Once a name is tarnished in the public eye, it’s very hard to earn consumers’ trust again, but somehow, amazingly, Toyota has done exactly that. Over the course of the last 2+ years, the automaker has gone through the ringer for accusations that their vehicles accelerated on their own or experienced steering problems. However, in recent months all those accusations have proven to be completely and utterly baseless, and U.S. auto regulators recently closed another investigation of Toyota vehicles with very positive results.
Earlier this year, the “runaway Prius” issue was brought to a close when it was found that Toyota’s electronic throttle systems had nothing to do with what appeared to be a very serious problem. Now, Loxahatchee Toyota dealerships are happy to report that the complaints regarding problems with steering in 2009 and 2010 Corollas have also been discovered to be unfounded. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put together a study showing that Toyota’s second best-selling vehicle is still as solid and reliable as it always has been.
From a PR standpoint, getting this sort of vindication is not an easy thing to do. If you recall, for the better part of the last two years Toyota has been recalling vehicles like crazy in an attempt to correct any issues that drivers may have been experiencing with their vehicles. At the cost of millions of dollars to Toyota to recall more than 19 million cars, the automaker seems to have bought back their good name. The really frustrating thing, of course, is that nothing was really wrong with these cars in the first place, but it says a lot about the quality of this product that they were able to justify themselves, anyway.
So now that this 15-month investigation of the Corolla’s alleged steering problems is over, where does Toyota go from here? Well, any Lake Worth used car dealer can tell you how happy they are that their ’09 and ’10 models can head back into the pool of reliable, profitable vehicles. But beyond that, it just shows what an automotive powerhouse Toyota is. Some of the worst publicity possible thwarted by truth and of course fantastic customer service. That’s the perfect recipe for absolution.
