Toyota Will they survive all these recalls?

Toyota is still in a terrible pickle with recalls of runaway cars being only a part of their problems. So where does Toyota stand now?

1. Vehicle recalls will cost Toyota billions in revenue.
2. Their hard earned reputation for quality, safety and reliability is in tatters. Even their flagship Lexus -GS460-V8 has been recalled.
3. As far afield as Australia Toyota is putting thousands more of it's cars off the road for safety reasons.
4. Toyota still shows no solid understanding of what the problems are with their current models accelerator sticking open and it seems like problems with their vehicles will continue.
5. They misled the public badly in the early stages of the recalls.

First it was supposed to be the floor mat getting jammed under the pedal that was the cause, then the linkage or the pedal itself was suspected and now they are fitting electronic over-rides in an attempt to solve the current dilemma of their cars accelerating out of control. We make the Camry in Australia for export, and the local Camry has the same problems as the others around the world.

The Toyota Camry and their 4 wheel drive range currently make up a huge proportion of sales in the USA and elsewhere, and these have been the models with the worst outcomes.

In their efforts to reduce supplier costs by 30% they used the same parts for many components, then shared those components across the models, leaving them open to the current problem of having millions of recalls more than if they had kept components separate.

It is difficult not to feel a bit sad for Toyota. Started in 1937 and the first to introduce J.I.T (just in time) manufacturing, Toyota built it's business on manufacturing high quality products.

It's founder Sakichi Toyoda was born in 1867. His first product was the model G Automatic loom which he sold to an English company in 1929. In 1930 Kiichero Toyoda began research on a small gasoline engine which was the beginning of the cars we have today. By 1933 he had established an automobile division within Toyoda Automatic Loom works Ltd.

• Toyota Motor Company was established in 1937 after having produced their first car the year before, the AA sedan.

• The first plant began production in 1938.

• In 1955 they made the now famous Toyota Crown Deluxe, the first prototype being exported to the USA in 1957.

• In 1984 GM and Toyota began a joint venture. Production in the UK did not begin till 1992.

• 1989 began the Lexus brand, and by 1999 domestic production for Toyota vehicles reached one hundred million.

Although known as the worlds largest manufacturer, that title probably belongs to the Indian car manufacturer Tata Motors in reality, but they are close.

The current Camry and Corolla have huge world-wide market share with America being one of it's largest markets.

Their Chairman has apologised to the American customers and is doing all it can to put a lid on the ever growing bad press it seems to still be getting daily.

Now their shiny new 4WD has been labelled as dangerous for other reasons. Apparently a consumer group has suggested it will tip over too easily and another nail goes in the coffin for Toyota!

Today I heard their CEO state that Toyota will emerge from this crisis to be even better than before, but that is a little hard to believe for several reasons at this stage. If they do survive it will be because of the internal strength that got them to the top in the first place, but several things stand in their way.

Toyota's are not cheap. Their prices are on a par with many other fine manufacturers as the pricing stands now, and this poses an obvious question

If cost cutting, (remember the 30% they saved in outsourcing and using shared components across models is the crux of their problems is discontinued,) how will they change this back and still retain price parity with competitors?

1. They will need to dump margin to even stay in the market place, so where are they going to get profit from to rebuild this part of their manufacturing process at the same time?
2. Other manufacturers will very quickly attempt to fill Toyota's market before they can re-establish reputation and market share.
3. Toyota retailers will need to survive while this all takes place.
4. This is exacerbated by the retail company being tightly tied to the manufacturing.

It is fascinating to think what grand plan they will come up with to bolt all this together, and in the car industry time goes by very fast indeed with new innovations from other companies threatening to leave Toyota behind before they can grab a new foothold.

If you have read my other car hubs you will see that I always thought the accelerator jamming open was an electronic problem, not mechanical.

I may be proved right. NASA has now given it's services to track down electronic problems that may be related to this failure. For Toyota's sake I hope I am wrong, and NASA find no electronic problems as finding a bug across the electronics will be a nightmare in my view, and this is why.

The possible combination of interactive failure from any of the interconnected modules that do everything from controlling cruise control to turning on the stop light switch could be a part of the glitch Which particular module is getting the first or last signal and why is a logistical nightmare.

In other words, the fly by wire accelerator failure could be related to any crossover in function from just about any part of the system!