| News from Automotive News |

By JAMES B. TREECE | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

AutoWeek | Published 07/24/06, 11:46 am et



TOKYO -- For Shinichi Sasaki, it was a baptism by fire.

A month after being named Toyota Motor Corp.'s new quality czar, Sasaki spent two hours last week telling reporters how Toyota will improve the quality of its vehicles. He was responding to a safety recall that has Japanese police threatening criminal charges against Toyota managers.

The recall is just the latest event threatening the company's hard-won reputation for quality. Shaken, Toyota is reorganizing, reviewing its quality processes, stepping up its review of aging vehicles' service records and urging customers to report any problems to their dealers.

As a symbolic first step, Toyota executives are apologizing repeatedly. CEO Katsuaki Watanabe says the recalls and a sexual-harassment case in the United States are "leaving people to wonder if Toyota remains sound."

He bowed deeply at a press conference in Tokyo to "express my earnest apologies."

'I'm ashamed'

Sasaki and three other managers in charge of quality also bowed at a separate press conference after meeting with government regulators.

"I'm ashamed as a carmaker that we caused worries among our customers," says Akio Toyoda, executive vice president for purchasing and quality and a scion of the company's founding family. "These are the customers who selected Toyota thinking that Toyota vehicles would be safe."

The automaker's quality numbers are still high. In this year's J.D. Power Initial Quality Study in the United States, the top four brands in order were Porsche, Lexus, Hyundai and Toyota.

But lately, customers have had cause to doubt Toyota's quality. Last week, the company recalled 418,570 cars worldwide, all made in 2001. That includes 34,700 Priuses, Echos and other cars sold in the United States.

The problem is a faulty crankshaft position sensor that can stall the engine. The engine then cannot be restarted. Toyota says it is not aware of any accidents caused by the glitch.

Among other U.S. quality issues:

Toyota this spring recalled 170,000 Priuses, or two of every three it had sold, because a portion of the steering shaft assembly could become loose or crack.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Toyota's Scion tC coupe, after receiving nine complaints that the car's glass sunroof can shatter.

Toyota is recalling 367,600 Toyota Highlander and Lexus RX SUVs in the United States. A defective carpet clip could interfere with the accelerator.

More woes

In Japan, Toyota has recalled 1.1 million vehicles this year through Thursday, July 20. That's a big increase since 2002, when Toyota recalled 485,000 vehicles worldwide for the entire year.

One particular recall now haunts Toyota. It involves a defect in the steering assembly of 4Runner SUVs and T100 and Tacoma pickups, built between 1988 and 1996.

That problem caused a Hilux Surf, the Japan market's name for the 4Runner, to swerve and strike a car in the prefecture of Kumamoto in 2004. Five passengers in the other vehicle were injured.

Toyota had investigated the steering assembly in 1996. It altered the assembly for future vehicles but decided no recall was necessary.

After more complaints surfaced in 2004, Toyota reopened its investigation and issued a recall that year. The company recalled similar vehicles in the United States last September.

On Friday, July 21, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation ordered Toyota to report by Aug. 1 on steps it is taking to improve its monitoring of defects. The ministry's regulators did not fine Toyota or rule that it had broken any laws.

Separately, though, Kumamoto police have asked prosecutors to issue warrants against the managers involved in the 1996 investigation.

Watanabe says Toyota has gained a sense of urgency to improve quality. "Without an improvement in quality, Toyota cannot expect to grow in the future," he says. "We are completely devoted to improving quality as quickly as possible."

One man, one job

Toyota has restructured to give quality more attention. Sasaki's predecessor as head of quality also headed the vehicle engineering group, future-project division and motor sports division. Now, quality is his sole task.

Last October, Toyota set up a Customer First Activities Program Committee to coordinate engineering, production, sales and service actions that affect quality. Watanabe leads it.

Toyota also has begun to gather data on vehicle owners' problems more quickly. In June, it began to track data on repairs after a car's warranty expires. It now keeps defect data for 10 years, instead of just five previously.

