2010 TOYOTA

RECALL SAGA

Crisis
Management
UTS

Klemens Ismoyo Djajapurusa

1206290043

March 2014

Faulty Floor Mats

number of similar accidents caused

January

by TOYOTA cars but TOYOTA still

recalled another 2.3 million vehicles

family

denied that the problem was with

due to same problem, after a

members, was driving a 2009 Lexus

their cars but asked owners to

TOYOTA Avalon crashed into a

ES350 on Highway 125 in Santee,

remove the gas pedals and shorten

lake

California, where they met with an

it so it cannot interfere with the floor

occupants.

accident, which killed them.

mats.

On 28

th

Saylor,

August 2009, Officer Mark

along

with

his

in

21,

Texas

2010,

killing

TOYOTA

all

four

October 20, 2010, another recalled

It was stated in the preliminary

November 29, 2009, claimed that

was done due to the problem of

report that the wrong floor mats

complaints

brake and fuel pump.

were installed in the car, which

acceleration caused by TOYOTA

interfered with the gas pedal.

jumped from 26 per year in 2001 to

TOYOTA ordered first recalled of its

vehicles to fix the problem on

on

unintended

132 per year in 2002, out of which

74 complaints were againsts the
2007 Lexus ES 350, and there were

September 29, 2009.

a total of 19 deaths since 2002

Further investigation by the National

related to TOYOTAs unintended

Highway

acceleration problem.

Traffic

Safety

Administration (NHTSA) revealed a

Crisis Made In Japan

TOYOTA is a brand of a car manufacture that has always been associated with quality and reliability
in the U.S. When this problem first hit TOYOTA, it took a stand that the fault was not from the car;
nevertheless, TOYOTA will carry out an investigation to find out more. That was what the first recall
was for. The problems escalated to a crisis for TOYOTA when external agencies, such as the
government, got involved. It was an organizational crisis where TOYOTA reputation was at stake. Its
reputation for safety and quality were battered by the series of recalls that would eventually total more
than eight million cars worldwide (TOYOTA Motor Corporation, 2010, p.1). Based on the categories
of crisis by Coombs (1999) and Lerbinger (1997), TOYOTAs crisis belonged to the Technological
and Accidents, where it involved prduct defects and malfunctions.
If TOYOTA did not improve its safety standards, NHTSA would not go easy on TOYOTA and as worse
case scenario would not allow TOYOTA to sell its cars, which would be a big problem for the
company. During this time, TOYOTA was under intense media scrutiny and a lot of the public
perception was changed to negative. It is in the culture of Japanese organization to prefer to save
their faces rather than being transparent to the public. This was apparent in the way TOYOTA
handled the crisis.
Company President and CEO, Akio Toyoda, was used to personally apologize for the recalls and the
problems that TOYOTA had caused, this was to show the public that TOYOTA was sincere about the
handling and fixing the issue on hand.

Total: 500 words

Reference:

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