Print

[lebronviii]

It is not just the so-called “transplant” factories abroad that have been affected. The speed with which capacity is being created is putting pressure on the whole system. In mid-October Toyota recalled
470,000 vehicles in Japan with a variety of problems from faulty fu<a href="http://www.juicycoutureoutletusa.com/">juicy couture handbags</a>el pumps to defective steering systems.
It followed recalls of 2.1m vehicles in Japan and North America last year, when it was ordered by the
Japanese government to sort things out. In 2005 there were 1.9m recalls in Japan and 2.3m in America.

Last month it received an unexpected blow from America's influential Consumer Reports magazine. Declaring that “Toyota<a href="http://www.juicycoutureoutletusa.com/">juicy couture outlet</a> is showing cracks in its armour”, it relegated three models from its recommended list: the Camry V6 sedan, the all-wheel-drive variant of the Lexus GS and the Tundra pick-up. The magazine
added that it would “no longer recommend any new or re-designed
Toyota models without reliability data on a specific design”. In other words, it would no longer simply assume Toyotas to be reliable. Overall, Toyota was ranked only the fifth most reliable manufacturer. A recent J.D. Power Initial Quality Study also showed Toyota losing ground to its Japanese rival, Honda.

Toyota points out that the Initial Quality Study is not as important as it once was, because all makes are so much better (the difference between the best and worst is now less than one problem per vehicle). What matters more in generating customer
loyalty, says Toyota, is dependability over a typical three- to five-year period of ownership. Toyota can claim that Consumer Reports still recommends more of its vehicles than any other carmaker: 17 out of 39. It is also confident of fixing the Camry <a href="http://www.shopralphlaurenoutlet.com/">ralph lauren outlet</a>nd the Tundra problems (in the former, a wrongly installed minor component which prevented second gear from engaging; in the latter, a fault in the torque converter that created a loud vibration).