Page 171 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

attention from all parts of the company. The new CQOs also had
the full authority of the office of the president of the company to
do what was needed.
Another very visible sign of the containment was the increas-
ing number and pace of recalls beginning in February 2010. Ac-
cepting responsibility and putting customers first meant shifting
the approach to recalls from “when in doubt, study the issue fur-
ther,” to “when in doubt, issue a recall immediately.”
One of the most publicized examples of this new approach
and the role of the chief quality officer was the decision to im-
mediately stop sales of the newly introduced 2010 Lexus GX 460
on April 13, the same day that Consumer Reports announced that
the vehicle had failed one of the magazine’s stability control tests
and was therefore to be placed on the dreaded “Do Not Buy”
list—something that had never happened to a Toyota or Lexus
vehicle before, or to any other vehicle for years. According to
Consumer Reports’s senior director David Champion, the test in
question simulates a driver on a freeway entering a sharply curved
exit ramp at 60 mph, not taking his foot off the accelerator until
the last second, and not applying the brakes. The test is designed
to see if the electronic stability control (ESC) can compensate
for the lack of braking and make the proper adjustments. In this
scenario, the GX 460 ’s ESC kicked in, but reacted too late, after
the vehicle had begun a skid. In Consumer Reports’s opinion, this
could lead to a dangerous situation—it’s all too common these
days for distracted drivers to enter curves at high speeds. While
the stability control prevented the vehicle from rolling over, it
might not have prevented the vehicle from hitting a curb or slid-
ing off the side of the road, causing a serious accident.
The test itself was unique to Consumer Reports; other vehi-
cle testing organizations don’t have a similar test. Toyota didn’t

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