Toyota in the midst of a financial PR crisis

Toyota’s misery continues; it was only a few months ago that the big wigs at Toyota decided racing in the most prestigious motor sport in the world; Formula 1, was too expensive. If we are being honest, that wasn’t a big shock, after 7 years, no wins and millions of pounds effectively flushed down the toilet, Toyota threw in the towel.

Just 3 months later and with the recession seemingly retreating, Toyota have had to make a worldwide recall, a recall so vast in its scale, that around 9 million vehicles in total are affected. So what’s the recall for I hear you cry? Perhaps it is small like a boot release catching? Or is it perhaps an ABS problem? ....No, the issue, rather worryingly is that the cars can possibly jam their throttle wide open. Picture the scene, your cruising at 70 mph on a motorway, its raining fairly heavily and your safe in the knowledge that your driving a Toyota, famous world-wide for its reliability, and then all of a sudden your throttle jams open.

This is serious on the highest scale, not only are peoples lives at risk, but Toyota’s reputation is very much hanging on by a thread. Apparently in the US, 15 people have died because of this malfunction. Toyota’s prerogative now should be to act quickly and to recover as much of their reputation as possible. Surely the main reason why you would buy a Toyota is for the bullet proof reliability? It is a PR nightmare, and shares for the Japanese marque have crashed over the past week.

Whether or not Toyota can stand tall and recover from this recent downturn is remained to be seen, it is not however the cars that will need to be fixed that will take the most time. It is the torn confidence of Toyota’s customers that will take years to fix.

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