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Toyota CEO: Rapid growth hurts quality

03/13/2008, 9:18 AM

By Nick

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.

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03/13, 9:22 AM

posted by:

purdue

Quick, what’s Japanese for DUH! ?

03/13, 9:26 AM

posted by:

howsmydriving

This is not news, it’s the non-story du jour. This same story has been reported many times before.

03/13, 9:34 AM

posted by:

RicardoHead

Crappy designs hurt quality too. As well as cheap parts sourcing.

03/13, 9:45 AM

posted by:

jdasch1

All bow to the mighty Toyota…good grief. A Toyota in everyones driveway?? NOT MINE EVER AGAIN. They had their chance and blew it on customer service and quality.

03/13, 9:50 AM

posted by:

mg198242

This is the company that should be blamed for CO2 polution, I mean the bastards built in 2007 9,497,754 cars and it’s not enough for them.

03/13, 9:56 AM

posted by:

sunshine1810

Toyota and Lexus used to be extremely reliable. Toyota used to make cars that excite the soul such as the MR2, Celica and Supra. Every single car they make is atrocious. As far as reliability, I think they lost their edge in that as well.

03/13, 9:58 AM

posted by:

A4

when toyotas break you know they suck because the people that drive them have nay crossed above a speed limit or dared to see how fast they can get to sunday brunch and bingo night.

03/13, 10:31 AM

posted by:

SwerveEarly

LP; How can we believe your story when you claim you have a friend?

03/13, 10:41 AM

posted by:

frylock350

@LP,
Toyota’s reliability has been slipping for 10 years now. The Tundra is the least reliable vehicle they’ve ever produced and quite the embarrassment. Nissan’s have never been known for reliability.

03/13, 11:20 AM

posted by:

Commodore

Well no ****. This is good though. Toyota is finally admitting two things here:

1. They are no longer the small little company that they were in the 80s that is taking on the big guys. They are a HUGE company and should be treated as the corporate giant that they are
2. Toyota quality is no better, if not worse recently, than other big automakers like GM

03/13, 11:37 AM

posted by:

F3INT))AP3X

A4 you are an ignorant moron, I have a Toyota and not only do I cross the speed limit every day but I’m sure I would smoke the **** out of whatever you’ve got that makes you talk like you know something about cars. Next time you open your mouth say something that’s true maybe; and o ya I would smoke you with my Honda as well. =)

03/13, 12:37 PM

posted by:

bigp

well its nice to see them take responsability because the camry is an move time bomb this time around its an pipe dream

03/13, 12:56 PM

posted by:

SS4LIFE

Wow you think??? It’s f*ckin common sense! You think they would have seen how this happened with GM decades ago and learned from their mistakes.

Also I too agree with Sunshine1810, well his second and third sentences, They have nothing appealing to me since they killed off the Supra, then MR2 and Celica. And their SCION brand is the ugliest set of slow as hell cars that I’ve ever seen.

Toyota get back to making cars that actually excite our souls like you once did.
Just bring back the Supra, Celica and MR2! There problem solved.

03/13, 1:11 PM

posted by:

tripleonefive

Oh please Commodore
LOL Watanbee never said that Toyota is worse than GM Let the stats show how much better Toyota is in sales and quality
You can bitch over designs and every other thing under the sun with the idoits on this board
Toyota is a smaller company than GM and they grew due to making better cars than GM and it hurts your very soul to admit it
I havent been on lately bc my point was proven time and time again but I cant stand when you try and slip your bs in
I will call you out every time I see you try and spread your nonsense

03/13, 2:35 PM

posted by:

jayjc08

SS4Life- Supra was fast, but not all that great of a car. I usually think of it competing in a more expensive range than it’s price, but in it’s last few years and when it began it was lackluster. It saw it’s fame. Second gen MR2 was great, but the third gen was too girly imho. And Celica… just sucked, trying to be in between a sports car fastback and a daily driver didn’t seem to work out for Toyota.

No, you haven’t been on for a while tripleonefive…

I guess it takes time to prove your stuff? Give it a little more time….

03/13, 2:37 PM

posted by:

audi-lover

it’s sad but true

i already heard about this a long time a go- get with it leftlane

03/13, 2:46 PM

posted by:

Need more oil for GM

Toyota quality? Isn’t that the biggest oxymoron in history? They teach that to stupid 4 year olds in Kindegarden. Then they grow up and buy a real car from GM like a true American.

03/13, 2:48 PM

posted by:

SS4LIFE

yeah jayjaco08, I liked the MKIV Supra but have no experience with it. I got my dad’s 84 Celica and that was my first car. It was cheap, RWD and a manual so I couldn’t be happier at that age. A friend of my dad’s owned several early and late 80’s Supras so we’re talking about MKIII’s and earlier, he also had one first gen and one second gen MR2-Turbo. A couple of them were modified and were really fast, I don’t know if he has any of them anymore.

I just feel that Toyota has lost their way a little with their performance cars, seeing as of right now they have none ( I don’t count the SCION’s to even be in this category)

03/13, 4:28 PM

posted by:

C6Racer

Sorry tripleonedumb****. It’s YOU nobody believes. Toyota fans see you the way I see murderedout. He’s a fan of American cars but he’s is just a total ass. GM became big for the same reason Toyota did. They USED to make good cars. GM has yet to make a car as reliable as my dad’s old ‘70 Chevy C10 pickup. That thing has been runs beautifully, at least as is did when it was new, even after 38 years.

03/13, 4:29 PM

posted by:

C6Racer

Same goes for Toyota.

03/13, 5:06 PM

posted by:

1c3d0g

Toy Ota quality? Bahaha! :lol: They’ve never been about quality, and they never will. All they know what to produce are crappy, weak, rust-prone vehicles.

03/13, 10:44 PM

posted by:

johnnycanuck

A4 is right. Considering the incredibly uninspiring lineup Toyota has these days, how the f*ck can they be having all these issues when virtually no one gets past half throttle?

03/14, 1:53 AM

posted by:

sharpie

Toyota lost its way! That’s what happen when the goal is to maximize sales at all cost. It reminds me of Wal-mart when everything was made in the USA, now they just want to make a buck and get more market shares. Toyota of the 90s were reliable. My friend’s 92 Lexus LS still runs like new, same with another friend’s 92 Camry. That generation of Camry would not have been the most stolen for almost 10 years in a row for good reason.

Can’t speak for anything Nissan other than the SR20DE. Had three of them (each sold at 140k) and they were reliable. The domestics are catching up in terms of quality, but that was not the case in the 90s.

As for customer service, all car companies are the same. Excuse after excuse not to honor warranty. Just hope you find a local dealer that is decent enough to help you.

 
 
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