Toyota have a lot of recalls because they actually man up and admit to problems
I beg to differ on that one. Part of the issue was that Toyota did NOT reveal the issues they knew about, and were covering them up for the longest time. That was why they had so many issues, and the issues are not yet over.
While they did make a good product, and still is not bad, the head of Toyota himself admitted that their fast expansion was done the expense of quality (I saw that myself on TV).. see below for a few quotes. There are many, many more. Not saying others are perfect, but Toyota lost a lot of market share globally in 2010 for a reason.
There seems to be patterns that they are uncovering, some which go back for a decade or more.
Don't want to go on too long, and I have owned four Toyota's over the years and my wife drives a Corolla now.. but read some quotes below.
"The head of an auto industry watchdog group is saying that Toyota Motor Corporation has shown a tendency over a period of many years to delay auto product defect recalls and cover up various problems with its vehicles. According to a UPI news report, Clarence Ditlow, head of the Center for Auto Safety says Toyota has displayed "a pattern of covering up defects."
Toyota has already paid a record $16.4 million government fine for delaying recalls of millions of vehicles for sudden acceleration issues due to defective gas pedals, faulty floor mats and brakes. So far, the Japanese auto maker has recalled close to 10 million vehicles globally for these defects. "
"The AP report noted that there were some cases that went back to 2006 where technicians experienced the sudden unintended acceleration in vehicles."
"Toyota paid a record fine recently for dragging its feet on disclosing a safety defect blamed for potentially fatal unintended acceleration. Now, documents have come to light in a California lawsuit that point to possible delays involving an earlier safety issue, one that could result in loss of steering control.
Records of Toyota warranty repairs and customer complaints that are part of the lawsuit show that the car company was dealing with cracking and breaking steering relay rods in the U.S. for at least 11 years before it recalled 330,000 pickups and SUVs in Japan to replace the rods — and 12 years before its 2005 recall of nearly a million similar trucks in the U.S. for the problem."
"But various government reports and investigations show that Toyota did not issue any of these vehicle recalls right away. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) officials have uncovered and examined evidence, which shows that Toyota officials deliberately made an effort to conceal and cover up defects. In fact, one internal memo even has employees boasting about saving the company millions by fending off costly recalls. The government estimates that nearly 100 people have died over the last 10 years "
"Most recently, court papers filed in a California lawsuit show Toyota delayed issuing a recall on a problem with cracking steering relay rods by 11 years. Toyota recalled pickup trucks, 4Runner SUVs and other vehicles in Japan in 2004 to replace the steering relay rods. However, the company waited for an entire year before issuing a recall in the United States. The auto product liability lawsuit in California was filed on behalf of 18-year-old Michael Levi Stewart, who died in an accident in a Toyota compact pickup truck when he lost control of the car.
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