What Toyota needs to do to win back customer confidence

And to prevent user abuse, the wheels and tires should have digital sensors and trackers. This is to prevent the driver from swapping to worn out tires, or only putting good tires on one side and bad tires on another side to create a problem. Also, any deviation from recommended pressure is logged and admissible at court. Don't even try to pump it to 42/40.

Finally, a camera is installed to monitor the roadway to prevent other abuse, like smearing grease on the road.

Additional sensors should be installed to make sure the rated load capacity of the car is not exceeded because it is beyond the performance envelop.

This will be compared to a database of speed limits to ensure that the safe driving speed is not exceeded.

All maintenance logs and receipts would be admissible to the court as evidence. Maintenance can be performed only by certified Toyota techs. After all, the manufacturer cannot be responsible if the car was not maintained properly. If scheduled maintenance is delayed, the car should stop working because it is obviously not designed to work that way. Any use of aftermarket mats, fluids, oils, seat covers, GPS and wheels should void the warranty because we all know how much damage mats and other parts can cause.

Any speeding logged by the monitoring GPS should be reported to the authorities immediately and admissible at court as evidence. Tailgating, use of lane assist, and activation of the precollision system should be reported to the court too.

The bumpers should have sensors. If they are bumped, it should change color to indicate operator error. These errors must be logged and the car must be taken to the dealer to be inspected immediately for visible and non-visible damage.

Finally, the phone logs and emails of the user should be collected to ensure that the driver is not distracted. Users who did not buy a car speakerphone should not be allowed to drive and talk. Any texting should also void the warranty.

 

no offense guys, but....

we should have a limit of 250 characters for postings. I may just be in a sour mood today - Mondayitis - but yikes.... novellas.
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I AM sorry guys; for readers that feel they may be too long...just skip and don't read....
---- just crabby today I guess (and I'm not even a Colts fan).

 

My attempt at humor fails. I see your point but don't you think Toyota can be ten times more profitable if they simply, at very low cost, . . . [edited to reduce length].

 

Sorry. Your post exceeded the limit and was automatically truncated.

Tom

 

I think this is a great idea, and will likely be something coming down the road in the future along with some sort of dynamic "on-line" firmware updates not unlike the update systems now seen in operating systems. Rest assured, however, that such a monitoring system probably already exists (albeit without the GPS location data) in some sort of "black box" recording device within the car which is probably encrypted and can be sent back to Toyota for further analysis.

 

Sheesh! If they cared enough to even do a test drive ...

 

Hey Rhino, I think that you are on to something here!!! This is almost like the FAA requirements for airplanes (even small ones like mine) To add to your proposal, we need:

Manufacturing dates and codes clearly listed on all parts. No aftermarket parts without government certification.

We also need log books with detailed entries indicating who, and when maintenance was done.

Vehicle operators/owners need to log ALL mileage and trips in a book or computer log.

Synopsis of driving information has to be submitted to insurance companies on an annual basis.

Everybody that operates a vehicle must have a driving test at least every 2 years (shorter periods for commercial operators) AND

Everybody that operates a vehicle must have complete physical every 2 years.

To manage all of this we need a new Big government department - FAA (Federal Automobile Administration).

Keith

P.S. After all that, I think that there will be fewer people on the road and the least expensive automobile will be > $ 50,000.

 

The OP wanted to invoke the "lemon law" and get the manufacturer to buy back a car based on black box data. I was merely saying no manufacturer will agree to this without some assurance of data integrity. The whole thing will drive up the price of cars.

The incentive to tamper is proportional to the reward. Getting a new car or a buyback is quite a reward. I would try it legitimately by running over the same manhole to reproduce an effect. It's like a lottery, run over manhole, get new car. The expected payoff exceeds that of the lottery. And you don't have to lie even.

 

Toyota, and other automobile manufacturers, should treat their customers as early warning sentinels for previously undocumented problems. This will, undoubtedly, produce some false alarms, but I believe that it will enhance the identification of hidden problems that are difficult to detect. The numbers point to the answer. A couple of hundred thousand loyal owners that drive their Toyotas in a variety of circumstances should unmask quirks that are never encountered in a factory or in dealership garages. Most customers are inclined to be loyal advocates for products that they purchase and it seems unwise for Toyota to ignore the insights and loyalty that their customers have for their rides