Nothing is more important for a company than attaining respect and trust from its consumers. Unfortunately, Toyota did act in their consumers’ best interest when they neglected to announce the safety errors discovered in their vehicles.
Toyota’s reputation first went down the drain when it failed to recall 2.3 million vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals for 4 months. Now the company has to pay the largest fine in automobile history: $16.4 million! Toyota designs vehicles that can potentially cause death if the smallest piece doesn’t work. Shouldn’t they have been prepared to react to a situation like this?
The problem now is that the recall didn’t just happen once. Last week, the recalls continued with 600,000 Sienna minivans, which had faulty spare tire cables, and all 2010 Lexus GX 460’s were recalled earlier today. Toyota is now apologizing for how it handled the initial recall, but it may be too late. Toyota’s reputation continues to fall and it is likely that loyal Toyota customers have already begun to look elsewhere for safe vehicles. Toyota is no longer considered number one in quality and safety. It will be difficult for Toyota to regain consumer trust after this incident.
http://detnews.com/article/20100419/AUTO01/4190391/Toyota-agrees-to-pay-$16-4-million-fine