Posts tagged Toyota

Prius Next On The Recall List


Toyota Prius (ZVW30)

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With so many cars being recalled by Toyota, it makes you wonder how they passed quality control.  Toyota vehicles were known for quality and they held their value well.  I think that Toyota owners will still stick with Toyota through the recalls.

Toyota President apologizes… again, calls situation a “crisis” *UPDATE

Fifteen days after Toyota announced a recall of 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. for sticking accelerator pedals, the company’s president and grandson of its founder made a formal apology at an evening news conference in Japan on Friday night (early morning EST). Akio Toyoda has been largely silent during the last two weeks as his company struggles to contain the fallout from recalls affecting over nine million vehicles on multiple continents. The only other time he’s spoken on record was during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last Friday when he told a Japanese interviewer, “I am deeply sorry.” What’s the reason for today’s remarks? Toyoda told the audience of press, “”I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe.”

The company president also announced that a committee would be created to look at Toyota’s quality issues and address them going forward, something his predecessor, Katsuake Watanabe, also did back in 2006. Finally, in regards to braking issues with the 2010 Prius revealed yesterday, Toyoda said the company would soon announce how it plans to address them. Despite reports coming out of Japan to the contrary, there has been no official confirmation from Toyota that the new Prius will be recalled. Both the Japanese and U.S. governments have also opened investigations on the Prius and Toyota has pledged its cooperation.

We also learned yesterday of brake issues in the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid after Consumer Reports experienced a sudden loss of braking power in a Fusion Hybrid and contacted the automaker. The issue sounds similar to what some owners are experiencing in the 2010 Prius, though we’ve only heard of this one instance and Ford has already responded with a TSB to repair the issue with a software upgrade.    –more

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Toyota Motor Company Falls 16%, Boosts Ford



ToyotaThe Toyota recall has drastically hurt business for them, but helps boost business for other car manufacturers. The question now is, will Toyota be able to recover from the all the bad press surrounding the recall?  I think so.

Toyota Motor Company falls 16%, FoMoCo up 25%

How do you know if a recall has affected your sales? If you find yourself below the Chrysler Group in sales performance. That’s exactly what happened to Toyota Motor Company in January 2010, as the early effects of its sticking pedal recall sank sales 16 percent versus the same month last year. And the recall was only announced on January 21, directly affecting only about a third of the month’s selling days. We’ll be watching closely to see if Toyota can recover those lost sales in February, which may depend on the outcome of two House hearings scheduled to investigate how its recalls have been handled.

Ford Motor Company, meanwhile, continues to ride a wave of positive press and industry accolades to higher sales. Its group rose sales some 25 percent last month to beat all auto-making companies. Sales for the Ford brand itself rose 26 percent by volume alone. General Motors also has something to smile about, as Chevrolet roared back with sales up 36 percent and sales overall (including non-core brands that are still clearing out inventory) that jumped 14 percent.

Perhaps the single most surprising result is Kia, which for months has stood atop the sales performance charts with fellow Korean brand Hyundai and Subaru. While those two continued their winning ways, up 24 and 28 percent respectively, Kia sales remained flat. That said, there were only 24 selling days in January 2010 versus 26 in January 2009, so Kia did sell more vehicles per day in January than it did last year.    –more

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