Toyota should have forseen the shit hitting the fan, or maybe they did and that is why we are hearing about all these problems now.
Toyota is considering a recall of its hot-selling Corolla subcompact after complaints about power steering problems — another blow to the world's largest automaker already reeling from a string of recalls for safety troubles.
Why you are hearing about so many problems coming from Toyota all of a sudden is because Toyota is bringing them to light before the government demands recalls. I can guarantee Toyota has known about all these problems but per their usual standards they either blame the customer or brush it under the rug until forced to deal with them.
Toyota has known about the gas pedel problems since 2003.
2003
That is 6 years they have known about the problems but have plain just ignored them until they were forced by the U.S. to deal with them.
Despite pressure from some lawmakers, President Akio Toyoda said he won't be attending the U.S. congressional hearing on the automaker's quality lapses, entrusting the job to U.S.-based executives — though would consider an appearance if the committee requests it.
Do you really think any of the Big 3 would get away with sending a subsitute because their CEO was "to busy". They would be dragged their by their ears.
And Toyota's fix for the gas pedel problem? The solution is to do what every other automaker had already been doing since they introduced drive-by-wire into their vehicles.
He promised a brake-override system in all future models worldwide that will add a safety measure against acceleration problems that are behind the recent massive recalls. The system is a mechanism that overrides the accelerator if the gas and brake pedals are pressed at the same time.
Toyota's whole problem was they were more interested in reaching #1 and being able to say they have overtaken the American Big 3 then they were in quality vehicles. A lesson the Big 3 learned the hard way.
Posted by Quality Weenie at February 17, 2010 10:51 AMNow it's power steering problems? Why has none of this come out before?
A large portion of the public carry around the perception that Toyota vehicles are made better than American vehicles... better quality.
Fortunately, this just shot that to hell.
Posted by: Pam at February 17, 2010 01:35 PM