We are taking appointments for the current safety recall for Toyota. We have extended hours and appointments are available. Please call and ask for
RECALL Center to set up your appointments. Please be patient call volume is high.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Just a friendly reminder...have your VIN # ready when you call your dealership and we at Milton Ruben Toyota are taking appointments for customers regardless if they have received their recall letters. Call volume is high, we appreciate your patience.
http://ping.fm/z90TY
http://ping.fm/z90TY
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
If you would like to be kept up to date by Toyota Recalls, product information and services you can go to this link and add your personal vehicle information and make addresses changes as well.
http://ping.fm/JPKUc
This is located at www.toyota.com- on the bottom of the home screen, go to "Contact Us", on the next screen go to "owner information update".
http://ping.fm/JPKUc
This is located at www.toyota.com- on the bottom of the home screen, go to "Contact Us", on the next screen go to "owner information update".
Saturday, February 13, 2010
February 10, 2010 10:02 AM Eastern Time
Toyota Recalls Put into Context by Edmunds.com
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, has obtained and reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaint database. A key finding: despite being the subject of intense scrutiny of the company, Toyota ranks 17th among automakers in the overall number of complaints per vehicle sold.
“Automakers can easily review postings to uncover issues and discuss them with the consumers who have experienced them.”
.According to the database, which consists of complaints filed by individuals and is not checked for accuracy by NHTSA, Toyota was the subject of 9.1 percent of the complaints from 2001 through 2010 (through February 3). During this period, the company sold 13.5 percent of all new cars in the United States.
Land Rover ranks first among automakers, with 0.6 percent of the complaints compared to only 0.1 percent market share from 2001 through 2010 (through February 3).
The following chart sets forth the results for all automakers:
AUTOMAKER RANK (IN ORDER OF MOST COMPLAINTS PER MARKET SHARE) PERCENT OF COMPLAINTS IN NHTSA DATABASE PERCENT OF SALES IN US MARKET
LAND ROVER 1 0.6% 0.1%
AMERICAN SUZUKI MOTOR CORP. 2 0.9% 0.4%
ISUZU MANUFACTURING SERVICES OF AMERICA 3 0.3% 0.2%
VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC 4 4.1% 2.4%
JAGUAR CARS LTD 5 0.4% 0.2%
VOLVO CARS OF N.A. LLC. 6 1.1% 0.7%
CHRYSLER LLC 7 16.3% 13.0%
MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS 8 1.7% 1.5%
MITSUBISHI MOTORS NORTH AMERICA, INC.
9 1.3% 1.2%
FORD MOTOR COMPANY 10 18.3% 17.6%
GENERAL MOTORS CORP. 11 25.3% 24.5%
NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC. 12 5.8% 5.9%
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY 13 4.2% 4.4%
BMW OF NORTH AMERICA, LLC 14 1.7% 1.9%
SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. 15 1.1% 1.3%
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO. 16 6.8% 9.4%
TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION 17 9.1% 13.5%
MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. 18 1.0% 1.5%
PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA, INC. 19 0.1% 0.2%
SMART USA DISTRIBUTOR LLC 20 0.0% 0.0%
Edmunds.com analysts also attempted to evaluate the deaths and injuries reported in the NHTSA database, but it quickly became clear that the data is unreliable. For example, one complaint indicated that 99 people had died in one vehicle as a result of an accident. It should also be noted roughly 10 percent of total complaints appear to be duplicates. Finally, this analysis did not rate the reported incidents for severity.
“No one should overlook the issues raised by the Toyota recalls, but it is important to keep things in perspective,” reminded Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl. “A broader view shows that consumer complaints reflect an industry issue, not just a Toyota issue. As Toyota’s experience in recent months clearly demonstrates, it is no longer an option for car companies to dismiss consumer complaints, even if the event is difficult to replicate or diagnose.”
“Edmunds’ CarSpace.com Forums have been a venue for driver feedback since 1996,” noted Sylvia Marino, Executive Director of Community Operations for Edmunds.com. “Automakers can easily review postings to uncover issues and discuss them with the consumers who have experienced them.”
Edmunds.com has created a free resource to keep consumers informed about the 2010 Toyota recall at http://www.edmunds.com/industry-car-news/toyota-recall.html.
About Edmunds.com Inc. (http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/)
Edmunds.com Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace is an automotive social networking Web site. AutoObserver.com provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds.com Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.
Contacts
Edmunds.com
Jeannine Fallon/Chintan Talati
Corporate Communications
Media Hotline: 310-309-4900
pr@edmunds.com
www.Edmunds.com
Toyota Recalls Put into Context by Edmunds.com
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, has obtained and reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaint database. A key finding: despite being the subject of intense scrutiny of the company, Toyota ranks 17th among automakers in the overall number of complaints per vehicle sold.
“Automakers can easily review postings to uncover issues and discuss them with the consumers who have experienced them.”
.According to the database, which consists of complaints filed by individuals and is not checked for accuracy by NHTSA, Toyota was the subject of 9.1 percent of the complaints from 2001 through 2010 (through February 3). During this period, the company sold 13.5 percent of all new cars in the United States.
Land Rover ranks first among automakers, with 0.6 percent of the complaints compared to only 0.1 percent market share from 2001 through 2010 (through February 3).
The following chart sets forth the results for all automakers:
AUTOMAKER RANK (IN ORDER OF MOST COMPLAINTS PER MARKET SHARE) PERCENT OF COMPLAINTS IN NHTSA DATABASE PERCENT OF SALES IN US MARKET
LAND ROVER 1 0.6% 0.1%
AMERICAN SUZUKI MOTOR CORP. 2 0.9% 0.4%
ISUZU MANUFACTURING SERVICES OF AMERICA 3 0.3% 0.2%
VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC 4 4.1% 2.4%
JAGUAR CARS LTD 5 0.4% 0.2%
VOLVO CARS OF N.A. LLC. 6 1.1% 0.7%
CHRYSLER LLC 7 16.3% 13.0%
MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS 8 1.7% 1.5%
MITSUBISHI MOTORS NORTH AMERICA, INC.
9 1.3% 1.2%
FORD MOTOR COMPANY 10 18.3% 17.6%
GENERAL MOTORS CORP. 11 25.3% 24.5%
NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC. 12 5.8% 5.9%
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY 13 4.2% 4.4%
BMW OF NORTH AMERICA, LLC 14 1.7% 1.9%
SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. 15 1.1% 1.3%
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO. 16 6.8% 9.4%
TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION 17 9.1% 13.5%
MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. 18 1.0% 1.5%
PORSCHE CARS NORTH AMERICA, INC. 19 0.1% 0.2%
SMART USA DISTRIBUTOR LLC 20 0.0% 0.0%
Edmunds.com analysts also attempted to evaluate the deaths and injuries reported in the NHTSA database, but it quickly became clear that the data is unreliable. For example, one complaint indicated that 99 people had died in one vehicle as a result of an accident. It should also be noted roughly 10 percent of total complaints appear to be duplicates. Finally, this analysis did not rate the reported incidents for severity.
“No one should overlook the issues raised by the Toyota recalls, but it is important to keep things in perspective,” reminded Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl. “A broader view shows that consumer complaints reflect an industry issue, not just a Toyota issue. As Toyota’s experience in recent months clearly demonstrates, it is no longer an option for car companies to dismiss consumer complaints, even if the event is difficult to replicate or diagnose.”
“Edmunds’ CarSpace.com Forums have been a venue for driver feedback since 1996,” noted Sylvia Marino, Executive Director of Community Operations for Edmunds.com. “Automakers can easily review postings to uncover issues and discuss them with the consumers who have experienced them.”
Edmunds.com has created a free resource to keep consumers informed about the 2010 Toyota recall at http://www.edmunds.com/industry-car-news/toyota-recall.html.
About Edmunds.com Inc. (http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/)
Edmunds.com Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace is an automotive social networking Web site. AutoObserver.com provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds.com Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.
