Automotive industry analysts expect Toyota’s accelerator-related recalls to damage its US sales at least in the short term, and believe General Motors, Ford, Hyundai and Honda are likely to be the biggest winners over the next few months.
Vice president of industry trends for TrueCar.com, Jesse Toprak, said the timing of the 2.3 million vehicle recall in the US was not ideal.
“This is particularly a bad time for Toyota because the industry will be picking up and now a lot of that benefit is going to go to the other competitors.
“If you look at the quality gap today compared to ten years ago, it isn’t there anymore. It’s more of a perception gap,” he said.
IHS Global Insight analyst, Aaron Bragman, said he expected the after-effects to last for some time.
“Frankly, I think this is going to impact their entire quarter. It means opportunity for the rest of the industry. Toyota is wounded and rivals are going to go after it as much as they can.”
Vice president of automotive research at J.D.Power & Associates, David Sargeant, expects the sales suspension will have a “significant” impact in the short term. He said it would most likely lead to Toyota slipping a few percentage points in February from its 2009 US market share of 17 percent.
“The bigger issue is what’s the longer term impact on their reputation and how that will affect sales going forward. What we know is that Toyota’s sales are very heavily dependent on reputation for quality and safety,” Sargeant said.
Analysts are forecasting five to 10 percent industry-wide sales increases for the US in February compared to January, with GM and Ford both expected to break double figures.
Toyota is trying its hardest to limit the damage, earlier releasing a video featuring President and COO, Jim Lentz, explaining the recall and apologising for the whole issue.
The conclusion to Lentz’s apology is much better than Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s last week. After delivering an apology in Switzerland, Mr Toyoda reportedly left in a black Audi, despite Toyota having a fleet stationed in Zurich.
More negative press flowed from The Detroit News today, which reported that Toyota knew about the sticking accelerator issue as far back as 2007. It reported that a number of complaints were made by Tundra owners but the problem was passed off as floor mat related and was not relayed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Detroit News said similar sticky accelerator complaints surfaced from Europe in 2008 but no investigation was undertaken by Toyota until March 2009.
(with Reuters, CNNMoney)
So will Toyota’s CEO Akio Toyoda be apologising for all the deaths that this fault has caused as well?
have there been that many deaths??
Up to 16 deaths. Its hard to put a exact figure on it because of all the technical hoo haa.
19 death so far.
If theyve known for that long then maybe they should cop a hety fine.
They’ve been hiding their defects as much as possible from the public for many years. Many called Toyota the “Teflon Coated”
company.
I hate Toyota. They are Theives, Hoodlums, and Criminals like FIAT. They need to be procescuted under our laws here in America.
Obama will make things so much easier for Hyundai too, he talks tough about South Korean trade but he signals that he will waffle on getting tough. It would be very smart for him not to get tough either as GM (especially Holden/Chevy) depends on South Korean Tech.
Notice how he doesnt even speak of Japanese cars, and he always says ‘those South Korean Cars.” The new powers that be I think are anti-Japanese automakers, leaning towards Pro American and Pro-Korean.
I think this is just the tip of the Iceberg. The Nissan/Infiniti quality Hoax will be exposed,and Toyota will be treated like “Old GM.” Honda reputation will be somewhat weakened.
Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infinti, Honda/Acura are now in the process of being pushed aside, in favor of Korean and American products.
The Japanese big 3 are about to be treated like the Detroit big-3
People are getting tired of paying more for the same or less, and the Americans and Koreans can offer more for less compared to the Japanese.
There’s a Big Fruagality movenment in America, and the overpriced Japanese are going to be forced by the government to fall in line. People want luxury, but dont want to pay $30,000 for Lexus, when they could have gotten the same and even more from Hyundai for $25,000.
The Government and media have been holding things back from the people about Japanese cars for this ENTIRE decade. They waited until the Koreans and Americans could make btter cars than the Japanese to lay the hammer down. Since they make better cars now, its ok to get The Japanese have it.
Like I said, this is just the tip of the iceberg for ALL JAPANESE MAKES, the Obama Administration isnt playing with these guys.
YOU LIED TO AND SCREWED AMERICAN SHEEP FOR MANY YEARS WITH YOUR PRODUCTS AND PRICES AND THEN DIDNT WANT TO PLAY BALL ON FREE TRADE, DONT MESS WITH US JAPAN!!!!!
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lol, you should never, EVER breed.
Im a Red Blooded American My friend. I just love these little Korean contraptions.
“If you buy a Hyundai, or any car from that part of the world, you will be seen as a bore. Invitations will dry up, your kids will refuse to speak to you, your wife will sleep with your friends and you may end up committing suicide”
So true.
