Page 145 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

have traveled nearly another 90 feet before the brakes begin to
take hold.” CNN, like most media outlets, failed to grasp that (1)
the issue occurred only at speeds under 35 mph, and that (2) there
was no material delay in braking, just in the feel of the brake pedal.
With the Prius braking issues hitting the front pages of
newspapers, and amidst all the media frenzy, Toyota announced
a new recall on February 9 to alter the software in 437,000
hybrid vehicles that were already on the road around the world.
It’s worth noting that at about the same time, Ford reported a
problem of braking hesitation in its Ford Fusion hybrid as the
car shifted from regenerative to conventional braking, but it did
not issue a recall, arguing that the hesitation did not pose a safety
risk and choosing to handle the issue as a “customer-satisfaction
program.”*
By this point, Toyota was stuck between a rock and a hard
place. Any issue involving the drivability of a car could be used
as an example of the company’s indifference to its customers, but
if it issued recalls for these issues preemptively, it would seem to
justify claims that the company had a quality crisis. Toyota de-
cided that it was better to take the hit for perceived quality lapses
in the short term to begin rebuilding customers’ trust that Toyota
would do the right thing. As Steve St. Angelo, who in the wake
of the crisis was named chief quality officer for North America,
explained: “I’m taking every rock and every stone, and if it looks
strange, I’m doing a deep investigation. And if I think it might
possibly have any kind of impact on the customer’s safety, I will
ask for a recall. If we’re going to fail, we’re going to fail on the side
of overprotecting our customer.”

* “Ford to Fix Brake Problems on Two Hybrid Models,” Associated Press, Febru-
ary 4, 2010; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35242362/ns/business-autos.

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