RLSH700

Toyota: Quality Control May Delay Some Models

Friday , August 25, 2006 (Fox News)

OYAMA, Japan — Toyota Motor Co.'s (TM) campaign to strengthen quality control and reduce recalls could delay some of its models, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said Friday.

Watanabe, however, denied that there was a decision to delay models across the board, saying that the development of individual vehicles would be decided case-by-case.

The Japanese automaker is tightening its quality control methods in a campaign to reduce a spate of recalls that could erode the company's reputation.

"We try to affirm each process," Watanabe said at a demonstration of safety features west of Tokyo. "And in that process, some may be delayed, and some may be on time."

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Toyota was considering slowing the development of some new models by as much as six months because of the quality problems.

Watanabe, however, said the company's emphasis was on making sure quality-control procedures were properly carried out, rather than on how much time the process took. He denied the recalls occurred because Toyota rushed the development of some models.

The company is reviewing design, procurement, and other stages of car manufacturing, while looking more closely at complaints from buyers to reduce recalls and defects in production, he said.

"I feel we are making progress," Watanabe told reporters. He also said he did not know of any specific models that could be delayed by the changes.

Toyota has faced an increasing numbers of recalls partially due to its efforts to cut costs by using the same parts across different models.

In addition, Japanese authorities have launched a criminal investigation into three Toyota officials suspected of failing to do anything about a faulty steering part, which may have caused a 2004 head-on accident that injured five people.

On Friday, Chinese authorities said Toyota will recall 20,069 Crown sedans made in China because of defective rubber strips that seal the windshields.

Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co., a joint venture between Toyota and China's FAW Group, will recall the cars beginning Monday, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China said in a statement on its Web site. The venture hasn't received any reports about accidents or injuries related to the problem, it said.

Yale Zhang, an auto analyst with CSM Worldwide, said the number of sedans involved isn't big compared with recalls internationally. The defect is also a small problem and is unlikely to hurt Toyota's sales in China, he said.

Toyota is also facing a sexual harassment lawsuit in the U.S. against Hidetaka Otaka, who has since stepped down as the president and chief executive of Toyota's U.S. unit. Otaka says he is innocent.

Toyota appointed Jim Press, an American who headed Toyota's U.S. sales unit, as president of Toyota Motor North America Inc., the first non-Japanese to take that position.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...business/autos

RLSH700

I'm glad to see that they will give an American a chance to run their company. Good publicity stunt. Their recent quality problems are starting to catch up to them it appears.

Jeremiah 29:11

You have been talking about their quality problems previously and now everybody can see it with that report.

You were right!

RLSH700

Thank you Jeremiah. I just have never bought into the theory that japanese is always better. The outlets that have said for years that they are the best will rank their engines that were known for problems higher than domestic engines that we know are reliable (such as the 3.3L/3.8L family).

awsure

I think it is a natural part of competition. I worked for a car rental company 12 years ago (or so) and I can tell you that the Camry, Altima, Maxima equivalents were Century, Cutlass, Sierra and Corsica...ugh. Car business is not necessarily known for its nimble reaction time but the only way for American manufacturers to improve results is to improve their cars including the look, engineering, safety, fuel economy, price, etc...

Maybe this news will give U.S. mfg's an opening to exploit.

RLSH700

From what I have read Buick in some outlet's opinion is supposed to be just as reliable or more than Toyota is. If I ran GM, I would increase the Buick line-up only using the most reliable equipment (and add more performance to make it seem less like a Grandpa mobile), and exploit Toyota's weakness by touting the models that are more reliable than Toyota's models.