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Should Toyota Really Be The "Gold Standard" for Quality?

PlanoA4 submitted on 01/29/2007 Official AutoSpies Timestamp: 1:46 PM
from: www.busrep.co.za

[38] user comments | category: Spy Shots

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Should Toyota Really Be The "Gold Standard" for Quality?

Toyota Motor's gold standard reputation for quality has been a vital ingredient in powering sales. But as Toyota expands and overtakes its main US competitors, its cherished status is losing a bit of lustre.

Last week Toyota recalled 500 000 pick-up trucks and 4x4s in the US to correct a possible flaw in the suspension that may make the vehicles hard to steer. The recall was similar to another by Toyota in 2005 covering the same defect in about 800 000 Tundras and Sequoias.

This time, it knew of 11 accidents that might be related to the defect, including six injuries, said Bill Kwong, a Toyota spokesperson.

Has the most copied and most envied car maker of the past 20 years suddenly lost its way? Most quality experts say no. Toyota has had recalls before, as have all car makers. In fact, the number of vehicles the company recalled last year plunged from the year earlier. Read Article

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PlanoA4 - 1/29/2007 2:45:10 PM

+2 Boost

Well I gotta keep up my reputation...

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lexusis350 - 1/29/2007 6:09:25 PM

+2 Boost

"Toyota is the best role model the entire auto industry could have. If not Toyota, then who?"

I think Honda is a worthy competitor to that title.

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courtstone - 1/30/2007 11:27:09 AM

+2 Boost

lexus - I second that motion.

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DallasMR2 - 1/30/2007 11:30:37 AM

+1 Boost

i absolutely agree that Honda is just as good if not better at being a "Role Model"

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S4cabriofoxone - 1/30/2007 6:03:50 PMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

I agree. Honda is an angel.

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raschitakochangwenya - 1/29/2007 2:07:07 PM

0 Boost

True , true !!!!!!

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silverarrow2 - 1/29/2007 3:14:44 PM

+1 Boost

Heck no!

With all the recall they had, I don't think so.
Didn't I read that Mazda and Honda did better this around on the reviews?

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1970toyotamarc - 1/29/2007 3:30:55 PM

+4 Boost

Any article about Toyota that quotes CNW has no credibility with me. What is Art Spinella's agenda? He clearly hates Toyota. Is he bankrolled by Detroit?

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Agent009 - 1/29/2007 3:37:56 PMView My AgentSpace

+2 Boost

Basically when you are on top, like Toyota is, everybody will take a pot shot at you.

Very easy to do.

It is human nature to question those that are held up as number one, and to hold them to a higher standard.

If Suzuki we number one and they had a recall of say 10% of their cars the press would be on top of them too.

XYZZ - 1/30/2007 5:39:01 AM

+2 Boost

it don't matter.

toyotas are BULLETPROOF.

AE86 - 1/30/2007 8:52:30 PM

+1 Boost

Spinella is a clown. Although I don't like hybrids, I had to question his "study" last year that had claims that the life cycle energy usage of a Prius was greater than a Hummer H2.

Batteries, motors, electric cable and all the other things that go into a hybrid should make it more energy intensive to build, but over the entire life of the vehicle?? Come on!

He also had different numbers for the xA and xB and they are the same platform with the same engine...

kart1 - 1/29/2007 5:22:30 PM

+1 Boost

I wanted to write a lot but after I did I thought that four words would answer the question, "Should Toyota Really Be The 'Gold Standard' for Quality?" easily.

Yes, no explanation necessary.

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trd1 - 1/29/2007 6:03:33 PM

-2 Boost

in my dictionary, the last i checked toyota had 3 meanings Quality, reliability, and performance. lol

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1995e34 - 1/29/2007 6:45:43 PM

+3 Boost

performance?

lexusis350 - 1/29/2007 6:08:10 PM

-1 Boost

Whether Toyota SHOULD be the "Gold Standard" for quality or not, it is anyway.

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Lexus - 1/29/2007 6:53:57 PM

0 Boost

I don't really think Toyota want to be lable that way. I mean Toyota has alway try to make the best of everything they made and sold. Society lable you because of the experience they have with owning your products.

Lexus

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EL34 - 1/29/2007 7:40:15 PM

+1 Boost

During the Pacific War the company was dedicated to truck production for the Imperial Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight on the center of the hood. The war ended shortly before a scheduled Allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi.

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Bill - 1/29/2007 9:03:22 PM

+1 Boost

Wow, you know your history!

XYZZ - 1/30/2007 5:48:11 AM

+2 Boost

they also had trouble keeping up production of 6-cyl engines for the trucks.

many of those army trucks had ONLY 4-BANGERS. naturally, that made them slow. but they were STILL tough and reliable.

cynic - 1/31/2007 8:48:55 AM

+1 Boost

That is too funny, copying and pasting without properly quoting, and then taking the credit.

atomicbri - 1/29/2007 10:01:52 PMView My AgentSpace

+2 Boost

"Gold Standard"? I am not too sure about that. GIve it a few more years than see. I think Honda may have a better reliability record. Toyota is growing, and with it it is having the quality growing pains as well. My friend bought an '07 Camry SE with auto transmission. Granted this car is solid in feel and materials used. However her transmission has screwed up with less then 5000 miles on it!! She was astonished and so was I. The dealership's service advisor told her this was the 3rd one he has seen that had been brought into that dealership. This news is kind of disturbing to me since everyone has this mythical perception in their mind that Toyota is the absoute best. Maybe it is, then again, maybe it isn't.

