Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Yoshi Inaba, Toyota’s highest ranking executive in the United States, says that his company’s latest recall of millions of vehicles has taught Toyota some valuable lessons. Speaking to an audience gathered at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, Inaba seemed eager to hit the re-set button with the American public through admission of Toyota’s past errors.

Last September, Toyota and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of millions of Lexus and Toyota vehicles that have the potential to accelerate suddenly and unintentionally. After nearly two years of denying reports of unintended acceleration problems, Toyota finally issued a recall when California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor and his family died in a crash while driving a Lexus ES 350. As tragic as that accident was, it helped bring Toyota’s unintended acceleration problem to light and prompted the company to serious and definitive action.

Inaba, who serves as the chairman of Toyota Motor Sales USA and president of Toyota Motor North America, said that his company is now working to restore quality and safety in its vehicles.

“During 2009, our commitment to quality and safety — the two most important attributes of Toyota — were severely questioned, and we learned some lessons the hard way,” Inaba said.

“These issues generated plenty of debate and unfortunately, some miscommunication,” he said. “That was our own fault.”

Inaba’s words had the same apologetic ring to them as those spoken by Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s President and grandson of the company’s founder, when he spoke at a press conference in Tokyo just after the Saylor crash last August.

“Four precious lives have been lost. I offer my deepest condolences,” Mr. Toyoda said. “Customers bought our cars because they thought they were the safest. But now we have given them cause for grave concern. I can’t begin to express my remorse.”

“Toyota has become too big and distant from its customers,” he added.

Weeks after the big apology, Inada said that Toyota learned from its mistakes and is confident that it is now “doing the right thing for our customers.”

Toyota’s desire to recover its reputation for quality and safety led to its decision to install a brake override system in all Toyota and Lexus vehicles by 2011. This system, which likely could have prevented the fatal acceleration incidents, is standard in most German vehicles and in Chryslers. Toyota is already installing the new brake override system in Toyota Camry and Lexus ES 350 models.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 7:59 am and is filed under News, automobile accident, product liability, recalled products, safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.