Contacts
Edmunds.com
Jeannine Fallon/Chintan Talati
Corporate Communications
Media Hotline: 310-309-4900
pr@edmunds.com
www.Edmunds.com
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
THANK YOU, TOYOTA
Thank you, Toyota!
by By Greg Brown, columnist
02.03.10 - 08:00 am
I am not an employee of Toyota, neither am I an investor. I am simply one of those millions of Americans’ who drive a Toyota, and am red, white and blue proud of it.
I do happen to have social networks in Alabama, Indiana, Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky who benefit from Toyota manufacturing in their states. And though I have no friends in West Virginia, I am sure there are plenty of Americans there, as well, who are proud to build Corollas and Camrys, make good salaries and pay plenty of taxes.
I not only have one Toyota, silver Camry. I have two. One of them is afflicted with the viral accelerator pedal … the deadly pedal on 2.1 million vehicles that has resulted in six (yes, six) accidents. That’s right, I said six … sechs, seis, sei, sest. Whether pronounced in German, Portuguese, Spanish or Italian, the number still denotes a five-fingered hand plus one. Even if you’re an enemy of Toyota, it’s difficult to clap with that.
I still remember where I was when I became a fan of Toyota. It was 1997 and I was tromping around in the desperate terrain of Uganda, negotiating the landscape between Kampala and “The Bush.. Riding on roads that most bicycles could not safely traverse, I saw one Toyota after another, not just surviving, but quite apparently, thriving in the bucking rodeo of Uganda’s twisted roads. How those cars and trucks survived the rising and falling slopes, the dark contorted pot holes, I will never know. I still remember my pained hips, my twisted back and bruised skull, from riding on those roads with 20 other people stuffed in a van. I wrote in a prayer journal one night, that the skeleton of a man was no match for the chassis of a Toyota truck. I asked our Ugandan translator why the only truck I seemed to see in the bush was a Toyota. Revealing the reach of Darwin, he simply said: “Survival of the fittest.”
When I came home, I told my wife that the next car I was going to buy was a Toyota. I have been faithful, and I have not been disappointed. In fact, I am not bothered a bit by this national, knee-jerk reaction. I wish the congressional committee forming to investigate would summon me. I am humored by it. Selfish human that I am, I also calculate that if the skeptics are successful, I will just get a better deal on the next Toyota I buy … a little discount, maybe.
I write this article today, because I am bothered by the media hype surrounding the recent recall. The last TV hype that matched this was two weeks ago, when a weather report from Atlanta zoomed in on snow flakes collecting on the top rail of a bridge, somewhere near Buford. I mourn, not only, for the loss of good sense in the public discourse, but for the financial injury done to good, decent, hard-working people. Like those folks who work for Toyota.
So, I want to say thank you. A hearty thank you. You guys are doing a great job. Keep doing it. All I have done in the last 14 years with my Camrys is take them in for normal service. That’s all. And the service at my Toyota dealership is so professional, so inexpensive, so dependable and so good, I would get my lawnmower and bicycle tuned up there, if I could.
© lagrangenews.com 2010
by By Greg Brown, columnist
02.03.10 - 08:00 am
I am not an employee of Toyota, neither am I an investor. I am simply one of those millions of Americans’ who drive a Toyota, and am red, white and blue proud of it.
I do happen to have social networks in Alabama, Indiana, Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky who benefit from Toyota manufacturing in their states. And though I have no friends in West Virginia, I am sure there are plenty of Americans there, as well, who are proud to build Corollas and Camrys, make good salaries and pay plenty of taxes.
I not only have one Toyota, silver Camry. I have two. One of them is afflicted with the viral accelerator pedal … the deadly pedal on 2.1 million vehicles that has resulted in six (yes, six) accidents. That’s right, I said six … sechs, seis, sei, sest. Whether pronounced in German, Portuguese, Spanish or Italian, the number still denotes a five-fingered hand plus one. Even if you’re an enemy of Toyota, it’s difficult to clap with that.
