Page 152 - Toyota Under Fire

THE RECALL CRISIS

found 205 total stories for the month of February alone, of which
196 were negative.* A set of myths about Toyota quality and
safety lapses (which we summarize in Table 3.1 along with the
underlying facts) had taken hold. Testimony from executives was
clearly not enough to turn the tide.

TABLE 3.1 ENGINEERING ERRORS LEADING
TO RECALLS: MYTHS AND REALITY
RECALL
ISSUE MYTH REALITY CAUSE
1. Pedal en- Carpet design No defect exists with properly Improper use
trapment causes pedal installed floor mat. Floor mats of floor mats.
by unse- entrapment, that are unsecured, stacked,
cured or leading to or incompatible have the
incompat- accidents and potential to entrap the
ible floor deaths. accelerator pedal. Also true
mat for other auto makers.
2. Sticking Pedal frequently In rare cases, pedal can get As a result of
accelera- gets stuck, sticky and return slowly to heat, humid-
tor pedal leading to idle or temporarily stick par- ity, or con-
uncontrollable tially depressed. There were densation,
acceleration no cases of wide-open throt- synthetic ma-
and causing tle or uncontrollable acceler- terial in pedal
many accidents. ation. In all cases, brakes will can become
stop car in normal stopping sticky. Brak-
distance. ing perfor-
mance is not
affected.
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* We thank James Franz for this research. Franz qualified as negative only sto-
ries that did not include any positive perspectives on Toyota or qualify negative
judgments, and that used disparaging language like “Toyota’s reckless irrespon-
sibility.”

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