Fire in Vehicle Leads to Toyota Recall of 7.5M Autos

 

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It seems that just when Toyota was making a comeback in the U.S., the company announced a recall of 2.5M vehicles in the U.S., and an additional 5M globally. The Japanese automaker stated the reason is to fix a faulty power window switch that has been linked to at least nine injuries and several hundred reports of smoke and fire. According to one passenger, the switch caused a fire in his vehicle, and he was burned while trying to use an article of clothing to extinguish it.

Before this, Toyota also had a recall in 2010 for sudden-acceleration problems and other safety defects. For Toyota, announcing a second recall can damage the company’s reputation and reliability. In fact, Japanese manufacturers rarely recall products because it is an image and pride issue. Due to this, the company asked regulators if it could handle the issue through a “special service campaign”. This would allow defective switches to be fixed, but only when customers complained.

Under the recall, Toyota will be subject to examine 7.5M vehicles worldwide for defects. The automaker plans to disassemble the switches and apply a special fluorine grease, which is intended to prevent the switch from sticking and, potentially, causing a fire.

Given this, do you believe that Toyota was ethical in requesting to offer only a special service campaign, rather than addressing the issue publicly? Do you believe that Toyota will see sales plunge after the recall?

 

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-autos-toyota-recall-20121011,0,4239248.story

 

2 thoughts on “Fire in Vehicle Leads to Toyota Recall of 7.5M Autos

  1. Well I believe that it is obvious this method recalling their cars is most cost effective but also creates alot of risks. This is not the most ethical way of going about this matter. By not recalling all the defective cars immediately, the possibility of a serious injury lurks. However, I do not believe that sales will plunge as drastically as many might think. In comparison to a competitor, Honda has ran into several setbacks this past week with recalls of many cars. In the end, there will be setbacks for both companies, but both have a lot of customer loyalty to maintain sales.

  2. I do not believe it was ethically right for Toyota not to make this issue public. For them to only provide the special service campaign if the customer complains is definitely wrong. This increases the chances of people getting hurt because they were not informed beforehand and the fault will definitely be Toyota’s. By not putting the customers’ safety as priority, they do not have good business ethics. Toyota’s priority was only for the good of themselves and saving their own reputation which is selfish. If Toyota did do a recall, the sales would plunge, but they would still have their loyal base of customers. To take action by doing a recall for the defected cars shows that Toyota cared about their safety first. Since they did not do a recall, they will also lose their loyal customers as well.

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