Toyota's Lentz Making the Media Rounds
By Michelle Krebs February 1, 2010
Jim Lentz, a Toyota sales exec who rose through the ranks to become Toyota Motor Sales president and COO in the U.S., faces his hardest sell yet: convincing Toyota buyers that their cars are high quality and safe.
Lentz, who stars in the company's video aimed at consumers and located on the automaker's Web site under the "recall update" section, is the front man for explaining the remedy for Toyota's latest recall that covered 2.3 million vehicles, in addition to a 4.2- million recall late last year. The automaker had largely gone silent in recent days after announcing the recall, stop-sale and production halt of eight of its most popular models mid last week.
On Monday, however, Toyota is covering the airwaves and the headlines. Lentz kicked off a host of interviews on national media with an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. He'll be on a number of other networks, including MSNBC and CNN, before hosting a media conference call at 11 a.m. Eastern.
In his interview with the Today show's Matt Lauer, Lentz said:
- Studies of unintended acceleration by Toyota showed two separate issues: cases where the floormat could trap the pedal, causing it to stick and accelerate on its own; and the sticking pedal.
Toyota already announced the recall of 4.2 million vehicles with floormats that could trap the accelerate pedal by redesigning the pedal and making more room beneath the pedal.
Now "we are confident with have a fix" for the sticking pedal issue, which is covered by a recall of 2.3 million vehicles, with some of those vehicles also included in the floormat-pedal recall.
"Between these two things," Lentz said, "this (unintended acceleration) will be fixed."
- In response to charges that Toyota "dragged its feet" in responding to cases of unintended acceleration reported by customers and some to the government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that resulted in accidents and even deaths, Lentz insists not.
"No I don't believe we did," he said. "This company has been in the U.S. for 50 years. We've built our reputation on quality, dependablility, reliability and safety."
Lentz said Toyota received its "first technical report that we could duplicate" on the sticky accelerate issue in late October 2009.
Previous to that, Lentz said Toyota was focused on the pedal-floormat issue.
He largely skirted Lauer's question regarding reports of unintended acceleration on 2007 Toyota Tundra pickups.
-- Lauer suggested as many have that this quality issue arose because of Toyota's culture, one that was racing to be No. 1 in sales in the world and "no one wanted to break the bad news to the boss."
Lentz acknowledged Toyota is fast growing. "Our desire has never been to be the No. 1 automaker in the world but to be the No. 1 automaker in the hearts and minds of customers. Customers decide who is No.1 and No. 2."
-- As for the damage Toyota has sustained from the recalls -- and the pouncing Toyota's competitors have done as "they smell blood in the water" in Lauer's words, Lentz wouldn't speculate. "It's difficult to say at this point," he responded. "The key is we have the fix and dealers are ready" to make the fix, with some opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
-- In terms of concerns by consumers that the issue is beyond the pedal accelerator and floormats and may be a deeper electronic issue, Lentz said Toyota was confident that was not the case.
He said Toyota's electronics have been tested by Toyota and independent agencies and have redundants fail-safe systems.
-- As for whether Toyota owners should feel safe driving their vehicles, Lentz reiterated what Toyota officials have been saying all along, that the sticky accelerator doesn't happen suddenly, rather the driver will feel a gradual change -- the pedal is hard to depress or slow to return from being depressed.
said the sticky accelerator the obviously extensively coached Lentz said:
"I drive Toyota, my family, friends and neighbors drive Toyotas," said the obviously extensively coached Lentz, adding he wouldn't have them driving Toyotas if they weren't safe. -- Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst and Editor at Large
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