President Toyoda Assures Toyotas Are Safe, Customers Are Top Priority
February 05, 2010
In his first public appearance since Toyota's quality issues captured global 
headlines, Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corp. CEO and grandson of the company founder, told the media in Japan Friday that Toyotas insisted are safe to drive and customers remain the automaker's top priority. He apologized for causing customers' worry.
"The fact that we have caused such concern is a cause of regret for us," he said in the press conference, which was not aired globally but was blogged live by the Wall Street Journal. "We are all working in unison to establish confidence again ... We have to earn back the trust of our customers."
Toyoda said he has spoken with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who earlier this week announced he wanted to talk with the Toyota CEO. However, Toyoda would share little of those discussions. "We aim to cooperate fully with the U.S. authorities," he said.
He added that in his conversation with LaHood on Thursday, "I told him that for 50 years we have placed customers as our top priority ... for sustainable growth we have made an effort to make a contribution to regional communities [in the U.S.] .. I have told Mr. Lahood that our commitment remains unchanged and the customer is our top priority."
Toyoda said the automaker will address the upcoming Congressional hearings "seriously and gravely."
Toyoda said the automaker will create a global task force on quality that will include outside experts. In addition, it will improve communications with regions to improve quality.
Toyoda did not say what the automaker will do regarding complaints about the brakes on its Toyota Prius hybrid, which was the No. 1 selling car in Japan last year and is the best-selling hybrid car globally. Governments in both Japan and the U.S. are investigating brake failures in the Prius.
As the hastily arranged press conference neared its end, a reporter asked if the automaker was slow to respond to the quality issues, even failing to disclose them. Toyoda did not answer the question. Instead, Executive Vice President Shinichi Sasaki responded that Toyota had not tried to conceal problems. "We have been fully transparent in terms of what we have learned," he said. "There is no time lag in what we have learned and reported and disclosed."
Sasaki said the sticky pedal problem was first identified by Toyota in Europe. However, it was in the U.S. that Toyota first took action with the recall and stop-sales order for eight of its bestselling models. Toyota dealers are now making the repairs on those recalled vehicles.
The 45-minute press conference with Toyoda, often described by media as reclusive and elusive, took place at the automaker's headquarters in Nagoya, Japan, well outside of Tokyo, but reporters watched it from elsewhere via a video feed. The 53-year-old Toyoda only became CEO of the automaker last summer. -- Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large
Photo by Toyota
Akio Toyoda
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:19 AM under Featured , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Leave a comment