Well, you must live around a bunch of as-holes, and if I were you and had a wife and family that flaky enough TO DO THAT TO YOU OVER A CAR Id throw her ass out on the street and quickly. Id do it wth a smile too.
Id Proudly and Unappologetically would choose my Hyundai over many of these young women today. At least with the car its a friend that wont nag the hell out of you, and will be reliable and dependable. Id rather have a chick that functons in the same manner as my Korean work of art, thank you.
However, if you keep a family and fair weather friends such as that, you desvere whats coming to you. IF THEY CAN GET RID OF YOU OVER THAT EASILY OVER A CAR,THEN THEY CAN GET RD OF YOU OVER SOMETHING LESSER TOO, RIGHT?
I dont Find if fair at all at the SLIGHTEST that my commen had to go through Moderation but LOL can say 22 Billion Racial slurs and get away with it, and many others can refer to the Japanese as Japs freely. HOW?
Its more typical Anti Hyundai Discrimination!!!
Im not Asian but Australia has a growing reputation of being VERY Racist to Asians and thinking its ok to do such.
Oh and by the way, sensible Young women like my Accent and think its Cute. With the engine mods ive done to it, women also say, man this is a peppy little car.
Now, that’s a keeper!!!
Mr Toyoda left in a black Audi. So the president of a car company has no confidence in his own vehicles and the car was black(like a death in the family)!
Obviously CTS doesnt supply pedal assemblies to Audi…..
Oh, you mean Audi Doesnt have pedals made by CTS to Toyota specs, and then tested by Toyota for “Quality Control” before putting them in vehicles ready for sale, right?
I didnt studder……..
LMAO!!!
Toyota in Europe probably don’t have any vehicles that have the adequate rear leg room that a president of a car company would expect when being cheuffered around. North America has the large Avalon, we have the Aurion, but Europe has no large Toyotas with decent rear legroom. Not his fault.
The Avensis is almost as big as the Aurion
Finally all the toyota lovers cant make excuses. 16 people had to die to cover up the incompetence of the accounting department at Toyota.
Shak,
The Toyo lovers arent showing faces because they are getting the glass fixed in their glass houses………….I bet they are regretting the stones they originally threw
That Avalon is ancient, even the Chinese have caught up to that. Toyota and its Chinese quality products. Wow, that thing has been around since the end of 01, proves that Toyota buyers can be just downright silly.
Our Cadenza/K7 wipes the floor with this Toyota rubbish.
Rubbish – that Avalon is the completely new third generation model which was released in 2005. I’d hardly call that “ancient”.
Five years, that’s ancient for today standard. If it were Ford or GM, the media would say that’s ancient.
5 years is now considered a short model cycle. Many cars are switching to 6, 7, even 8 year model cycles. The current model Barina (i.e. Daewoo Kalos), Hyundai Getz, and Nissan Micra have all been around since 2002 (nearly 8 years) with only a minor facelift since then.
Mark G, ok you got me on that Avalon, but the one pictred sure looks horrid; almost scary looking. True they are moving to 7 and 8 year cycles, and I think that’s the trend for now on for all companies. This new Corolla is almost the same as before like the US Focus they peddle to us unsuspecting Americans.
The US Focus was a 10 year cycle car. 2000-2010.
The i20 is supposed to come to Australia soon. You are an important market, and Hyundai wants to make sure you have the best i20 possible. They are ironing out the kinks. You guys are going to be a dual market Euro and US/Korean product.
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Car Advice, why is this person still allowed to post?
Yep, that’s why Samsung (a company full of “dog eaters”) became the world’s largest electronics company by sales and profit (overtaking all major Japanese electronics brands *combined* in terms of profit)
+
Some Koreans eat (wild) dogs and some Japanese eat (our/endangered) whales and some Chinese eat cats and some Australians eat kangaroos. Get over yourself.
Typical behaviour of the weak- averting attention away from the problem by taking cheap shots at other people.
I actually feel sorry for “lol”.
Why do people buy toyota’s?
IMO people buy toyota’s because they are supposed to be well made, reliable A – B transport. I have owned several toyota’s in the past and they were inoffensive transport which never let me down ever. They were like watching paint dry to drive though. Actually I would rather watch paint dry than drive a toyota again, but hey thats me. Toyota charge a premium for the perceived quality/reliability advantage they have over other car makers. Now with this news coming out, why on earth would anyone part with their hard earned cash for such a boring car that toyota has mastered in making but now looks to have a very serious problem?
Consumer Reports are the ones who created this perceived quality. I wonder if Toyota will keep them on their payroll.
Newsflash: Steve Wosniak Apple Co-Founder says,
“My Prius has unintended acceleration on Cruise Control, and I think from a professional point of viw its a software problem.”
-Source:
Bloomberg US.