Rod Goult
It has been intriguing to watch the media response to the Toyota debacle during the past 24 hours. With few exceptions most commentators seem to have completely missed two significant data points. The first is that the accelerator problem has been extant and noted for over two years. During these two years people have been injured and people have died in accidents which may well have resulted from this problem - and the company would not admit that there was a problem.

The second data point is that the decision to stop sales wasn't a proactive company decision, it was forced on Toyota by the Federal authorities. It is unfortunate that Ms. Carey's article failed to comment on either of these two uncomfortable facts, preferring to focus on a very positive spin being put on the situation by people with a vested interest in saving Toyota's face.

I wonder if everyone would have been so kind if this had been GM, Chrysler or The Ford Motor Company? Somehow I suspect that the headlines would have been very different - probably more like "XYZ Company ignored fatal flaws for years" or "XYZ ordered to stop sales by Feds".

Let us face the facts, folks. Toyota has behaved in exactly the way that the Big Three did in the 60's and 70's. None of the major US car companies would dream of acting that way today. All three of the Detroit manufacturers have learned that speedy recalls when there is even a suspicion of a problem is a far better policy than trying to pretend that it doesn't exist. Maybe this is a valuable learning experience for the new number one.

I agree that on the surface, it looks like Toyota took to long to take this action. Their action does, however, shows that their CEO, Akio Toyoda, was serious when he said that he would re-focus the company on its core principles when he took the CEO reins from Katsuaki Watanabe in 2009. Unfortunately, it is taking this kind of problem to show us that commitment.

I believe that Toyota will do the right things and that ultimately consumers will recognize that Toyota is still a great auto manufacturer. Note that both Ford and Firestone both seem to have recovered in the eyes of the consumer from their problem 10 years ago.

Based on the information available, it doesn't seem that the entire scope of the floor mat issue was investigated last year. Both mat and pedal acted together to create the problem.
Even if that wasn't evident from the initial assessment, problem solving methodologies were not fully utilized.
I would have to question how deep investigation into root cause was performed and what, if any, testing resulted in identification, correction, and validation that the mat issue was resolved? Essentially, it appears to have been a band-aid or a wishful solution to a problem which is now known to be multi-faceted. Risk analysis of the pedal design was obviously inefficient. If root cause (as guessed) is an environmental / humidity-related problem, that should've been considered with the mechanical function of this assembly (as well as with any other product). Beyond that, how much prototype testing was done is a valid question as well?

More than likely the recall will have a negative impact on customer satisfaction but equally, and arguably more important, it will have a negative impact on customer value and Toyota's competitive value proposition. I can only be dissatisfied with Toyota if I own a Toyota. If I am a car buyer evaluating the different brands, I will factor in all of the quality factors (CTQs) and then look at the tradeoff between quality and price. Reduced quality at the same price has a negative impact on value.

Cadillac had this problem in the 1980s when their satisfaction scores were high but they were losing market share. Toyota could actually lose share and enjoy high satisfaction scores. Satisfaction has little predictive relationship with market share. This has been empirically established many times over. It is for this reason that the issue should be focused on value and not satisfaction.

For more information regarding the difference between satisfaction and value check out Listening to the Voice of the Market published by Productivity Press.

The common complain about the 2010 model of Toyota is the brake. You have the Toyota recall, the Honda recall, and NOW the Nissan recall – and a GM recall, too. Nissan is recalling over 500,000 vehicles due to a faulty brake pin or fuel gauge. Models affected include the Titan, QX56, Armada, and Quest minivan (brakes), and the Frontier, Pathfinder, and Xterra have the faulty fuel gauges as well as the Titan, QX56, and Armada. It will cost them a lot more than a few payday loans. Most car recalls are errs on the side of caution – though the formula is ringing in my ears, of A times B times C, equals X.