After 8 million recalls for floormats, accelerator pedals and brakes over the last few months, Toyota has a huge PR mess on their hands.
Let me outline a few points where I feel Toyota could have jumped in to reassure Toyota owners of it’s knowledge of the situation.
- Firstly, they failed to acknowledge there were any problems in the first place. Reports of problems have been submitted for years and yet they turned the blind eye. PR could have acknowledged any issues and investigate.
- Next they blamed the customer for not operating the vehicle properly. PR could have jumped in to educate customers on the proper operation.
- After much pressure, they finally admitted to a problem. Their short term solution was the fix the floormats which could be sticking underneath the pedals. Good for them to admit this, unfortunately it was not the root cause.
- Did much change after that? No. There were still problems and another short term solution was to fix the accelerator pedal which could be sticking. Good for them to try to resolve the issue. Again, unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be the end of it.
- According to reports, the previous fixes do not cover 70% of the problems reported. So what else could it be? Toyota claims it’s not an electronic problem. It would in their best interest to leave it open because if it is the problem, their denial will lose many more customers and loyal fans than if they didn’t deny an electronic problem in the first place. Did Toyota not learn that denying the problem in the first place is what got them in this mess?
Do you agree with Toyota’s handling of the situation? Do you think they’re still hiding something?