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XYZZ - 1/30/2007 6:06:22 AM

+2 Boost

auto trannies are complex devices. put them on the side of a transverse mounted engine and potential problems multiply. it's a wonder there are
as few problems as there are,especially with higher output engines.

these things happen. with toyota's production and sales numbers, there are BOUND to be some bad apples.
i'd like to know how many auto trannies went bad, compared to how many were produced.

a book was written by a journalist who hired on at toyota to check out working conditions, at the height of demand for japanese cars in the 1970s. his job was assembling (manual) trannies.

on his line, there were about 3 or 4 DIFFERENT transmissions he had to assemble. all the time toyota was trying to up production to satisfy booming demand, the line was sped up again and again.

if i recall, toward the end, he was assembling one transmission every 65 seconds or so! given how
quickly gearsets must've been flung around, it's a wonder there haven't been TONS of manual transmission failures reported from that time period!

atomicbri - 1/30/2007 8:16:38 AMView My AgentSpace

+2 Boost

See this is what is funny to me. Had this been a Chrysler 300C with a transmission problem, automatically everyone would say, Oh see that car is junk. When it is a Toyota, people say, oh there can be a few bad apples, or yeah they have a problem from time to time.... Well when 500,000 4x4s and 800,000 pickups are recalled, I can't see that being any better than when GM or Ford or Chrysler recalls their cars. My point is everyone always sees Toyota as faultless, and I am not so sure why.... Their older cars were built well. I had an '90 Celica All Trac Turbo and it was flawless for years, up to 210,000 miles with no flaws (besides the normal wear and tear stuff)Never a recall. But now Toyota sees to be recalling every month, so in my eyes and having been an owner of a Toyota, I see their products as slipping into the typical high volume, high problem kind of company like GM or Ford.

Need4Speed - 1/30/2007 12:05:24 PM

0 Boost

Atomic,
Your wasting your bandwidth...Toyota could build a million Camry's and forget to put the engine in it and they will call it a minor oversight. What I can't wait for is when Toyota becomes the biggest carmaker in the world and the UAW goes for the juglar. Ha...what a wonderful world that will be!!

XYZZ - 2/1/2007 5:48:59 AM

+2 Boost

"if i recall, toward the end, he was assembling one transmission every 65 seconds or so! given how
quickly gearsets must've been flung around, it's a wonder there haven't been TONS of manual transmission failures reported from that time period!"

this is really remarkable, because of all the owners of toyotas of that vintage that i've known, NOT ONE ever mentioned a tranny problem. (for that matter, i've rarely heard of manual transmission problems on domestics either, other than worn clutches. and maybe worn/slowing synchronizers.)

on the other hand, i've heard horror stories of the COSTS of fixing trannies on euro cars.

despite the speed of assembly, toyota STILL put together quality cars way back in the '70s. if there are more problems today, its largely due to increased complexity of today's cars and components.

Matthew1 - 1/30/2007 12:01:42 AM

-1 Boost

Not interior quality, that's for sure.

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S4cabriofoxone - 1/30/2007 6:05:06 PMView My AgentSpace

0 Boost

And how about your hatred for the big German 3? Maybe THEIR leadership position, and Lexus's comparitive miniscule global position?

Is it their elegant style? Their luxurious interiors? Their fantastic dynamics?

...or a case of the "bad reliability" self-proclamation?

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S4cabriofoxone - 1/30/2007 11:53:37 PMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

We go over this time, and time again.

What do you think is more important, the world or just America?

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AE86 - 2/1/2007 2:26:33 AM

+1 Boost

Will, China is becoming possibly the most important part of the world and how is Toyota selling in China??

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XYZZ - 2/1/2007 6:12:28 AM

+1 Boost

increasing at double-digit rates, as i recall. ditto honda. (and gm. who sells MORE buicks in china than in u.s.)

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S4cabriofoxone - 1/30/2007 6:06:21 PMView My AgentSpace

+1 Boost

And no, I don't think Toyota is getting worse. Small recalls. Recalls, nonetheless.

And for Plano's "haters", notice that this article is actually positive.

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Loki123 - 1/31/2007 2:21:35 PM

+3 Boost

Should Toyota be the gold standard for quality?

Yes. And so should Honda. Without a doubt the Japanese make the best quality cars. Europeans and US cars should take note.

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truckmen - 2/14/2007 7:45:08 PM

+1 Boost

Toyota will never make a good full size truck! This 2007 Tundra is a big, BIG, and LONG disapointment, too big.The new Chev 1/2 ton is way better! Shure the toy has better power but the chev has a better warantee and has the most fuel efficiency and isn't so long! A lot of people believe toys were better when they were made in Japan because they take a lot of pride in there work! In north america there is the perception we take pride in our workmanship but not as much as the Japanese.For a small car I was concidering a corola but with all the problems with toyota I would concider the Civic.Nobody has picked on them yet.LOL

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