Japanese automakers like Toyota — who usually have a great reputation for building reliable cars — have seen a number of quality control issues crop up in recent years. The main culprit, said Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe, is rapid growth.
“The fact that Toyota is growing globally suddenly shouldn’t be used as an excuse,” admitted Watanabe. He said his company wants to make sure it doesn’t fall victim to “big company disease,” according to the Associated Press.
Watanabe said he he has personally delayed several products recently by six months in order to address quality issues. As for problems that have appeared in existing products, Toyota has gone over each issue one by one, determining causes, analyzing it, and developing ways to prevent a recurrence, he said.
Toyota built a record 9,497,754 in 2007. The company has seen significant increases in sales and production year-over-year for quite some time.
