The Toyota Recall

Another big news story just now—really a continuing story, with a new chapter every few days—is the so-called Toyota recall.

If you have been hiding out in a cave or on top of the Himalayas for a while, the story is about a problem of some Toyota and Lexus models such that they accelerate out of control. This problem has even caused fatal crashes.

First the problem was blamed on floor mats that were catching the accelerator pedals and making them stick in a depressed position. Then it seemed it was not so simple. There's even been some talk that it's a software problem. (These days, a lot of cars are "drive by wire," where, rather than the gas pedal just having a mechanical link to the throttle on the engine, the gas pedal is really an electrical or electronic control, and the car's computer mediates between the pedal's input and the engine's ultimate response.)

The latest move by Toyota in response to all this is to stop production and sale of the models involved.

There's been lots of commentary and analysis of what is going on, and I'd like to try to summarize some of what's being said.

One article I saw said that Toyota, in its attempt to grow quickly and surpass General Motors as the world's biggest car maker, began to use new suppliers rather than its tried-and-true, small stable of Japanese component manufacturers (in this case, the pedal assembly was made in a U.S. plant of a Canadian-owned company).

One commentator, a University of Michigan professor, seemed to be saying that in any car, as components age, the gas pedal can potentially stick.

Another commentator said that, because a widespread problem with its products has been so rare for Toyota, they don't have experience in dealing with that kind of problem.

Well, any carmaker's products can come under the microscope like this. Certainly it's to Toyota's credit that we have heard about Toyota recalls much less often than, say, Chrysler recalls. Other makers even have had a similar problem with their cars, and that certainly hurt their image for many years.

I don't know whether car buyers will think twice about buying a Toyota. I am sure that at some point—just as in a homicide investigation by the police—everything will be figured out and we will find out who, or what, the real culprit was. Maybe in the meantime we should all adopt a wait-and-see posture.

A big question in my mind is, What does all this imply for Toyota's almost legendary reputation for quality and reliability? (In the interest of disclosure, I am a Toyota owner myself, but mine is not one of the models being recalled.) Take this latest together with a story about a week ago that said that Toyota was starting to use poorer-quality parts, and—well, it's enough to make you take a closer look at some of the competing makes.

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein