- Auto Accident Injury
- Auto Deaths
- Back Injuries
- Brain Injury
- Car Accident Injury
- Catastrophic Injury
- Closed Head Injury
- Design Manufacturing
- Fuel Fed Fire Injury
- Head Injuries
- Occupant Ejections
- Paralysis
- Paraplegia
- Quadriplegia
- Roof Crush Injury
- Seat Belt Injuries
- Tempered Glass
- Tire Blow Out Injury
- Trailer Sway
- Traumatic Head Injury
Toyota Sees Increase in Recalls
December 5, 2005
In 2004, major automakers broke the record for the number of vehicles recalled due to auto defects in a single year. According to officials, the automobile industry has improved dramatically over the last year, with some exceptions. The number of Ford recalls has increased from five to six million in the last year. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration reports Toyota Motor Corporation's recalls have jumped from 1.1 million in 2004 to 2.2 million as of November 2005.
Toyota, the fourth leading vehicle manufacturer in the United States, has a reputation for high-quality dependable vehicles. There were two particular Toyota recalls primarily responsible for drastically increasing the recall rate for this company. Nearly one million Toyota 1989-1995 pick-ups and 1990-1995 4Runner SUVs were recalled because of a steering-linkage problem. Nearly 780,000 4Runner, Sequoia, and Tacoma trucks dating back to 2001 were recalled due to a ball-joint repair. In October, Toyota issued a recall of the Prius Hybrid for a software problem that could cause consumers to be stranded on the road.
According to Toyota, the company is extremely proactive in fixing seemingly minor problems identified in their cars and trucks. Under the TREAD Act, passed after the Firestone tire recall of the 1990s, the government is growing more aggressive about companies reporting potential safety issues and auto defects. Toyota claims they do their best to identify and fix auto defects and other potential problems before they cause major safety threats.
Toyota also cites the use of common parts as reason for the increase in auto recalls. In the past, many auto parts were only installed in some thousand vehicles but today those same parts may be used a million or so vehicles. When one of these common parts is found defective, a recall is required on a much larger scale. Toyota's Chief Executive, Katsuaki Watanabe, stressed recently that the automaker wants to attack weaknesses instead of hiding or ignoring them.
According to Chance Parker, the executive director at J.D. Power and Associates, the firm has not found any increase in the severity of auto defect problems reported by Toyota owners. If a customer does not experience defect-related problems, he states, "we don't see much of a relationship between the number of vehicles and customer-reported quality."
An auto analyst at Bank of America securities says though it appears there are more Toyota recalls, the numbers are attributable to the high volume of Toyota vehicles on the roads.
Though experts assure that vehicle quality improves every year, auto defects still injure hundreds of Americans every year.
For more information on crashworthiness, contact us to confer with an attorney.
Toyota SUA Information
Recent News
The federal government is under increasing pressure to impose tougher regulations on vehicle crashworthiness. In a long overdue effort, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...
