What happened to Toyota? The world class brand name synonymous with quality is in the midst of an unprecedented recall which has forced the automaker to cease production and suspend sale of some of its most popular models including the bestselling Camry. Two problems contribute to the accelerator getting stuck leading to horrific accidents for drivers who aren’t skillful enough to know how to bring their vehicles under control.
Does this sound familiar? In the 1960’s, it was Chevrolet’s once popular, Corvair, that was assailed by Ralph Nader for its gas tank directly in front of the driver as documented by Nader’s book, Unsafe at any Speed, a work that essentially launched the consumerist movement.
The 1970’s were ridiculed with quality and safety issues from Detroit automakers. The move to subcompacts lead to substandard automobiles including the Chevy Vega which would screw up at any speed and the Ford Pinto that had a bad habit of exploding when rear-ended due to its faulty gas tank design. The 80’s had exploding Chevy pickups whose problems were exaggerated by NBC production teams who added explosives to exaggerate the problem for their primetime news magazine program. In the 1990’s, Firestone tires on the popular Ford Explorer failed causing horrible wrecks. Detroit’s quality was so poor in the 1980’s, one would think maybe someone had forgotten about him or her as a car owner if that person's car weren’t recalled.
All this and other issues set the stage for the rise of Toyota as an upstart in the market in the early 1970’s to total industry dominance in the 1990’s to where they are the world’s best selling brand worldwide and sell the many of the most popular passenger cars in America.
With Detroit on the ropes with only Ford Motor Company not requiring taxpayer bailouts, General Motors and Chrysler fighting for survival, suddenly, the seemingly unphased Toyota, the king of the hill, is recalling its vehicles by the millions. A proper fix is in the works by supposedly week’s end.
How could this happen? Is this what happens when a company finds itself on top of the heap? Smugness and complacency sets in and standards become weaker. Design engineers and a car’s specifications become not as exact and less scrutiny is directed at outsourced suppliers. As General Motors and its Detroit brethren experienced in the 1980’s, so goes Toyota in the new millennium or so it would seem on this occasion.
Now that Toyota has come to terms with the problem, the real measure of the company will be how it responds. Do they fully accept responsibility, fix the problem, and not try to divert blame elsewhere or do they weasel around a total fix? Will they examine their systems, inspect their product designs, and make sure such a problem can never happen again?
Toyota will not come through this undamaged. Just the short disruption in sales will send some buyers elsewhere in the short term, and those who own vehicles, perhaps loyal Toyota owners, thinking about what they had at stake and the extent to which they were subjected to danger might look at other makes when it’s time for their next car purchase.
There’s no question Ford Motor Company has reengineered its company with quality cars ready for sale. To have won Motor Trend’s award for the best car and truck in the same year is noteworthy. The Ford Fusion is right there with the Toyota Prius as a major full production hybrid. General Motors, in absolute tatters a year ago, appears to have Chevrolet turning the corner with attractive new cars including a replacement for the plain-Jane Cobalt with a new Cruise coming to showrooms in the third quarter of the year. The jury’s still out with Chrysler as new vehicles are not replacing the ones the public found so unappealing to begin with. However, regardless of which of the old big three a driver prefers, once again, young men with horsepower on their minds can contemplate Mustang versus Camaro versus Challenger. Alas, Pontiac and its Firebirds are gone as are Plymouths and their Barracudas. However, the pony cars of today have much the same appeal for today’s youth that their fathers and grandfathers had back in the 60’s. And who’s missing in the pony car competition? Toyota!
Toyota faces tough challenges to right its ship and maintain its leadership in the world auto industry. Whether it is Detroit's attempt to recapture its former glory or new entriers into the auto industry with an ever stronger Korean presence and now even India becoming a player, they must deal with their current difficultly proactively and honestly. They need look no further than the Pontiac and Saturn dealers that are in the process of closing up shop to see what happens when #1 takes its lead for granted.
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