Of Toyotas, Tesco and Roll-Overs

End of week 3.

Blogging can sometimes be such an arduous task. At times, so much happens in a week that it would take more than 1000 words, or even 1500 words to describe. There’s meetings on Monday, meet ups on Wednesday, Hustle on Friday and a weekend in Birmingham or something.

And then there are times where nothing faintly spectacular happened at all. Such as this week. So ordinary and mundane beyond words. And so ridiculously typical.

The weather was as usual- cold but with this gloomy “I’d like to rain, but only when you walk out without an umbrella” look. The ducks were as usual- noisy and leaving trails of undigested grass everywhere. Classes were as usual- some funny lecturers, some not so funny. Work was also as usual- a pile of them.

My kitchen was as usual- messy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, squeaky clean on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Tesco was as usual- long queues, long wait, and long walk. The Financial Times was as usual- ban big bonuses, something about Cadbury, and Gordon Brown.

It wasn’t the worse week, but it was bad enough to deserve a blogging.

It was also as usual, with people who only comment on something just by looking at it from a single perspective. Its like saying Jay Chou is as normal as my week and as handsome as a teapot, and then when you watch him live, POW!! He’s a genius, a man brimming with talent, a soul made of G sharps and A minors.

What I’m referring to is the recent recall made by Toyota on their cars to replace the floor mats. It seems that those mats, if not properly fitted, would jam the oil pedal wide open. While that sounds great for drifting, I suppose the old uncles and aunties and 401(K) recipients wouldn’t have found that funny. But leave that aside for a moment. What caught my attention were the comments made that this mass recall would damage Toyota’s outstanding reputation in their owners’ head. Err, I’m not sure about that statement though.....

Lets run through a bit of history, and go back in time when some of the new Ford SUVs left the factory, all gleaming and shiny, with its new found ability: to roll over at highway speeds. Like how ducks naturally leave their solids all over the place, the new Explorers, for some reason would turn turtle. And its not just a handful of them that were written off and hit the scrap yard: there were more than 160 cases. And what did Ford did to mend things back? I have no idea honestly, but Firestone did receive a record fine for not dealing with the issue properly. This made news and many lawsuits over the years, and then what? People are still buying Explorers until today. So my question is, if the absence of proper handling of the issue and presence of rollovers and big news done little to damage Ford’s image, then what is that small recall gonna do to Toyota and their sales charts?

I suppose it would do the sales charts even better.

It shows that Toyota cares for their customers. Though the young dudes would fancy the idea of a wide open throttle along the LDP, Toyota is now giving them the option to lift off the oil and onto the brakes in case they’re heading for the McDonalds drive-thru at the speed of light. It shows that Toyota is committed to making good, safe cars and ensure (or at least try) that their customers live long enough to return to their showrooms for another Camry. And this is the most a customer can ask from a firm.

US ’08 Mercedes GLs models have shiny, distracting dashboards. Audi Q7s (used to) have some fancy LED dash displays that when you put on a polarised sunglasses, you wouldn’t know how far you have travelled. And the Ford Escape that Car and Driver tested left the factory with rattly roof racks. But did any of them recalled their GLs and Q7s and Escapes for a replacement, or at least a repair? Nought.

Toyota, on the other hand, did recall their cars in the past a handful of times. For instance, when their Lexus cars had, for a short period of time, brake lights with a mind of their own. The market did come up with similar predictions, that the recall would in turn destroy the marquee’s image. But after the recall, a survey found that owners were indeed happy that Lexus was responsible enough to stand up for their faults, and naturally their brand confidence had grown over the years.

Thus, only time will tell if this mass recall would poke a hole through their image balloon, but I reckon Toyota customers would appreciate this even more. And if they can escape this recall unscathed, it will be a very big eye opener to both customers and other makers alike. Customers can be sure that their Toyota would not leave the factory with any major defects, while making them think if other car makers would go to such lengths for the same reason.

So, this is it, this week’s post. Business as usual tomorrow onwards.