Toyota 's Accelerator Problem With Toyota

A major car company by the name of Toyota was recently experiencing mechanical issues with some of their vehicles and there have been major fatalities cause by it. Toyota is trying to recall the models that are causing the problems, however, there are too many to recall and it will cost millions of dollars to fix the problem. Having a successful company requires that you practice and have good business ethics also. Toyota business ethics have come into question over its lack of concern for the safety of the consumer and for its desire to make as much money as possible, therefore Toyota had a major recall after owners of Toyota vehicles raised issue about the safety of Toyota’s vehicles.

Toyota has hit the headlines over the years over the defects in several of their models which has sent it on a public relations and safety campaigns relating to its vehicles. Notably is the Toyota safety campaign in North America for certain models of Toyota as well as Lexus brands concerning the floor mat entrapment of accelerator pedals, later on it extended to other models in November 2009.

Toyota grew at a record speed and could not keep up with the speed in which it was growing. They are a centralized company and Japan only made the decisions. This prevented the company to keep up with the safety problems. The process that Toyota external suppliers follow when improving product and making sure the product is functioning properly before shipping to Toyota needs to be improved before they release the product from their warehouse to be sent to Toyota. This problem began when the company started to rapidly grow. Toyota’s lack of communication led to the faulty gas pedal recall.

Toyota faced a challenge related to the poor visibility and low quality of a supplier for the Suprima model. The Japanese brand, being related to a top quality product and a Just in Time manufacturing scheme could not afford to have stock out problems nor not meeting consumers’ demand for quality.

For more than 50 years, Toyota Motor Corporation has been one of the world’s leading manufacturers of motor vehicles in the United States. It was born a Japanese company in 1935 and came to America in 1957. Now headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, it employs more than 300 thousand employees globally (Toyota Motor Corporation Company Profile, 2012). In addition Toyota is a global marketing organization. It strategically operates primarily through Japan, Asia, Europe, and North America; but its vehicles are sold in more than 170 countries and regions across the globe (Toyota Motor Corporation Company Profile, 2012). The Toyota brand is traditionally defined by brand attributes such as global leadership, innovation,

Of high concern to both our team and consumers looking to purchase a new vehicle is the issue with vehicle recalls. As cited from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , vehicle recalls have trended upward over the past several years to 51 million vehicles being affected in 2015, 64 million in 2014, 22.1 million in 2013, and 16.5 million in 201226. Within Toyota’s competitors, Toyota is the fourth-largest number of recalls number of vehicles in 2014, totaling just 5.9 million vehicles . For a perspective, General Motors recalled 28.83 million vehicles over the same span, Honda recalled 9.04 million, and Ford recalled 4.78 million vehicles. Though Toyota has had a history with large recalls, more recently they seem to

This paper describes various aspects of the Toyota recall issue. It enables to determine the Toyato recall issues, purpose and structure of it. The Toyota recall issue has prompted high criticism in national forums, automotive trade publications and media circles. Three separate recall issue by the Toyota occurred end of 2009 to start of the 2010. First, recall issue was to correct a possible incursion of an incorrect drivers side floor mat into the foot pedal. Second recall issue start after some crashes were presented by floor mat incursion. Last recall issues was a separate recall for hybrid anti-lock brake software. Toyota declared recalls of around 5.2 million vehicles for the floor mat problem and 2.3 million vehicles for

Toyota has been regarded as one of the best car manufacturers in the world. This was until the year 2009. On August 28, 2009 a 911 call was made by a man driving a Lexus ES 350 saying, “his accelerator [was] stuck.” Sadly, the call ended with a crash and four people were killed (Toyota Recall, 2010). Eventually, this crash would force Toyota to recall millions of cars for sticking accelerator pedals.

In the 1960's Toyota linked together quality, customer satisfaction, and profit. These became pillars for Toyota's foundation and the company's baseline for growth and expansion. In 2009, the company's recalls started with what was deemed a floor mat issue. “Over the next four months, the company recalled 3.4 million more vehicles in three separate recalls over and above the initial 3.8 million, for a total of more than 7 million” (Cole, 2011). The issues were linked to different things; Sticky gas pedals, more floor mat problems, software glitches, and electrical problems. But one fact remained, the percentage

Due to Toyota’s financial greed and unethical practice, vehicles were wrongly equipped with faulty brakes, sticking pedals and poor quality door looks, which caused death of many Toyota customers and hundreds of dollars in damages. When a company like Toyota acts in an ethically questionable manner, it causes the company to lose customers and develop a negative reputation. Customer tend to lose faith in the company and have to look for better service

After WW2 Japan was in an economic crisis which continued until 1949 when the company obtained a loan from several banks. In June 1950 the company only produced 300 trucks and management announced layoffs and wage reductions and in response, the union went on strike which last for two months. While the strike did eventually end and layoffs and wage reductions did occur the union stipulated that the president Kiichiro Toyoda must resign. Kiichiro Toyoda resigned from his company and the company then came under the leadership of Taizo Ishida CEO of Toyoda Automatic Loom. In 1950 a separate sales company Toyota Motor Sales Co was established (lasted until 1982). In 1956 the Toyota dealership chain was established. In 1957 the Crown motor vehicle became the first Japanese car to be exported to America thus establishing Toyota’s American division. In 1960s Toyota began to expand with a new research and development facility in Thailand. The first Toyota motor vehicle built outside Japan was in April 1963 in Melbourne. From 1963-1965 Australia was Toyota’s biggest export market. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wuki/History_of_Toyota)

As mentioned, Toyota claimed to had addressed the root cause of the unintended acceleration by remedying (or so they said) the floor mat issue. At the same time as they were saying they had taken care of the issue, they were hiding another; sticky pedals were to blame for some instances of acceleration. In 2008, Toyota had discovered a sticky pedal problem with its vehicles in Europe, stemming from the use of a faulty pedal produced by A-Pedal Company. This same company was producing for the United States as well. As early as August of 2009, U.S. vehicles began showing signs of this pedal defect. Toyota had a plan in place, ready to address the issue, but in the wake of the San Diego crash incident occurred in August of 2009 (at a time when Toyota fully knew the effects of the sticky pedal and had reproduced it internally), Toyota management decided to cancel the changes and simply blame floor mats for all unintended acceleration, allowing themselves to not have to disclose information on the sticky pedals to the NHTSA. It wasn’t until early in 2010 that Toyota acknowledged the sticky pedals in its vehicles and recalled over two million vehicles.

Toyota was overwhelmed by massive product recalls and damage to its reputation after questions over the safety of its cars and allegations that the company did not act quickly enough once problems had been identified. The problem commenced when one duty police officer and his family back in August 2009 after their car, a Toyota Lexus, unexpectedly accelerated, crashed into another vehicle, tumbled over an embankment and burst into flames lead to the death of the man. Initial company reports identified that the car may have been fitted with the wrong floor mats, which could have slipped and entrapped the accelerator pedal. The problems began to increase for Toyota.

Japanese companies began to setup eastward manufacturing facilities to take advantage of lower wage costs and to be closer by the more flexible markets of new EU’s members. Toyota wants to consolidate its position on the stable, secure and growing markets, but competitive, too. The European market is one of them which brings an important chain in research and development related to design and safety standards. On the European market, Toyota Motor Corporation recorded increases in sales from year to

In late 2009, Toyota Motor Company saw 9 million of their vehicles reviewed because of reports that few of them experienced sudden unintended acceleration. The sudden acceleration was the primary emergency that Toyota confronted, bringing about a chain of response that resulted in the progression of different issues.