Toyota’s hard-earned reputation for reliability and craftsmanship has carried the Japanese automaker to the top of the automotive world. But it also appears to have led the company to rest on its laurels when it should have been busy repairing a long history of reported problems with cars that may accelerate unexpectedly. In fact, there suddenly are questions about whether Toyota yet has a real fix for its vehicles’ acceleration problems.
Several things have come to light that suggest Toyota officials dallied on the need for a recall while the problems of unexpected acceleration worsened. Federal officials have now disclosed, for example, that Toyota executives said on Jan. 27 they had first learned in April or May, 2009, of sticking gas pedals in cars in England and Ireland, The New York Times reported Wednesday. If that wasn’t enough of a wake-up call, the death in California last August of an off-duty highway patrolman, and then a raft of class-action lawsuits, should have prompted faster action on fixing sticking pedals.
And now, federal officials have asked Toyota’s leaders to submit documents which prove the company has eliminated the possibility that faulty computer systems — and not just floor mats and sticking gas pedals — are at fault for the acceleration problems, which have caused a number of accidents and deaths.
Washington officials have other reasons to worry that Toyota has not acted fast enough or thoroughly enough to address the problems that finally forced it to recall millions of vehicles across eight vehicle models. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood, for example, told the Associated Press earlier this week that Toyota only started the recalls after transportation officials flew to Japan “to remind Toyota about its legal obligations.” Until then, he said, “maybe they were a little safety deaf.” That circumstance also contradicted statements by Toyota officials that their recalls were “voluntary.”
Given this unfolding history of sudden acceleration problems and corporate waffling, the agency is now considering imposing civil fines against Toyota for not responding to the need for a recall quickly enough. “We’re not finished with Toyota and are continuing to review possible defects and monitor the implementation of the recalls,” Secretary LaHood said Tuesday.
In another Washington setting, Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he wanted clarification of Toyota’s statement that the accelerator repair “is going to stop what’s going on.” He said that countered earlier statements by Toyota officials that the cause of unexpected acceleration was “very, very hard to identify.”
Toyota laggard and contradictory handling of its car problems clearly hasn’t lived up to its reputation of efficiency, perfection and customer satisfaction. The question now is whether it can heal its bruised reputation and retain its customer base. It has surely lost the first round of that battle, and encouraged its competitors to challenge its reputation and to fight for a chunk of the customers it has already lost.
That’s an unexpected blessing for Detroit. And fortunately, the turnaround of Ford and General Motors, particularly, has left them ready with efficient new models to cash in on rival Toyota’s miseries.