The case of Toyota recall
By Daniel Opoku
Abstract Purpose: the main purpose of this study is to find out about the recalls of Toyota vehicles which lead to the death of some innocent lives. The recall was due to unintended acceleration. Toyota ultimately recalled millions of its cars for floor mat issues, brake problems and "sticky" gas pedals. Methodology: Data was collected online, by the help of some selected search engines. Information was collected from Toyota’s national website as well as other private sites. Findings/results: Most organization should seek for customers or consumer’s satisfaction rather than targeting of making high profit. Arrogance and choosing to ignore quality warnings when failures begin to happen is
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The gas pedals was too long and there is a little space between it and the floor mat. In all, there was a poorly designed floor mat Toyota began a massive recall last year worldwide to fix the problems that were attributed to faulty accelerators, floor mats getting stuck in gas pedals and brake problems in Prius hybrids. More than 8.5 million Toyota cars and trucks have been recalled. Drivers have complained of cars careering out of control at 65mph while overtaking, and negotiating roundabouts so fast that it felt like their car was on two wheels. A mechanical fault, caused by a combination of wear and cold and wet weather, Toyota believes, means that the accelerator pedal sometimes sticks down. Around 10,000 Toyota owners have so far contacted a hotline to air concerns.
Toyota was overwhelmed by massive product recalls and damage to its reputation after questions over the safety of its cars and allegations that the company did not act quickly enough once problems had been identified. The problem commenced when one duty police officer and his family back in August 2009 after their car, a Toyota Lexus, unexpectedly accelerated, crashed into another vehicle, tumbled over an embankment and burst into flames lead to the death of the man. Initial company reports identified that the car may have been fitted with the wrong floor mats, which could have slipped and entrapped the accelerator pedal. The problems began to increase for Toyota.
Toyota grew at a record speed and could not keep up with the speed in which it was growing. They are a centralized company and Japan only made the decisions. This prevented the company to keep up with the safety problems. The process that Toyota external suppliers follow when improving product and making sure the product is functioning properly before shipping to Toyota needs to be improved before they release the product from their warehouse to be sent to Toyota. This problem began when the company started to rapidly grow. Toyota’s lack of communication led to the faulty gas pedal recall.
The magazine article I decided to write about was an astonishing piece in the Times magazine. The article by Melissa Chan is called “Ford Recalls 450,000 More Cars Over Fuel Leak Issue”. The primary reason I chose this article is because I am the owner of a Ford vehicle. A subsequent reason I chose this article is because recall in automobiles has been such a controversial topic in media lately. The article goes into depth about how Ford’s automobiles are defective in a number of ways including leaking fuel and door latches that break causing doors swing open. Ford is undergoing a massive recall with automobiles that possess these defects. This article helps confirm topics stated in various chapters in our textbook magnificently.
In 2009 Toyota encountered a public backlash after the discovery of a potentially catastrophic engineering defect among its brand of automobiles including its best-selling Corolla and Camry models. This led to a massive and global recall of approximately 10 million units a year later. The engineering defect caused the models to accelerate out of control and put their drivers and other
As if this weren’t enough, quality problems mounted week after week. Only months later in February 2010, the NHTSA revealed that it had received claims citing another life threatening defect in the break system for the Toyota Prius. More than 400 thousand Prius recalls resulted. In April of 2010, customers reported handling issues in the Lexus brand which resulted in another recall of 9,400 Lexus cars and a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” rating from Consumer Reports. Also in April, the company voluntarily recalled Siennas to address a problem with corrosion on a spare tire cable. Later that month, Toyota voluntarily recalled 2003 Sequoia SUVs to improve the stability controls. 2010 Tacomas were also recalled for defective front drive shafts. Once the quality icon, Toyota had hit a really low point; so low that credit
Global demand for cars increase every year. As a result, car manufacturers focus on producing quality cars in record breaking times and speed. However, as a result there are manufacturing mistakes that result in serious injuries and deaths. Below introduces the worst automaker offenders and most recent high profile vehicle recalls.
