Reliability was the foundation of Toyota's rise in the United States, with such durable products as this 1977 Corolla SR5 liftback. (Photo: Toyota)
What the heck happened at Toyota? How did the brand most revered by an entire generation for quality and reliability so quickly turn into the poster child for automotive hubris?
The irony of Toyota being shot down by a severe and deadly quality problem, and company officials’ long delayed recognition of the scope of the problem, is that Toyota is the auto company that so many people trust. Or trusted.
Suddenly, Toyota and its associated brands, Lexus and Scion, seem to be paddling against a hard current of bad press and worse public perception. When people say they are afraid to drive because their Corollas might kill them, well, that’s a tough problem to cope with.
"They are seriously damaged," said Mark Hass, CEO and partner of MH Group Communications, in comments to Advertising Age. "What's made them a great car company is that their brand was all about consistency.
“Consumers always knew what they were getting with Toyota, and this has to give people serious doubts about what they are getting. This blows up that idea of consistency that has surrounded them for so long."
One of the key considerations is the nature of Toyota’s customers. Often, they are people who buy the Japanese brand because they don’t generally trust autos or automakers. A Camry is considered the safest automotive purchase in terms of quality, and Toyota has been banking on that reputation for four decades of untrammeled growth.
But something bad happened, and according to media reports, it was Toyota’s rush during the past few years to pass General Motors as the world’s top-selling automaker. They succeeded in their quest, but there seems to have been a cost in the very qualities that made them such a success in the first place.
Once the darling of such publications as Consumer Reports, Toyota has slipped so much in quality that since 2007, the closely followed publication has taken the automaker off its “recommended” lists. That would have been unthinkable just five years ago.
Now there are those who cheer the downfall of mighty Toyota, mainly because of the boost it could give our beleaguered domestic brands. Indeed, Ford and GM are working hard to capitalize on the mess, even offering special incentives to drivers who trade in Toyota products.
But Toyota has such a strong manufacturing presence in this country, not to mention thousands of local dealers, that this windfall for the competitors could turn into just another economic hardship for many thousands of Americans during these bad financial times.
