Few news stories have been bigger in recent weeks than those about Toyota’s product recalls. But one has to wonder whether the treatment has been unfair.
No global automaker has been immune from large-scale product recalls in recent years. Ford Motor Co., one of the industry’s hottest companies at the moment, was faced with record recalls last year, while Honda and other automakers are dealing right now with recalls of their own.
Certainly Toyota is suffering from heightened scrutiny because of the potential severity of one problem with some cars – throttle controls that could get stuck in acceleration mode. Also, questions about the company’s response time to the problem have helped push the story to the forefront.
Still, logic says there must be something more, since Toyota – the Japanese company that became the world’s largest automaker through robust growth in America in the past decade – continues to make many very good cars and trucks that offer consumers value in most every class.
The hunch from someone who closely has followed the automotive industry and corporate management over the past decade is that the Toyota story keeps on going in part because the company’s top leadership has lagged on the communication front.