Page 172 - Toyota Under Fire

RESPONSE AND THE ROAD TO RECOVER Y

test for this specific scenario either (although all other Toyota and
Lexus SUV models, including the Toyota 4Runner, which is built
on the same frame as the GX, passed the test). In the past, the
Consumer Reports test results would probably have led to weeks, if
not months, of internal debate and testing at Toyota. That was no
longer Toyota’s approach, and a decision to take action was made
first, even before a detailed investigation. As Steve St. Angelo, who
had just been appointed chief quality officer for North America,
put it, “Consumer Reports didn’t feel like it was safe for their read-
ers, and I was not going to argue with them. I decided to take
action as fast as possible.” Toyota stopped sales and then issued
a voluntary recall to update the ESC software to account for sce-
narios similar to those used in the Consumer Reports test, deliver-
ing the new software to dealers within a week. With the updated
software, the vehicle passed the test and was removed from the
“Do Not Buy” list.
The GX recall helped build a new sense of action and team-
work across the various parts of the company. St. Angelo explained:

I think it was a really good example of great team-
work. It was everybody in Japan, and also North Amer-
ica, working together, communicating very effectively,
and working very hard to make the programming changes.
We called the chief engineer, got him out of bed. And he
called his team in to work, and they worked, basically,
around the clock to make the programming changes.
And within a week, we had those changes ready to go.

The quick action accomplished its goal: reassuring the public
by responding to customer concerns quickly and with urgency.
Many media outlets, including the New York Times and the Los
Angeles Times, wrote positive stories about the effort, and even

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