I still remember where I was when I became a fan of Toyota. It was 1997 and I was tromping around in the desperate terrain of Uganda, negotiating the landscape between Kampala and “The Bush.. Riding on roads that most bicycles could not safely traverse, I saw one Toyota after another, not just surviving, but quite apparently, thriving in the bucking rodeo of Uganda’s twisted roads. How those cars and trucks survived the rising and falling slopes, the dark contorted pot holes, I will never know. I still remember my pained hips, my twisted back and bruised skull, from riding on those roads with 20 other people stuffed in a van. I wrote in a prayer journal one night, that the skeleton of a man was no match for the chassis of a Toyota truck. I asked our Ugandan translator why the only truck I seemed to see in the bush was a Toyota. Revealing the reach of Darwin, he simply said: “Survival of the fittest.”
When I came home, I told my wife that the next car I was going to buy was a Toyota. I have been faithful, and I have not been disappointed. In fact, I am not bothered a bit by this national, knee-jerk reaction. I wish the congressional committee forming to investigate would summon me. I am humored by it. Selfish human that I am, I also calculate that if the skeptics are successful, I will just get a better deal on the next Toyota I buy … a little discount, maybe.
I write this article today, because I am bothered by the media hype surrounding the recent recall. The last TV hype that matched this was two weeks ago, when a weather report from Atlanta zoomed in on snow flakes collecting on the top rail of a bridge, somewhere near Buford. I mourn, not only, for the loss of good sense in the public discourse, but for the financial injury done to good, decent, hard-working people. Like those folks who work for Toyota.
So, I want to say thank you. A hearty thank you. You guys are doing a great job. Keep doing it. All I have done in the last 14 years with my Camrys is take them in for normal service. That’s all. And the service at my Toyota dealership is so professional, so inexpensive, so dependable and so good, I would get my lawnmower and bicycle tuned up there, if I could.
© lagrangenews.com 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Toyota Statement on Comments by Transportation Secretary LaHood on Feb. 3, 2010
Toyota Answers Customer Questions About the Solution for Sticking Accelerator Pedals
We appreciate Secretary LaHood’s clarification of his remarks today about Toyota’s recall for sticking accelerator pedals. We want to make sure our customers understand that this situation is rare and generally does not occur suddenly. In the rare instances where it does occur, the vehicle can be controlled with firm and steady application of the brakes.
Our message to Toyota owners is this – if you experience any issues with your accelerator pedal, please contact your dealer without delay. If you are not experiencing any issues with your pedal, we are confident that your vehicle is safe to drive.
Nothing is more important to Toyota than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive. Our entire organization of 172,000 North American employees and dealership personnel is working around the clock to fix the accelerator pedals for our customers.
Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
Corporate Communications Contacts:
310 468 5297
310 468 7359
Toyota Answers Customer Questions About the Solution for Sticking Accelerator Pedals
We appreciate Secretary LaHood’s clarification of his remarks today about Toyota’s recall for sticking accelerator pedals. We want to make sure our customers understand that this situation is rare and generally does not occur suddenly. In the rare instances where it does occur, the vehicle can be controlled with firm and steady application of the brakes.
Our message to Toyota owners is this – if you experience any issues with your accelerator pedal, please contact your dealer without delay. If you are not experiencing any issues with your pedal, we are confident that your vehicle is safe to drive.
Nothing is more important to Toyota than the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive. Our entire organization of 172,000 North American employees and dealership personnel is working around the clock to fix the accelerator pedals for our customers.
Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
Corporate Communications Contacts:
310 468 5297
310 468 7359
Monday, February 1, 2010
Update: Toyota President & COO Jim Lentz will be taking questions on Twitter today at 3:00pm EST for 20 minutes. Lentz http://ping.fm/fc0gI
Toyota's Lost Its Quality Edge? Not So Fast
A longtime observer of Toyota's factories contends there's little evidence that the company's overall standards are slipping
By Jeffrey Liker
I have been visiting, studying, and analyzing Toyota for 25 years in Japan, the U.S., Europe, and other countries. I have written six books about Toyota (TM) and many articles, and my students have written PhD dissertations about various aspects of the company. One of my PhD students just successfully defended a thesis on how most of the auto manufacturers, including Toyota, work with their suppliers. His data show Toyota is head and shoulders the best customer to work with on the technical details of designing, prototyping, and testing brakes.
