If you have ever had a Toyota, was the car ever a problem for you? I had one once, it was a standard shift Corolla and it was a great car, it never had any problems, it lasted over 150,000 miles. Friends with the Prius love theirs. So the problems now hitting the news about Toyota come as something of a shock.
It seems that the company had a problem of not dealing with quality control issues. It put them off, ignored them, or explained them away rather than dealing with them. One executive was credited with saving the company $100 million by avoiding recalls. Unfortunately that seems to have been false economy, at the least. My friends and I are of the opinion that runaway acceleration probably involves a problem in the electronics of the car, rather than a mechanical problem with the gas pedal or the floor mats.
In any case, the Toyota experience makes it pretty clear that its better to deal directly with problems early, when they are first recognized, rather than putting it off or expecting them to just go away on their own. Evidently one insurance company even alerted the US government to unusual problems with Toyotas starting around 2004. Dealing with the problem back then would have cost Toyota some money, but it's a pittance compared to the expenses they face now, including loss of future customers.
It seems that the company had a problem of not dealing with quality control issues. It put them off, ignored them, or explained them away rather than dealing with them. One executive was credited with saving the company $100 million by avoiding recalls. Unfortunately that seems to have been false economy, at the least. My friends and I are of the opinion that runaway acceleration probably involves a problem in the electronics of the car, rather than a mechanical problem with the gas pedal or the floor mats.
In any case, the Toyota experience makes it pretty clear that its better to deal directly with problems early, when they are first recognized, rather than putting it off or expecting them to just go away on their own. Evidently one insurance company even alerted the US government to unusual problems with Toyotas starting around 2004. Dealing with the problem back then would have cost Toyota some money, but it's a pittance compared to the expenses they face now, including loss of future customers.
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