Oh what a feeling: Toyota issues massive recall

Name any other governor who wouldn't "beat his chest" under the same circumstances.

 

Toyota has been in the news a lot lately. After the settlement on the unintended acceleration case, it recalled more than 6 million more cars for a variety of problems:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/business/international/toyota-to-recall-vehicles.html?_r=0

And Toyota also announced that in order to increase efficiency, quality and productivity, it is taking jobs away from robots and giving them back to humans:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gods-comeback-toyota-humans-steal-074946658.html

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/12/toyota-retires-robots-replaces-with-humans/

 

Toyota's bigger issue -- certainly not solved by moving to Texas -- is that a name that was once the imprimatur of quality has taken massive hits in recent times. It used to be automatic that you figured Toyota was of higher quality than an American car, but not anymore.

 

Toyota is still the No. 1 selling brand in the world, and just last month, Consumer Reports rated Toyota consistently among its best used car values at every price point (http://www.autoblog.com/2014/03/18/consumer-reports-best-worst-used-car-values/). Toyota and its Lexus nameplate also ranked near the top in J.D. Power's 2014 reliability study as well (Lexus was No. 1, Toyota T6).

American brands, meanwhile, comprised 16 of the 22 vehicles Consumer Reports said to avoid -- six GMs, five Fords and five Chryslers.

The recall scandal certainly wasn't good for Toyota, but don't expect a significant impact -- especially since GM is now drawing all the headlines for a similar scandal.