Toyota: Unsafe at Any Speed?

Boy, those folks at Toyota always have to outdo the rest of the automotive world, don't they?

While most OEMs limit their safety debacles to just a model or two — see the Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Pinto, Suzuki Samurai and even the unjustly maligned Audi 5000 — Toyota faces an almost unheard of situation. The world's No. 2 automaker (after the Volkswagen/Suzuki tie-up) is voluntarily recalling a full eight of its models due to unintended acceleration issues. Worse, even though some of the 2.3 million vehicles involved in this recall were also caught up in Toyota's 2009 unintended acceleration disaster, the actual problem this time is completely different.

Last year, the situation involved gas pedals getting tangled up in floor mats. This time around, it seems the actual pedal itself may be defective. As a result of normal wear and tear, the pedal mechanism could develop a tendency to stick open, causing the vehicle to accelerate without — and despite — input from the driver.

The reason having two different big problems is so much more troubling than having one huge problem is simple: Toyota's floormat thing could have been a one-off error, albeit a large one, but add in a defective gas pedal mechanism and the situation goes from problematic to systematic. That is, it raises the specter that there is some inherent flaw with the way Toyota develops its vehicles.

Remember, too, that these aren't the only recent-ish dings to Toyota's reputation. The media have just started connecting the dots on this, but I can assure you that plenty of people (many of them now ex-Toyota customers) vividly remember the "frame rot" on the first-gen Toyota Tundra and the company's ongoing problems with engine sludge complaints in the mid-2000s.

So, what went wrong? Well, I mentioned ye olde dots, and here's one of the first: Toyota is in business to make money. That may surprise some people who think the company's goal is to save the planet, but it's nonetheless true. Next, draw a line over to the late 1990s, when new digital technologies were just making themselves felt in the automotive world.

As one would expect from a progressive industry leader, Toyota was among the first OEMs to start using these technologies in a big way, primarily by increasing the use of digital modeling in its R&D work. Instead of spending all the time and resources involved in building a big fleet of physical prototypes for testing purposes, Toyota began doing more and more of its testing on virtual vehicles.

This did cut costs and speed development time, but at a price, and it was one that was clear by the mid-2000s. And by 2007, "Automotive News" was reporting that Toyota itself had recognized a significant drop in the quality of its vehicles and claimed it would reverse its strategy, hire more engineers and build more test vehicles. Further, and at the same time, some inside Toyota were also voicing concern that the company was expanding its U.S. operations too quickly

Oh, did I mention that all of the eight Toyotas covered by the latest recall are made in America?

Anyways, the final dot here is that some industry insiders are saying Toyota either didn't actually change its ways or at least didn't change them enough, and it's hard to argue with that point of view at this stage in the game.

Which brings us to the nitty-gritty of the matter. The vehicles affected by the latest recall include some of the Japanese OEMs most important models, like the Toyota RAV4, which, despite playing in one of the industry's most competitive segments, saw sales rise 8.8 percent in 2009; the Toyota Corolla and "certain" models of the Toyota Camry, which were the two top-selling cars in America last year; and the Toyota Highlander mid-size crossover, which nearly matched the vaunted Chevrolet Equinox in terms of '09 sales.

Also included were the Toyota Matrix, Toyota Avalon, Toyota Tundra and Toyota Sequoia.

The icing on this disaster cake is that Toyota has had to stop both production and sale of all these vehicles as well. Just to be clear here, this means dealers will be literally unable to sell some of their most important, high-volume products. They'll be losing out on thousands of sales each day on just the Camry, Corolla and RAV4 alone.

Further, workers at five separate North American plants (four in the U.S., one in Canada) will be idled. Now, at the risk of stating the obvious, I'll point out that these are non-union facilities. And if Toyota doesn't take the highest of the high roads with those employees, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, slated to retire this year, just might end up changing his plans — along with the face of the American auto industry.