The Toyota Problem

Posted on February 17, 2010 by

As the owner of a Toyota Camry produced during the  recall time line, this issues hits a little close to home. When I purchased the vehicle, I stretched my budget to get this car because of the manufacturer’s reputation for quality, service, safety, and longevity of product. I’m a high mileage driver, frequently driving in bad weather conditions and along isolated and mountainside roadways. After driving an older car for 11 years, I wanted something that would be reliable and give me peace of mind. To date, I’ve always taken my care to a Toyota dealership to have it serviced. Frankly, part of what you purchase when paying for a Toyota is that reliability and peace of mind. I wanted to purchase a car that I could drive 250k miles and 15 years. That is the very reason that this current string of quality issues is a serious problem for the company.

Here’s a little laundry list of issues I’ve got with Toyota, most of them personal experience:

  • I was given weather proof mats with the purchase of my car, to be shipped to my address. Two years later, still no mats.
  • A few months after making the purchase and at 11,000 miles (1,000 miles over the 10,000 mile new purchase full warrant), the front bumper came unhitched from the wheel well. Mind you, this is cosmetic, but I expected the company to fix it. They did not, and quoted me a $800 price tag. Needless to say, I’ve learned to deal with it.
  • Servicing the vehicle with the dealership has historically been expensive. The first 30k miles brought on a a couple of $250+ routine services. Even the routine oil changes were expensive at $50+. Over the last six months, the price of an oil change has fallen to around $30, much closer to my expectations.
  • My little tray in the console between the front seats is stuck and won’t open. Apparently, a card of some type fell behind the latch, so I can’t get it open. Mostly cosmetic, but still very annoying.
  • The company has 12 vehicles listed with a recall. 12… Really? I think we can call that a systemic issue at this point.

It’s a little early to criticize the company for its handling of the issue. After all, lets be honest, this isn’t an exploding gas tank problem. According to statistics from the company, over 80% of Toyota’s vehicles are still on the road after 20 years. I couldn’t even find Toyota listed when I googled for top ten automobile recalls (here’s one example). At this point, my issues isn’t with the company having recalls. My issue is with how poorly the company is handling the recalls. Here’s how the company has responded:

I know the company is strong in its corporate culture, and maybe in Japan the brand carries enough strength to inspire confidence with consumers. But here in the US, we want to see executives stepping up to plate and taking responsibility for the problems. Failure to do just that it was drove many of us away from our own domestic car companies

Ultimately, I think Toyota is (hopefully) taking the right operational steps… but they are failing miserably in the PR department. I’ve almost reached my breaking point, between hearing about a new recall every morning on CNBC to listening to the talking heads opine about the issue in the evening. The company has to step up and reassure me as an existing customer. For me, that means some level of personal communication. It also means making a vehicle at an affordable price point that dominates in the quality and performance categories. Oh, and sending me my floor mats.

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