Toyota also will install a quality control system as part of a massive overhaul of its Takaoka plant. The system will track quality "every step of the way," Watanabe says.

Sasaki's immediate strategy for restoring Toyota's quality is to enlist the help of dealers. He urges Japanese customers to report any problems to their dealers.

"If you notice anything odd, let us know," he says. "Even if it only happens once, take it to your dealer."

 

If all these new safety measures they take are real, Toyota will only succeed even better in the market place!

I know if I ever buy another 4-door sedan, it would be the rumoured IS500. I still love Toyota!

 

I wish I could get some of my own employees to admit to faults just as these Toyota employees did.

Toyota also has a lot more demand for their vehicles than before with more people switching over, especially from American models. I can´t help but wonder how much more pressure they have been under to get vehicles out the factory door, though Toyota does take a great deal of patience in their design process and watching how the competition fares.

Still Toyota does way better than most.

 

toyota has passed the worst part already... most of the recalls are for old vehicles.
I think 2000-2004 has been the worst for Toyota. These days they are doing better than ever...

 

True. I definately agree on that part, but Toyota needs to be very careful especially with bargain Korean (and soon Chinese) cars coming/competing in the market. They should be more concerned about that than American and German competitors.


On a side note, are most of the cars that have been recalled from Japanese factories or North American factories? Does it make a difference?

 

it doesnt make any difference... Koreans are still way behind in quality...

 

Korean's are way behind on quality? Maybe in other parts of the world but in N. America their new cars seem very high quality. Got data to back up your claim?

 

A little bit of a side note with Hyundai vehicles, quality and their appearance here south of the border.

In Mexico, Hyundai vehicles are sold under the Dodge nameplate. In addition, many vehicles normally sold as Dodges are sold under Chrysler (Dodge Caravan becomes Chrysler Voyager here).

When these vehicles, especially the Atos first came to Mexico, I remember many people in my office were looking at the Atos, seeing the low price and the Dodge nameplate and saying another POS from Dodge.

When I found out this was actually a Hyundai, I had to turn them 180 and say look again. Several of them actually bought these vehicles and have throughly enjoyed them.

http://mx.autos.yahoo.com/newcars/do...l_overview.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Atos

 

and euros arent? hyundais are beating most domestics already and on the tails of japanese reliability

 

A lot of people are taking these Toyota recalls way out of proportion.

Fact of the matter is, Toyota is freaking out about quality right now. For example, Toyota previously had one senior executive in charge of quality, who also managed several other things. Now there are two big senior executives solely in charge of quality.

Toyota *urged* its Japanese customers to report any problem, no matter how small, to dealers and to bring their cars in for service. When was the last time any car company did that?

Toyota right now is recalling any and all cars for even the tiniest of problems. Notice how all the recent Toyota recalls are almost completely voluntary, and virtually all of these recalls have had no accidents reported.

Even Watanabe himself made a deep long bow in a press conference to apologize for all the recent recalls. Toyota responded in only a matter of weeks, after this recent slew of recalls. Toyota has admitted they have some quality problems, and that they are placing quality on a higher priority. When was the last time any car company reacted that fast to media reports and customer response? The final blow was the police investigation in Japan into some of Toyota's quality managers. Honor in Japan is a very big thing, and this is a huge blow to Toyota's honor and to their reputation. Not only did Watanabe bow and apologize, so did several other Toyota executives. Even a member of the Toyoda family apologized and spoke in a press conference that he was "ashamed" with the recent recalls and the police investigation.

Make no mistake, heads will roll, and reorganization is already taking place at Toyota. Toyota will now run an even tigher ship, and don't be surprised if Toyota even sacrifices a bit of profit to increase quality.

There are good measures already being implemented. Toyota's Tahara plant is getting a massive overhaul, and is getting a new quality control system installed, along with many other improvements to the plant that will make it the best quality plant in the world, bar none (more so than it is right now). That's also good news as the new LS will be built with all these new additions in place.

Also, Toyota since last year began to collect vehicle repair data for 10 years, long after the end of the warranty period. Toyota previously collected data up to 5 years.