Greed, Lack of Prompt Action Contributed to Crisis at Toyota
California product liability lawyers have been following Toyota’s struggles with the safety of its vehicles over the past few months. The New York Times states that several factors have been responsible for the position that Toyota now finds itself in. However, the biggest factor seems to have been the company’s ambitious goal to become the world’s largest automaker. The company set goals in 2002 to corner a 15 percent share of the global auto market by 2010. To reach that target, the company estimated that it would have to grow at the rate of 50 percent and would have to build several new plants across the globe. However, this focus on faster growth seems to caused the company to cut costs, thereby possibly causing the safety crisis the company is facing now. It began outsourcing manufacture of parts, including the throttle assemblies that seem to be linked to the current recall. Last week, the company extended its massive recall of vehicles for accelerator problems, to Europe. The company also recalled up to 75,000 vehicles from China. The company announced a temporary stop in manufacture and sales of 8 of its models. These 8 models comprise more than 50 percent of the company’s annual sales in US. The recalls also came at a time when the company has been battling a reputation crisis. Consumer Reports magazine last week announced that it was withdrawing its recommendations for 8 Toyota models, as a result of the company’s failure to find what’s causing the problem, and devise a solution for it. It seems like the company has taken the focus off reliability and safety, and concentrated on maximizing its market share and profits. To the dismay of California product liability lawyers , the company has also seemed to have been unable to quickly understand the magnitude of the problem. Since August 2009, when an accident in San Diego California killed 4 people, the company has failed to grasp the severity of the issue, and has frequently come off as being clueless. That month, an off duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor was driving his Lexus when the accelerator pedal got stuck. The car accelerated to speeds of above 120mph, finally crashing into an SUV, flipping over, and bursting into flames. Toyota initially blamed the accident on incompatible floor mats. The company issued a recall of more than 3 million cars that had been linked to complaints of unintended acceleration. That was followed by another recall last month which extended the previous recall by 1 million vehicles. By this time, the automaker was tiring of the floor mat angle, and was blaming throttle control system issues in many of the models for the problem. The extended recall was followed by an announcement that the company would stop manufacturing and selling 8 Toyota models until the company could devise solutions to the problem. Currently, Toyota is working on a repair for the unintended acceleration, but there is no way of knowing when a solution will be developed, and how effective it will be. The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of motor vehicle defects . Please visit our website at trlglaw.com . If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us . The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.
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Greed, Lack of Prompt Action Contributed to Crisis at Toyota