Posts Tagged ‘Toyota’

The Toyota recall scandal has been shocking on many levels and we’ve been studying consumer reactions to better understand how and why people feel the way they do about this ongoing saga.

In addition to analyzing feedback and comments voiced about Toyota on Honk, we also fielded a market research survey in late February to help quantify some of the impacts.

Results of the survey confirmed that consumers are angry with Toyota over both the recalls and the company’s handling of the situation.  Interestingly, the damage seems to be affecting many different components of Toyota’s brand image.  The perception of Toyota’s eco-friendliness, which is not directly connected to safety or quality, nonetheless dropped by four percent as a result of the recalls.

Stephanie LaCrosse, a Honk founder, was recently interviewed in Detroit and San Francisco to discuss the Toyota recall scandal and our findings.  Here are clips from two of her interviews:

Has the Toyota recall scandal affected your opinion of the company?

By now you’ve probably heard about James Sikes, the San Diego man who went for a wild ride in his 2008 Toyota Prius this past Monday.  While passing another car, Sikes claims that the accelerator in his Prius became stuck and that his car began to accelerate uncontrollably.  He led authorities on a 23-minute high-speed adventure until he was finally able to shut down the vehicle.

Automotive blog, Jalopnik, was the first to investigate Sikes and discovered a suspicious past involving a 2008 bankruptcy in which over $700,000 was owed.  Fox News also reports that Mr. Sikes filed a 2001 police report for a theft valued at $58,000.  The rest of the news media has jumped on these findings and on other outside character references and has started to question if Sikes faked the incident to profit from the publicity.

The Sikes incident highlights another small but important component of the story that’s being overlooked amidst all the hype: the transmission shifter.

The 2004-2009 Toyota Prius features one of the most unique transmission shifters on the market.  It’s a tiny plastic joystick who’s mission is to reinforce the notion that the Prius is not your everyday, run-of-the-mill, 21st-century automobile.

Photo via SimonK / Flickr

In this particular incident, however, the unique design may have contributed to Sikes’ inability to control his vehicle.

There is no industry standard for transmission shifters and many automakers have begun to use bespoke designs as a way to set their cars apart.  The Aston Martin DB9, for example, sports separate buttons for Park, Reverse, Neutral, and Drive on its dashboard.  BMW uses a joystick similar to the Prius on its X5 crossover.

In a relaxed driving situation, these deviations from the norm are at worst an inconvenience.  In an emergency situation, like the one James Sikes claims to have experienced, unusual designs could put drivers at greater risk as they struggle to operate the unfamiliar.

For his part, Sikes claims he was unsure of how to place his hybrid’s transmission in Neutral and he worried that accidentally engaging Reverse might, “flip the car.”  Toyota responded soon after with a list of FAQs explaining that the electronic shifter in the Prius must be moved to the left and held in place for one full second to engage Neutral.

“Press and hold” is an emergency command most often associated with consumer electronics – not automobiles.  Have automakers, in their attempts to create distinctive vehicles, inadvertently put their customers at greater risk?  Do you think that transmission shifters – or aspects of their operation – should be standardized as a result of the incident in San Diego?

If you’ve been able to pull your eyes away from the latest sensational coverage of Jim Sikes’ runaway Toyota Prius in San Diego, you may have come across another story from the Detroit Free Press in which Toyota is taking heat from Detroit’s Big Three.

It seems that in the frenzy of the congressional hearings, Toyota submitted a chart showing the number of recalls from itself and other manufacturers over the past decade.  The chart was titled, “Automotive Recalls in Perspective” and revealed that all three of the Detroit firms had roughly triple the number of recalls that Toyota did over the same time period.

Detroit is upset by the chart but can’t risk challenging Toyota in public because an attack will only draw attention to their own bad data.  Big Three insiders are said to be skulking behind the scenes, throwing around phrases like, “It’s tearing the whole industry apart.”

The Freep also points out that this may be yet another PR misstep by Toyota because the charts were somewhat irrelevant to the congressional hearings.  The investigation is for Toyota’s poor management of the recalls today – not yesterday.

Where I take offense is in Detroit’s whining and grousing behind the scenes.  Yes, the chart was intended to make them look bad and Toyota look good.  But isn’t that exactly what the Big Three and their dealers did last month when they resorted to cheap shot incentives and advertisements to lure customers away from Toyota?

If you can’t take the heat then stay out of the kitchen.

In the last 30 days, Toyota has recalled more cars (9 million) than it sold in the last three years.  Industry analysts are deeming this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for America’s domestic automakers to reverse their declining market share and reestablish themselves as industry leaders.  The obvious question on everyone’s minds: can they do it?

Figures just published on Automotive News show that both Ford and GM are out performing Toyota and expanding their market share.  

Ford is showing unprecedented growth with a 43% boost in year-over-year sales while GM is moving in the right direction with 12% increase from last year.  For the first time in almost a decade Toyota is showing a decline (9%) in year-over-year sales volume.

Although these most recent sales figures suggest and Ford and GM are moving in the right direction, the future is still very unclear.  Toyota has temporarily stopped selling approximately 57% of its US models, but as soon as the current recall gets cleared up, they will undoubtedly be back on track and working hard to reprove their worth.

So how do Ford and GM take full advantage of their current upturn in fate?  Industry analysts charge that domestic automakers need to beat Toyota (and Honda) at their own game: by building forward-looking cars with high mileage, attractive features, and outstanding quality.

Do you think that Ford and GM have what it takes to continue growing after Toyota completes this historic recall?

Source: [HBS Working Knowledge]

Tears – in this case, Toyota President, Akio Toyoda’s tears.  According to a recent SFGate story, Toyota’s CEO teared up during the House Oversight Committee hearing and broke down balling at a meeting with national Toyota dealers.

Why the tears?  Crying in public is common protocol for Japanese executives in trouble.  The Japanese view crying as a virtuous symbol of the acknowledgment of one’s mistakes.

While Toyoda’s tears have improved his image in Japan; the jury is still out in the United States where Toyota continues to struggle with several high-profile safety recalls.  Did Toyoda’s tears demonstrate true remorse or were they a theatrical show?

Remorseful tears or not, many in the automobile industry and at Toyota, itself, have confidence that Akio Toyoda is still the best person to lead this global manufacturing giant.  Since assuming the role of CEO in June, 2009, Toyoda has publicly criticized the previous CEO and management team for being overly focused on growth and for losing sight of the customer.  He pledged to return the company’s focus to the customer and to grow more responsibly in the future.

After slamming Toyota’s previous management in a rare statement to the Detroit Free Press, Jim Press, the former head of the automaker’s US operations, expressed his own confidence in Toyoda.  “Akio Toyoda is not only up for the job, but he is the only person who can save Toyota. He is very capable, and he embodies the virtues and character that built this great company.”

The CEO, himself, admits, “We at Toyota are at a crossroad. We need to rethink everything about our operation.”  Fixing Toyota is going to be a big job, but Akio Toyoda appears to have the passion and drive necessary to succeed.  As he puts it; his name is on every product his company makes.