake down, then switch the car into neutral so the wheels will stop spinning. Also, take out any driver's side floor mats until the problem is fixed or further notice, as this can help cause the problem. Any other info you may need can be found here -> CNN - Recall, What to do?.
In saying all of this, I hope everyone stays safe with this issue. I see this as a very crucial time for Toyota to either flourish by way of good customer service and repair or to begin collapsing in on itself. How do you think this will affect the way owners of Toyotas view the company now and in the future? What do you think will be the overall financial outcome for Toyota after all the fixes are made? Will this end up strengthening or weakening the company; is it seen as an opportunity or a threat? If you were the head of the marketing department at Toyota here in the U.S., how would you go about keeping your customer loyalty and continuing to market these makes/models to your customer base?
No comments:
Post a Comment