Cultural perception and bias are very important here too. Remember, in most Asian cultures, the individual is just a cog in the social machine. Consumers have little to no rights, compared to Americans In a country like Japan, excepting certain fringe anarchist groups, the average person does NOT question what their employer, manufacturer, or government/politician does
Not having a Tiger of my own, I tried it with my cat. He turned up his nose and walked away, still meowing for his canned food. Now I'm just slippery and hard to pin down - hey, should I apply for a job as a Toyota Salesman?
What Toyota can do: 1) Continue to build safe, reliable, cars. Continue to innovate. 2) Work on hiring executives who do not see safety defects as cost saving opportunities, but as customer retention opportunities. (Even just perceived safety defects) If Toyota was the one driving the recalls for fixes, customers would be cheering. (or whining that they were 'forced' to visit the dealer for new software) Looking like they were coerced to have a recall by the government is the PR problem. As an example, Toyota had a PR problem with the HID headlights years before their corporate culture realized it. At least, they finally responded before they were forced to. (Part of this is education, how does a HID headlight fail, part was a lack of feedback from dealers and customers) My guess is that 90% of the folks here on PC claiming they have brake problems, do not understand how their traction control system works. They seem confused that their car never skids anymore and claim it is 'brake failure'. This is an education opportunity that Toyota is failing to address. 3) Catch the exploiters in their fraud. Make it clear that sometimes the problem is not the car's systems, but the owner's greed.
How about: 1. Reigning in their BS dealers trying to rip customers off and actually honoring their warranty without a massive fight? The HID issue wasn't a PR problem, people with failing bulbs after only 2 years is a technical issue. 2. Listening to their customers instead of the normal dealer runaround of "we can't do anything about that" or some other dismissal.
That it was a technical issue does not mean it did not impact Toyota's reputation. If indeed, they find a technical failure in the Prius pedals, it does not mean Toyota won't have a PR problem. Being seen solving issues will go over better than being seen ignoring issues. The dealer is an independent business, it can be difficult to restrict them. Thank goodness you can shop around in Chicago. Toyota needs some way of 'hearing' their customers directly, not through the dealer.
What Toyota should do is probably something they can't do without revealing some seriously sensitive intellectual property: conduct an INCREDIBLY transparent investigation. Put all the info out there, what theories were pursued and why they were dismissed. All in full detail that allows for independent peer review. We all love to throw around theories about what may be causing UA (if it really is happening) but no matter how well versed in the technology anyone may be it's a pretty big stab in the dark when we aren't in on the development and testing of the product from the beginning. Entertaining sure, irresistible to many, but not terribly productive. - D
