Toyota has their problems.  Sometimes when there is trouble the first thing that you do is deny it especially when it comes to big corporations.  I don’t know exactly what happened with Toyota but boy did they sure get in trouble.  With their sticky accelerators Toyota has recalled 270,000 vehicles in Canada and millions more in the United States Europe and Asia. For a car company, which was King, this must seem like a long way down.

I will admit I’m not a big car person.  For instance, I drive a Honda Odyssey which is 15 years old and just turned over 504,000 km.  Yes, it’s paid for many years ago.  So if you’re asking me to be a judge on new cars, I’ll admit I’m not the right guy.  However, I think even I can figure out that sticky accelerators aren’t a good idea for a company that has built up its reputation with quality.

It is certainly shaken up the North American automotive market.  The affected models include the popular Camry, Corolla and RAV4.  I suppose Toyota hopes it could be contained on those models.  The problem will be for Toyota is that customers are staying away from everything Toyota until a time when the coast is clear.  Unfortunately when there is a large consumer recall like this and the surrounding hype, the damage is done.  It will take a long time for Toyota to recover from this.

I recently read an article in the Toronto Star that Toyota’s problems were also affecting the used car market.  According to the Kelley Blue Book, which is a US based company that values used cars, the value of the used Toyotas has gone down from US$200-US$500.  So for Toyota owners across North America despite how you might like your car it’s been a tough couple of weeks in the depreciation column.

It’s hard to say the exact economic impact that this will have in Ontario.  For instance Toyota has production facilities in the Woodstock Ontario area, which surely could be affected by layoffs from the recall.  Ditto all the way along the line for parts suppliers as well as dealerships.  The real question is how are Toyota’s problems going to affect the other North American automakers such as Ford, GM and Chrysler?  I can almost hear the glee in those boardrooms.

Certainly it is good news for them.  Did Toyota get too big too fast?  Well, I dunno.  In my mind, to go to always have a sterling reputation and they earned every bit of their business the hard way.  It just goes to show that everything runs in cycles and even very good companies with stellar reputations can fall off the rails.  It surely is too early to send out Toyota’s obituary.  Let’s talk next year at this time and see a company is doing.

It certainly has been a long and winding road getting here.  When I was young the specter of Asian automobiles infiltrating the North American market was almost seen as laughable.  Of course we know what history did to that theory.  We also know that automobiles in general are much better than they used to be made.  I recently talked to one of my editors who was driving a Volkswagen.  He told me he wanted to drive it for 10 years and he had two years to go.  Meanwhile I’m in the 15th year of driving my van.  Back in the 1960s and 1970s that was unthinkable. Times have changed so much.

Of course it was brought to my attention last week that our world would be over, when the Chinese export their cars to North America and sell them for $20!  Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration but the point was made not necessarily in jest.  Indian and Chinese cars are coming to the North American market and who is to say they won’t work here?  There were a lot of naysayers back when the Japanese came into the North American market and you can bet any new players from India and China may be seen in the same way.

The point being the road ahead for the auto consuming public is a long and winding road being buffeted by all kinds of seismic change.  New technologies continue to improve which continue to improve our cars.  You can even make an argument that cars are safer than they used to be.  That said, there’ll always be problems.  Just ask any Toyota person.  Sticky accelerators are a problem.  The challenge for Toyota is to get back on track.  Simply put the auto market is changing rapidly and in ways that no one could have expected even a few short years ago.