The Emperor Has No Clothes

8th December 2009

In the most recent in a line of quality issues for Toyota, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into a stalling problem in 2006 Corolla and Matrix models. NHTSA has received 26 complaints of random stalling, sometimes in intersections or on highways. The review only covers 2006 models with the IZZ-FE engines. Apparently, Toyota has known about the problem, having issued a service bulletin in 2007 calling for replacing the engine computer following complaints of stalling.

The follows on the heels of the 3.8 million vehicles that Toyota recently recalled to fix the accelerator pedals in many models that were getting stuck in the wide open throttle position, causing uncontrolled acceleration. Toyota also recently recalled Tundra pickups to fix a rusting frame problem and also had a similar problem on Tacoma pickups. They also had a well-publicized problem with engine sludge causing engine failure in Camrys.

Toyota has a reputation for high quality vehicles that they have earned over many years of hard work. However, to just assume that they have and will always have high quality vehicles that never break down is just as inaccurate as assuming that the domestics have and will always have low quality vehicles that always break down just because they used to have quality problems. Toyota is not perfect, and neither is Honda, Nissan or anybody else. JDPower and others have made their mark figuring out which vehicles have the highest quality. You owe it to yourself to check the real facts on quality before buying and certainly before bashing anybody’s quality. The life and the job you save could be your own.