How Toyota fell

[Dr Mordrid]

This is an interesting article from TheTruthAboutCars.com of how Toyota got its quality reputation and what happened to get them where they are now: in deep trouble. The story goes into how fluctuations in the Yen and market forces caused them to "decontent" their vehicles and how that led to quality problems starting in the early 90's.

Their concluding paragraph doesn't bode well for Toyota;

Link....

The real extent of this cost-cutting, decontenting and “design leaning” won’t be easy to quantify, but the fact that it’s been taking place since the early nineties and is only now yielding negative effects suggests that it’s been relatively well-managed. But Toyota’s reputation was built on those “fat” products of the mid-80s to early-90s, and it won’t be returning to the old practices that created them anytime soon due to their competitive disadvantages. This seems to suggest that, once damaged, Toyota is unlikely to ever recover its former quality halo.

[Mehen]

My Dad's old '87 4Runner was my 'favorite vehicle ever' for quite some time.

[cjolley]

The real extent of this cost-cutting, decontenting and “design leaning” won’t be easy to quantify, but the fact that it’s been taking place since the early nineties and is only now yielding negative effects...

Or, it could mean his theory is wrong.
Toyotas are still some of the most reliable cars.
And much of their decline in relative reliability position is due to the other manufacturers catching up.

Which is a good thing

[Dr Mordrid]

How does that correlate to truck frames that rust through etc.?

[cjolley]

Toyota isn't competing against the perfect car, or even against it's self.
It's cars are still some of the most reliable compared to other existing cars.

The title of your post is "How Toyota Fell"
Should have been "Fell from first to second place in reliability" I guess.


Let's just say the reports of it's death are greatly exaggerated.

[Dr Mordrid]

A rep fostered, incorrectly, by groups like Consumers Unon, a Toyota rah-rah section for years even in the face of rusting frames etc. since the mid-90's.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/05/AR2010020504247.html

Auto reliability ratings might not be reliable with problems such as Toyota's

By Annys Shin
Washington Post
Saturday, February 6, 2010

Toyota's recall of millions of cars in order to fix sticky gas pedals and loose floor mats has inconvenienced customers around the world and damaged the automaker's reputation. Now it could also be undermining public confidence in the system of independent ratings and reviews that consumers have come to rely on and that for decades gave Toyota vehicles high marks for reliability and safety.
>
Auto safety experts say consumers might need to adjust their expectations about ratings from private groups because of the limited nature of their testing and the degree to which they rely on government and industry testing that itself is in large part based on trust. And their recommendations are no substitute for proper surveillance by regulators and manufacturers.
>
Some of the most strident criticism has been reserved for Consumer Reports, which accepts no advertising and is among the most respected reviewers. On Jan. 29, three days after Toyota announced the latest recall, the magazine suspended its recommendations for eight models, citing concerns raised by the recall. Jim Guest, president of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, said in a statement it was doing so because "the vehicles have been identified as potentially unsafe" and "without a fix yet being available to consumers . . . our position is that you shouldn't compromise on safety."
>

[Kruzin]

Let em fall.
The American car makers need all the help they can get, and all this bad press is already helping our sales.

[paulw]

It's a pity that Toyota didn't recall the 1980 Toyota Corrosion that they sold here in NZ. They rusted from the inside out due to a slack production line where by the panels were not clean properly. Since then Toyota down here has had a 100% good record until the Prius recall last week.. Wonder if the insurance companies will want to hike the insurance rates on these cars??

[Dr Mordrid]

Dunno what the insurance companies will do but traffic at our local Toyota dealership is way down, almost nothing, and I've noticed that their resale prices have gone down >25% in the last week (as judged by same-car observations at other-dealer lots). There was even an article in the Detroit News about how private sellers frequently can't get rid of their Toyota's' at a price that'll pay them off. It's getting ugly out there.