Toyota President Admits Quality Was a Casualty During Rapid Growth

Toyota Exec: Toyota went through an insignificant change in "quality" (lets omit words like reliability and workmanship) during our rapid growth trying to topple GM.

General Population: :GASPS: We cant believe it!

Auto Enthusiasts: Duhhhh!!! WE TOLD YOU SO.

Dream on Toyota, your quality problems will need more attention than ever now that you are big and have approached the limit of your growth in a highly competitive global market. Shareholders will demand greater and greater profits and managers will begin to take shortcuts under pressure. That in turn will result in pressure on suppliers and internal methods which can easily affect quality in a negative way.

EnnNorak - excellent comment. I agree that what you described is a real threat. However, I would argue that Japan's tendency to value long-term results will reduce this pressure. None the less, many managers will find cost cutting (and quality loss) very tempting...great insight.

So...is this where Toyota makes excuses but we turn a blind eye and act like it doesn't matter. So the pursuit to be "number 1" came at the expense of quality and everyone is supposed to be okay with that. It seems there is some parallelism in the way GM and Toyota approached their goal of achieving market share and being profitable...the focus went from building quality to building the brand. Yes, GM was more egregious in this effort, but nonetheless, no matter how altruistic you think a business is...its main goal will ultimately boil down to market share and profit margins.

They are neither making excuses nor turning a blind eye. They are addressing their problems head on.

There's no doubt Toyota's are gettin' kind of skaggy :-|

They need to slow down and get back to basics with cars like the Tercel :-/

Tercel ... that was one of the worst excuses for a car ever.
On par with the Lada and Yugo!

Toyota's are a poor excuse for a car...period

And even with all your comments made, like it or not, Toyota will likely continue to be #1 for years to come! I still think reliability when I hear the word Toyota (after blah bland and boring and it will take more than one year of garbage to ruin that.

Def growing pains for Toyota. They are in a mission to be #1 for some reason. Just like what GM has to do...go back to the basics and concentrate on quality. Toyota exploded because of the reputation it created.

It def has several advantages over GM but I have to take my hat off to its advertising...Genius!

It was inevitable. A company that grows that much will have to sacrifice in build quality. They can only focus on so many things at once.

If Toyota & Lexus loose their "build quality & reliability" what else do they have? Aside from the cheaper prices compared to the European's, that's another main reason why the US Market is dominated by Lexus as the premium brand to buy.

Toyota's drop in perceived quality has nothing to do with the quality of the cars ... its due to the Internet.

Modern communications has resulted in owners getting together (such as Edmund's forums) and talking about the problems (which are no better/worse than other brands). But this blew the old "We've never seen that problem before." BS, covering up problems at the dealership.

The Internet has forced Toyota to actually issue recalls for defects, something that they stopped doing almost 20 years ago. What a concept ... considering your customers' safety after you've taken their money?

Consumers need to realize that recalls are good. Other parts of the world see it as the manufacturer concerned for their safety. Toyota saw recalls as "losing face" and chose reputation over customer safety.

I'm glad they're finally addressing the problems with their cars after they leave the dealership!

Everyone knew this,they will feel the effect even more down the road.

Didn't the take a hit in reliability ratings recently?

Toyota is more concerned about marketing than quality these days..as such the reason for this PR info.

This is neither marketing nor PR. Watanabe was addressing the media and made comments about efforts Toyota is pursuing to improve their quality. Maybe they should just ignore problems, do nothing, say nothing. Then they really would be like GM, which you all seem to think they already are. No, instead they are willing to even delay product launches until they get it right. Notice how long it took them to replace the Highlander and Corolla. They talk the talk and walk the walk. And that just scares the bejesus out of everyone who doesnt like them.

Yeah like this is the seventh time he has done this in the past couple of years...just make quality cars and shutup!

Toyota wants to mass market Toyota and Lexus as much as possible. They can only use the quality and reliability phrases so much before it becomes ridiculous. There are enough Toyota's and Lexus in the shops to question their marketing. A friend of mine is a salesman for Toyota/Lexus and he says there are enough problems that customers ask them why they are breaking down and if Toyota is making their cars with less inspection.

............ and that's why customers are not allowed in the service area