Like everyone else, we at Team Centennial have been deluged with news media accounts of the Toyota recalls. While, like you, we are somewhat mystified by all of this, we are confident this superior, revered and dominant brand will someday return to its pinnacle position within the ranks of automobile brands.

This said, we are just as certain that much more will be said and written before this headline story has been played out in the press, at cocktail parties and around the water coolers of corporate America.

Whining witnesses, angry adjudicators and salivating media make it sound like the ingredients for a high stakes courtroom TV drama, when in reality, they’re what the people got at Toyota’s highly publicized US congressional hearing on the Japanese automaker’s recent product recall woes. Because of this, Toyota is now often seen as a corporation of greed: putting volumes and profits over safety and consumer well-being.

In Toyota’s defense, recalls happen all the time in the auto industry. Some deal with glitches that affect minor things like radio controls, seat recliners and so forth. Others, however, involve more complicated components that directly affect safe driving. In general, there are two types of auto recalls: voluntary and compulsory, the only difference of which is that in a compulsory recall, the recall is initiated by the government and that any owner who fails to return the defective product to the manufacturer can be fined.

I have been closely involved with car and truck leasing and sales in Phoenix and Arizona for many years, and ever since I can remember, I have always been interested – can you say, “crazy about” – everything automotive. This is why the “Toyota episode” has been of particular interest to me, as it has to my associates on Team Centennial, a Phoenix auto leasing and sales leader since 1989.

In any case, it’s important that recalls are handled well by auto manufacturers so that every owner of a recalled vehicle has the opportunity to get his or her vehicle fixed in a timely manner. Most of the time, that’s exactly what happens – but sometimes it doesn’t. Sadly, the situation involving Toyota is one of those times, hence the backlash from the US government, consumer advocate groups and even the press.

The spotlight is on the United States

Toyota’s safety troubles are happening predominantly in the US market, where the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA is in charge (though reports of sticking gas pedals have surfaced in the European and Chinese markets), putting the US on a seemingly high pedestal when it comes to stringent automotive safety legislation. However, history doesn’t paint such a rosy picture.

In 1958, while the rest of the world adopted the United Nation’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, the US declined to adopt this or any other vehicle safety regulation. However, in 1965 where increased vehicular traffic saw a spike in car crashes and fatalities, public pressure grew in the US to increase the safety of cars. This culminated in the publishing of Unsafe at Any Speed by activist lawyer Ralph Nader – a book that chronicled the resistance of car manufacturers to admit to design flaws and introduce safety features. Still, it took a further five years before the US government formally instituted the NHTSA to oversee the writing and enforcing of safety, theft-resistance and fuel economy standards for all motor vehicles. Since then, the NHTSA has successfully brought down the number of car-related deaths despite the increase of mileage covered.

Auto recalls of note

The current recall crisis gripping Toyota is certainly massive – covering more than eight million cars. In fact, the NHTSA ranks it as the biggest automotive recall in its history. However, it’s not the size of the recall that makes it bad, it’s the damage it does to the reputation of a company and its products. Popular Mechanics, a magazine devoted to science and technology, recently listed the most notorious recalls in automotive history.

First on their list is the 1991-2001 Ford Explorer. Once America’s best-selling SUV, the Explorer’s notoriously wobbly handling was tested quite few times because of tire separation problems with its Firestone tires. In the end, 200 deaths were attributed to the Explorer/Firestone combination and despite a complete redesign in 2002, the Ford Explorer failed to hold onto its sales dominance.

Second is the 1971-1976 Ford Pinto. At a time when the Japanese were serving up serious competition in the small car category, Ford was under pressure to make a car which would cost no more than $2,000. The necessary penny pinching was seen in its flawed engineering that included the placement of the fuel tank behind the rear axle with a fuel-filler pipe that was vulnerable to bursting in a rear-end collision. What made matters worse was an internal memo pointing that protecting the fuel tank would cost US$11 per Pinto and that it would be cheaper for Ford to pay settlements for injuries and deaths from the resulting fires. In the end, the US government told Ford to recall 1.4 million Pintos to have reinforced plastic shields installed to protect the gas tank.

Lastly, is the 1982-1987 Audi 5000. Though only 92,000 vehicles were involved, the effect had a devastating impact on Audi’s US business. The first recall of the 5000 was for improperly positioned floor mats that could unintentionally pin the accelerator pedal, potentially leading to runaway acceleration. At some point CBS news program 60 Minutes noticed this allegation and ran a story in November 1986 showing 5000s running out of control. That the story used modified cars or that the sudden acceleration could be attributed to drivers pressing the wrong pedal didn’t matter. The damage was done and Audi’s sales plummeted from 74,061 cars in 1985 to 12,283 cars in 1991.

Toyota’s tribulation

You needn’t be involved with the business of vehicle sales and leasing in Phoenix or anywhere else to have been aware of Toyota’s hammering by daily newspapers and TV pieces suggesting it has been slow to address safety problems and even US transportation secretary Ray LaHood gave an announcement that anyone who owns one of the recalled Toyotas should “stop driving it.” But does Toyota deserve all this? If they’re knowingly selling an unsafe car, then yes. But is that what’s going on here? Not so fast. There’s little question that unintended acceleration is a serious problem, but every major carmaker receives occasional reports of sudden unintended acceleration. In the last decade alone, the NHTSA logged some 24,000 complaints.

But many safety concerns do have validity, and every car manufacturer had conducted numerous recalls involving critical safety features such as brakes, steering, airbags and seatbelts. Still, the fact that some safety problems don’t emerge until cars have been on the road for months or years is not a sign that automakers are careless about safety. The safety issues that lead to recalls generally occur in very small numbers. For example, in Toyota’s case, the problem involved a handful of cases in literally billions of kilometers of driving.

As those cases come to light, it is necessary for carmakers to take action, and it is natural for consumers to be concerned. But the intensity of the backlash against Toyota is almost unprecedented. Even the best cars are far from perfect, and much of the outrage over Toyota’s troubles seems based on the unrealistic expectation that cars should be infallible. That’s an unattainable goal; even well-designed components can wear out and fail in unexpected ways. Recalls are not a sign that carmakers are indifferent to the safety of their customers. On the contrary, recalls are part of the process by which automakers address safety or reliability issues that are often fairly subtle.

Marketing pundits will undoubtedly study Toyota’s handling of this issue, looking for lessons in avoiding the company’s predicament. After all, it took years for Audi’s sales to rebound after its bout with unintended acceleration. Still, some good did come of Audi’s experience: Today all cars have interlock systems that make it impossible for drivers to move the shift lever out of park unless their foot is on the brake. One likely outcome of the Toyota episode will be a requirement for a similar interlock that automatically disengages the throttle whenever the driver steps on the brake. And we at Team Centennial are confident that initiatives like this would help make all cars safer than before.

Author Bio: Captain Centennial, whose real name is Monty, is the longtime Public Information Officer for Team Centennial at Centennial Leasing and Sales in Phoenix, AZ. Visit us on the web at www.teamcentennial.com.

Category: Automotive
Keywords: automotive, recall, team, centennial, toyota, honda, ford, used cars, cars for sale