rosskoss

It looks like they're trying to set a world record of some sort.

Nextourer

I don't know which is worse. Having all these pro-active recalls or keeping them quiet and letting accidents occur before doing something about it. I choose the former. (although the best option would be to have less defective parts in the first place but what can you do)

STIG

big deal. Yes, don't buy toyotas. They are junks.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

or you can buy a GM, Ford, Benz product and wait for several million and some injuries/deaths to be affected before a recall

Trexus

Exactly. Toyota has been very proactive in recalling their cars and for the most part there hasn't been any major injuries, accidents or many deaths unlike the American counterparts. All in all I still stand behind Toyota. They aren't a perfect car but at least there closer to perfect than American cars or just better built...

GlobeCLK

iTrader: (5)

According the the book "The Lexus Story", when Lexus first launched in the US, they had a recall on the LS, and boy did they take ALL the necessary actions to make sure everyone was happy.

JZA80MHU38

I appreciate Toyota's proactive action for the voluntary recalls, just to make sure the potential problems are corrected before it gets worse.

But it's also a sign showing that Toyota's initial quality is getting worse than before. Just hope that they can keep it up and make sure the cars they design and produced will have the least problems possible.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

It's good that Toyota is being proactive, sensible, and a good corporate citizen, etc., but lets make sure we give competitors the benefit of the doubt too and not (as often is the case on this board) immediately say they suck, with everything worse than Toyota.

92 SC400

Most definitely agreed... I also agree with whoever said that the initial quality is worse thus causing the recalls. It seems too, that these recalls they are having are potential major problems. In a short while Ive seen airbags, gas padal, seat belts, shattering sunroofs, transmissions, etc. These seem really potntially dangerous. So give credit where credit is due, but lets not overlook the obvious.

spwolf

not really... recalls are for safety issues alone, which is why every recall is an big deal.
Transmission is not an recall just ask the benz owners...

rosskoss

3 Toyota officials probed in alleged recall negligence
Yuri Ageyama / Associated Press

TOKYO -- Three Toyota officials are under a criminal investigation on suspicion of professional negligence for allegedly shirking recalls for eight years and not fixing a defect that may have caused an accident, police said Tuesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. denied the officials had engaged in any wrongdoing. The automaker said in a statement it was cooperating fully with the investigation.

Kumamoto police in southern Japan filed papers to prosecutors Tuesday, a police spokesman said. Accused are three Toyota officials, ages 62, 58 and 55, who oversee quality control at the automaker, he said.

Their names have not been disclosed. Toyota said at least one of the officials had left the company, although reasons for the departure were unclear.

Five people were injured on Aug. 12, 2004, in Kumamoto in a head-on crash when steering failed in a Toyota Hilux Surf sport utility vehicle, causing it to swing out of control into the wrong lane. One person in the other vehicle suffered injuries requiring 52 days of treatment, while four suffered more minor injuries, police said.

(The Hilux Surf is sold outside Japan, primarily in the USA as the Toyota 4Runner.)

Toyota said a recall was carried out in October 2004 for 330,000 Hilux Surf vehicles manufactured between December 1988 and May 1996. The recall was for a problem part used in the steering system that could break, according to Toyota.

Toyota said the vehicle involved in the accident was manufactured in 1993.

Toyota had received five reports of problems with the steering by 1996, but the problems were limited to repeatedly turning the wheel during parking, and no recall was made then, it said. After additional problems were reported in 2004, Toyota carried our another investigation and decided to carry out a recall.

The model affected by the 2004 recall, totaling 1.2 million vehicles, was sold in 180 nations abroad including the U.S. and Europe, and a recall was carried out in September 2005, according to Toyota. Eighteen cases of problems were reported from overseas, but there were no accidents or injuries, it said.

A Toyota official, speaking on condition of anonymity, quoted police as saying that reports about problems began in 1992, and company officials are accused of being aware of them as early as 1995 or 1996.

The automaker, based in Toyota city, central Japan, said it will continue to make quality a priority.

"We will continue to strengthen quality control under our belief that we must put the customer first and make quality No. 1," Toyota said in the statement.

Toyota has been reporting booming sales in recent years and is growing so rapidly some analysts expect it to overtake struggling General Motors Corp. of the U.S. as the world's biggest automaker in coming years.

But Toyota, known worldwide for impeccable quality, has suffered somewhat of an image problem lately because its number of recalls has soared, raising doubts whether the automaker can continue to maintain quality standards as it embarks on the next step of global expansion.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

^oh noes too bad domestics have been doing that for years on a much larger scale, had to wait for millions of F-150s to be affected by that brake fluid fire problem and many accidents before anything was done

manila_boy

...my thoughts exacto.

Lexmex

Toyota isn´t perfect, but I think they are more perfect than most.

I think most of these Toyota recalls probably come from their careful attention to detail, which I think is better than anyone´s on the planet. They check, recheck and then check again.

That being said, when you go looking for the needle in the haystack, Toyota is bound to find it.

That is good, because with just about any other car company, you will step on that needle.