In 2010, Toyota underwent the process of recalling certain models due to the braking/accelerating issues. As expected, consumers were unsettled. This is when COO Yoshimi Inaba assured that Toyota is taking steps to “restore the trust of tens of millions of Americans who purchase and drive [Toyota’s] vehicles” in a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Today, there are rarely any car models which are released to the public and prove to have such difficulties. Because of this, the public would expect this recalling to be a one-time occurrence, and that Toyota’s operations department will sort out their problems. However, recently Toyota has had to recall 2.7 million cars due to water pump and steering defectiveness.

Fool us once Toyota….

To consumers it makes no difference that the old problems are fixed if new problems continue to arise. After Inaba guaranteed that “[Toyota] has learned from this experience,” the evidence is overwhelming; Toyota has developed a bad reputation for faulty vehicles that may permanently blotch their image. Unless operations undergoes a drastic change in personnel, it will be a steep climb for Toyota to regain customer loyalty.