Before all of the recent negative news—about unintended acceleration, recalls of millions of vehicles, and a shutdown of U.S. production—I was working on a book extolling the virtues of this great company, which was using the recession to retain employees, not lay them off, and teach them kaizen (the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement).
So what happened that is causing the media to write off 60 years of progress in a company that has become a model of operational excellence? It seems to me that the inferences about Toyota's quality problems are emotional and have little to do with actual facts.
Those facts are:
—Carpets that are not clipped down, particularly all-weather rubber carpets sold by dealers, can slide around and jam the gas pedal. This can be a problem in every car—that is why they have clips on the driver's side to hold the carpet in place. If you clip down your carpet, it is perfectly safe. In Toyota's case, there was one documented car crash killing four people, involving a Lexus that a dealer gave out as a loaner car. The dealer threw in an all-weather carpet without fastening it down. It trapped the pedal. The driver got into an accident and the car caught fire. The rubber mat was fused to the pedal, so it was clear what had happened.
Toyota has an extraordinary response to this incident of carpets, including cutting the size of the gas pedal for existing cars and then designing a software fix that will cause pressure on the brake to override the gas pedal and cut off the gas. It is a sophisticated piece of software that is embedded in a computer chip in the engine and has to be programmed differently for different car models and engines. All that is highly time-consuming, and it will take a while to get it into all Toyota cars.
—Sticky pedals. Apparently this is caused by an interaction between the material of one part of the pedal, as made in one plant by CTS (CTS), an automotive supplier, and humidity and wear of a part over time. It is a metal part called a shift lever. CTS uses a different material than Denso, Toyota's other supplier of gas pedals. This is a rare problem in terms of number of problems per one million vehicles but Toyota dealers documented cases of sticky pedals. If you push down the brake firmly, the brake will work fine at slowing down and stopping the car. Apparently pedal wear can also cause problems like this in other cars, but Toyota had a series of reported cases by its customers.
Toyota has a replacement pedal in production at CTS already and has suspended U.S. production of eight models until the new pedals are ready. It still needs to find a fix for the millions of cars out on the road. That fix is expected to be days away, not weeks.
These are the two problems that led to the recall of more than 6 million vehicles and the shutdown of some factories. Is it enough to lead some in the media to suggest there's been a significant change in quality for the whole company? To me that seems like a poor generalization. The design decision on the gas pedal was made five to 10 years ago, working with a supplier, and it passed all of the tests at the time. What does that really have to do with the rest of the company today?
Signs of Strength
I personally have toured Toyota plants and been in their engineering offices in the past year. Unlike many competitors, Toyota had no involuntary layoffs through the recession and had enough extra people during the slowdown to focus intensely on quality and safety. In some plants, 40% of workers who were not needed for production were paid full-time to relearn its famous production system and attack problems in the plant with a vengeance.
In its Georgetown (Ky.) plant alone, Toyota reduced defects found in final inspection by more than 40%, thanks to the ideas of workers on the line. And this plant—which makes the Camry—was already producing some of the best quality in the country. In 2009, 10 of the coveted JD Power initial quality awards for the best vehicles in a segment went to Toyota or its Lexus unit—more than any other automaker.
I come away in awe every time I visit a Toyota facility. It does not do justice to the hundreds of thousands of people in Toyota engineering and manufacturing and the supply base to leap to conclusions based on such thin evidence. Clearly it's no small thing when a company shutters factories that produce its best-selling products. But it seems to me that the inferences about a wider quality problem at Toyota are not based on actual facts.
Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan.
