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When my wife Birgit retired in 2006, we embarked upon a long-planned journey across North America, taking two-and-a-half months and covering some 12,500 miles, from New Hampshire to Georgia to the West Coast, then up the Pacific coast to British Columbia, across Canada, and home again. Although we have several vehicles, there was never any doubt which one we would use for our pilgrimage: Birgit's Toyota Corolla, for its great dependability, safety, and gas mileage. Now, that vital Toyota safety is no longer valid.
It is not so much that there have been millions of Toyota vehicles all over the world with so-called "sticking gas pedals" --more likely, serious glitches in their electronic fuel control systems which appear to take off on their own like the proverbial bat out of hell. It is not so much that many hybrid Prius models have unresolved brake defects. Nor is it the New York Times' recent disclosure of fracturing steering mechanisms on 4Runners, discovered in early 1996 but not corrected via 4Runner recalls for the next eight years.
Rather, what is so distressing is the pattern of abuse of customer trust by Toyota's neglect of serious -- sometimes fatal -- automotive defects, issues, and problems, so that it took overwhelming pressure from many governments and Toyota customers to finally force this once-vaunted company to do something. Now, what they have done is too little and too late for many owners who had serious accidents, or are now afraid to drive their cars.
It is said that "the fish rots from the head" and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, a member of the firm's founding family, has belatedly apologized for his firm's mishandling of these serious safety problems. But that belated apology does not cure those problems; indeed, it makes them worse, as Toyota totally fails to understand that the real issue is the firm's failure to disclose these many safety defects voluntarily, promptly, and publicly. Instead, Toyota's reaction has ranged from denial to stonewalling to ignoring the problems. All of us Toyota owners and the worldwide motoring public expected far better of this iconic firm. Undoubtedly, many drivers and passengers have been injured or killed while Toyota has sat on its corporate hands, hoping their safety problems would just go away.
When Toyota was finally driven to admit at least some of their safety problems, their so-called fixes have been ludicrous: remove your floor mats was the first advice given us, to deal with leaping Lexuses and careening Camrys. Now a small metal bar installed on gas pedals is alleged to solve that problem, which it is very unlikely to do. As for the Prius brake issues, the fix remains unclear. Toyota owners no longer trust their company while dealers cannot sell cars which might well put motorists at risk. Nobody knows how many other serious defects and safety issues have been missed, denied, or ignored. The next time we journey across North America, we will think twice about taking a Toyota vehicle. We still love our Corolla --we just don't trust it, nor do we trust Toyota Motors!
