What is wrong with Toyota?

It's simply because all Toyotas and Lexuses share identical or similar parts. I created this thread in light of the recent Toyota recalls. The reason I joined this thread was because I was considering buying a Prius.

I'm not saying that Toyotas or Priuses are bad cars. I'm saying that Toyota today has a serious quality issue. The recalls are not random defects and a PR issue as some people claim. The longer it takes Toyota to embrace its quality issues today, the worse the problem will get with their company. I'm a Totota fan but today Toyota is simply no longer Toyota. They need to restructure their organization and rethink quality and automobile engineering again. Quality is not just how long a part lasts but also how a part functions. Sometimes negative criticism is the only constructive criticism.

So, I don't think I will buy a Prius now, after my bad experience with the new Corolla. That's because I now know what I would miss in terms of the quality of driving experience in exchange of excellent MPG. There are now alternatives such as Golf TDI, which get great (but of course not as great as Prius) MPG but they don't sacrifice the driving experience when they do that. Even though I'm an MPG nerd like most people on this site, I guess I could live with 10% sacrifice in MPG in exhange of 10 times better driving experience.

PS: There are ridiculous threads here such as "My Prius car-key coin battery died" with dozens of posts in them. I think this is a very important thread but the administrators chose to put it under the carpet by putting it under Fred's House of Pancakes.

 

Just a thought:

Could a decline in the quality of Toyota cars might have to with Toyota focusing quality on their luxury division Lexus instead?

They may think that if a Corolla steered similar to a Lexus IS, less people will want to buy an IS. But then when they made the steering so poor on the Corolla, they have created an unsafe and unpleasant car. After all Corolla is the worlwide flagship of Toyota.

Prius is better off in this because it's somewhat like its own brand. If Toyota officially creates a Prius brand, it may help it avoid the quality issues with their mainstream Toyota brand.

In any case it's time for Toyota to rethink the quality in their mainstream brand. The company likes to do its business in a stealth profit-oriented way rather than an open customer-oriented way. But they are not only making the customer unhappy now but they are also hurting the company.

Again, all Prius owners, please don't be offended. I think you have a great car. Once I sell my 2009 Corolla and my anger cools off (believe me you would be very angry if you paid almost $25k for a lemon), I might reconsider the Prius. I can drive my 1985 Corolla meanwhile, which drives like new after I rebuilt the carburetor and emission-contol systems myself. After all, fans hardly ever quit being fans.

 

Makes sense. Hopefully things will improve in the near future.

No, it's a light-blue LE sedan with the 4A-LC engine and 4-speed AT. But I just love the quality of the 1980s Japanese engineering with Nippondenso and AISIN parts in that car. Of course, the GT-S would be very cool!

 

Thank goodness for this. Hopefully there will be a recall and we will get new rack and pinion assemblies on Corollas like mine. What is currently installed on mine seems to be junk, unless it's a software issue.

U.S. to investigate Toyota Corolla steering problems

By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporterFebruary 17, 2010: 7:47 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. will open an investigation Thursday to probe possible steering issues on about 500,000 Toyota Corollas.



According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official, about 363,000 Corollas from model year 2009 and 136,000 from 2010 could be affected.

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NHTSA will formally announce the probe Thursday, the official said. Calls to Toyota were not immediately returned.
As of last week, NHTSA said it had collected more than 80 complaints about steering problems in 2009 and 2010 Corollas.
Many of the complaints involve the car drifting at high speeds. Other owners complain of other issues including steering wheel vibrations or exaggerated motions from small steering inputs.
The Corolla is Toyota's second most popular model, after the Camry.
Toyota's troubles: A timeline
It's the latest in a spate of recent problems for Toyota (TM), which has recalled more than 8.1 million vehicles worldwide for issues including sticking accelerator pedals.
On Tuesday NHTSA demanded documents from Toyota to determine if the automaker conducted its recent recalls in a timely manner. Also, Toyota announced it would suspend production at two U.S. plants.
The automaker's reputation has felt the blow, as sales lag following the massive recalls.
Earlier Wednesday, in Japan, Toyota President Akio Toyoda addressed reporters for the third time in two weeks. He pledged tighter safety controls but said he will not appear before U.S. lawmakers at hearings to be held next week.
The Associated Press reported that at the Japan press conference, Toyota's executive in charge of quality controls said it was still uncertain if a Corolla recall was necessary, but that it was an option the company was considering.

 

This summarizes it all. This is what I have been trying to pass all along. They are having a serious quality control issue and they need to figure out what is wrong in a transparent way for their own sake: "Toyota has hit the trifecta, which makes this a very unhappy time for them," said David E. Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. "Toyota is still trying to figure out what the real problems are." As a result, Cole said, Toyota has "no choice but to become increasing transparent."

U.S. government plans formal investigation into Toyota Corolla complaints


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By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 18, 2010

The U.S. government plans to launch a formal investigation on Thursday into driver complaints about steering problems with the 2009-10 Toyota Corolla, the latest in a series of seemingly unending blows to the struggling Japanese auto giant, once revered as the paragon of auto industry quality.



This Story

• U.S. plans formal look at Corolla complaints
• Toyota recalls 8 models with defective accelerators, affecting 2.3 million vehicles

The probe will examine more than 150 complaints about the late-model Corollas submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an agency official said Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Toyota had yet to be informed of the investigation, which will cover about 500,000 vehicles.
"When driving on the highway (60+ mph), the vehicle will all of a sudden start to wander back and forth in the lane, for a few hundred yards," reads a complaint about a 2010 Corolla received by NHTSA. "Then as quickly as it started, it stops. The wandering has almost created four collisions so far." Last week, NHTSA said it would begin an informal inquiry into the Corolla complaints.
News of the investigation came on the same day that Toyota surprised the auto industry by saying in Japan that it is considering a recall of the Corolla. The announcement marked a reversal of the company's tendency to avoid the mention of a recall until it is announced. Publicly contemplating the recall of the Corolla -- the fifth-best-selling vehicle in the United States in 2009 and the world's top-seller -- indicates a new transparency for the embattled automaker.
So far, Toyota has recalled 7.86 million vehicles worldwide since last fall, mostly in the United States. The recalls focus on unintended acceleration and braking complaints.
Also on Wednesday, Toyota President Akio Toyoda indicated that he would decline an invitation from a House panel to testify on Toyota's troubles, saying that Toyota North America President Yoshimi Inaba would be the better choice to answer lawmakers' questions. This comes only one day after Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking minority member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, threatened to subpoena Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder. The committee has scheduled a Feb. 24 hearing to address Toyota's problems, but Toyoda is not planning to travel to the United States until March, and then plans to only visit dealerships.
The Corolla steering complaints create a particularly troubling situation for Toyota. Thus far, the automaker's vehicles have had high-profile problems with acceleration, braking and now steering -- all three of a car's key control systems.

"Toyota has hit the trifecta, which makes this a very unhappy time for them," said David E. Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. "Toyota is still trying to figure out what the real problems are." As a result, Cole said, Toyota has "no choice but to become increasingly transparent."
Toyoda said during a news conference that the company will add a brake-override system to all future vehicles that cuts engine power when the accelerator and brake pedals are depressed at the same time, which the company hopes will halt unintended acceleration.
Toyoda also worked to defuse increasing concern that the unintended acceleration is being caused by an electronic, not mechanical, problem.
"We have conducted rigorous testing under extremes of electromagnetic interference, vibration and other adverse conditions to conclusively verify that the system cannot accidentally induce acceleration," Toyoda said, adding that the company has hired an outside firm to verify test results.