A longtime observer of Toyota's factories contends there's little evidence that the company's overall standards are slipping
By Jeffrey Liker
I have been visiting, studying, and analyzing Toyota for 25 years in Japan, the U.S., Europe, and other countries. I have written six books about Toyota (TM) and many articles, and my students have written PhD dissertations about various aspects of the company. One of my PhD students just successfully defended a thesis on how most of the auto manufacturers, including Toyota, work with their suppliers. His data show Toyota is head and shoulders the best customer to work with on the technical details of designing, prototyping, and testing brakes.
Before all of the recent negative news—about unintended acceleration, recalls of millions of vehicles, and a shutdown of U.S. production—I was working on a book extolling the virtues of this great company, which was using the recession to retain employees, not lay them off, and teach them kaizen (the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement).
So what happened that is causing the media to write off 60 years of progress in a company that has become a model of operational excellence? It seems to me that the inferences about Toyota's quality problems are emotional and have little to do with actual facts.
Those facts are:
—Carpets that are not clipped down, particularly all-weather rubber carpets sold by dealers, can slide around and jam the gas pedal. This can be a problem in every car—that is why they have clips on the driver's side to hold the carpet in place. If you clip down your carpet, it is perfectly safe. In Toyota's case, there was one documented car crash killing four people, involving a Lexus that a dealer gave out as a loaner car. The dealer threw in an all-weather carpet without fastening it down. It trapped the pedal. The driver got into an accident and the car caught fire. The rubber mat was fused to the pedal, so it was clear what had happened.
Toyota has an extraordinary response to this incident of carpets, including cutting the size of the gas pedal for existing cars and then designing a software fix that will cause pressure on the brake to override the gas pedal and cut off the gas. It is a sophisticated piece of software that is embedded in a computer chip in the engine and has to be programmed differently for different car models and engines. All that is highly time-consuming, and it will take a while to get it into all Toyota cars.
—Sticky pedals. Apparently this is caused by an interaction between the material of one part of the pedal, as made in one plant by CTS (CTS), an automotive supplier, and humidity and wear of a part over time. It is a metal part called a shift lever. CTS uses a different material than Denso, Toyota's other supplier of gas pedals. This is a rare problem in terms of number of problems per one million vehicles but Toyota dealers documented cases of sticky pedals. If you push down the brake firmly, the brake will work fine at slowing down and stopping the car. Apparently pedal wear can also cause problems like this in other cars, but Toyota had a series of reported cases by its customers.
Toyota has a replacement pedal in production at CTS already and has suspended U.S. production of eight models until the new pedals are ready. It still needs to find a fix for the millions of cars out on the road. That fix is expected to be days away, not weeks.
These are the two problems that led to the recall of more than 6 million vehicles and the shutdown of some factories. Is it enough to lead some in the media to suggest there's been a significant change in quality for the whole company? To me that seems like a poor generalization. The design decision on the gas pedal was made five to 10 years ago, working with a supplier, and it passed all of the tests at the time. What does that really have to do with the rest of the company today?
Signs of Strength
I personally have toured Toyota plants and been in their engineering offices in the past year. Unlike many competitors, Toyota had no involuntary layoffs through the recession and had enough extra people during the slowdown to focus intensely on quality and safety. In some plants, 40% of workers who were not needed for production were paid full-time to relearn its famous production system and attack problems in the plant with a vengeance.
In its Georgetown (Ky.) plant alone, Toyota reduced defects found in final inspection by more than 40%, thanks to the ideas of workers on the line. And this plant—which makes the Camry—was already producing some of the best quality in the country. In 2009, 10 of the coveted JD Power initial quality awards for the best vehicles in a segment went to Toyota or its Lexus unit—more than any other automaker.
I come away in awe every time I visit a Toyota facility. It does not do justice to the hundreds of thousands of people in Toyota engineering and manufacturing and the supply base to leap to conclusions based on such thin evidence. Clearly it's no small thing when a company shutters factories that produce its best-selling products. But it seems to me that the inferences about a wider quality problem at Toyota are not based on actual facts.
Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan.
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