Adrian Fung made a post entitled “Are they lack of business ethics or just acting slowly?” in which he criticised Toyota’s response to its acceleration problems in changing the design of its new cars and possible lack of care for its users.

I have personally heard many people say they would never buy a Toyota again, and I think it is unfair to the company, especially considering Federal highway safety officials have “absolved Toyota, and said driver error was to blame for most of the incidents”. Initial news travels much more than clarifications of it afterwards however. Many more people heard Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood suggest that consumers should stop driving their Toyotas than when he said “We feel that Toyotas are safe to drive”. The impact on Toyota’s reputation was enough for profit to fall 39% in the December-ended quarter.

Even after this hit to their reputation and having to deal with the earthquakes and tsunami however, Toyota is coming back and ready to handle the competition with 20 new or heavily updated Toyota/Lexus products coming over the next 18 months.