Toyota is doing the right thing by stopping production on an unsafe product, while they try to figure what went wrong with the gas pedals and how to fix them. The plant will shut down one of its two assembly lines as Toyota explores what is causing gas pedals to potentially stick. The 2,500 or so affected employees will continue to work during the down time. They will be offered the opportunity to do training exercises or discuss ways they can improve their processes, the kaizen concept for which Toyota is famed.
The purpose of this report is to examine if the reasoning behind well-known car manufacturer, Toyota’s loss of revenue and leading market position is alone as a result of extensive product recalls following a fatal crash of a Lexus ES 350 on August 28th 2009. The journal article, “Toyota Crisis: Management Issue?” (Yuanyuan Feng 2010) provides an outline of the key factors that triggered the 2009 Toyota crisis, and explores whether the fall in the company’s returns by 19% were caused purely as a result of the recall and safety concerns, or something much deeper.
Due to Toyota’s financial greed and unethical practice, vehicles were wrongly equipped with faulty brakes, sticking pedals and poor quality door looks, which caused death of many Toyota customers and hundreds of dollars in damages. When a company like Toyota acts in an ethically questionable manner, it causes the company to lose customers and develop a negative reputation. Customer tend to lose faith in the company and have to look for better service
This paper describes various aspects of the Toyota recall issue. It enables to determine the Toyato recall issues, purpose and structure of it. The Toyota recall issue has prompted high criticism in national forums, automotive trade publications and media circles. Three separate recall issue by the Toyota occurred end of 2009 to start of the 2010. First, recall issue was to correct a possible incursion of an incorrect drivers side floor mat into the foot pedal. Second recall issue start after some crashes were presented by floor mat incursion. Last recall issues was a separate recall for hybrid anti-lock brake software. Toyota declared recalls of around 5.2 million vehicles for the floor mat problem and 2.3 million vehicles for
Of high concern to both our team and consumers looking to purchase a new vehicle is the issue with vehicle recalls. As cited from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , vehicle recalls have trended upward over the past several years to 51 million vehicles being affected in 2015, 64 million in 2014, 22.1 million in 2013, and 16.5 million in 201226. Within Toyota’s competitors, Toyota is the fourth-largest number of recalls number of vehicles in 2014, totaling just 5.9 million vehicles . For a perspective, General Motors recalled 28.83 million vehicles over the same span, Honda recalled 9.04 million, and Ford recalled 4.78 million vehicles. Though Toyota has had a history with large recalls, more recently they seem to
Toyota has hit the headlines over the years over the defects in several of their models which has sent it on a public relations and safety campaigns relating to its vehicles. Notably is the Toyota safety campaign in North America for certain models of Toyota as well as Lexus brands concerning the floor mat entrapment of accelerator pedals, later on it extended to other models in November 2009.
Toyota also has a strong portfolio of prestigious brands such as Prius, Camry, Toyota, Lexus, Corolla, Land cruiser, Hilux and other brands. In fact, the annual Brands Top 100 ranked Toyota a leading brand. This strong branding and market position allows Toyota to market its product with premium prices and high profit margins.
Challenging all the company stood for, in 2009, Toyota faced a series of recalls that would test their resolve and force the organization to examine their culture, methods and overall practices. The end of 2009 brought a recall of over 3.8 million vehicles for Toyota. Triggered by a deadly accident from an apparent stuck accelerator, reports of similar instances began pouring in. Publicity was brutal following the ordeal and the repercussions for Toyota were
One potential threat for Volkswagen is that Toyota may respond strategically by also cutting its prices. However, given Toyota’s quality problems over the past year, they will not be able to lower prices, as this possibly would create the perception of lower quality.. First and foremost, Toyota needs to ensure it handles its quality problems to its customers’ satisfaction. The auto maker needs to ensure the public perception is that Toyota is being upfront, honest, and responsible in dealing with recalls and the