The Toyota recall and brand loyalty

Posted on January 29, 2010
Filed Under Cars, Family, Lake, Love, Technology, Travel |

You’ve likely seen the slew of headlines announcing the Toyota recalls, the halt in car production and the stoppage of sales at dealerships. Since every person in my family (muzzy, dad, brother bear) has a Toyota (or Lexus), I figured it was only a matter of time before one of them got recalled. Well, it happened. And I’m the lucky family member who gets to drive nearly 50 miles per day wondering whether my accelerator is going to stick, hurtling me at high speeds into surrounding vehicles.

We’re long been loyal Toyota customers and when I got my new Matrix in 2008 (it’s a 2009 model), there was little question about which type of car I would get. I considered a few others (Honda, Volkswagen), but I had long wanted a Matrix and was happy to be able to get one with four-wheel drive (a feature that was not available on every previous model). But now I’m questioning that decision and my blind brand loyalty. There was obviously no way of anticipating the recent recall, which affects 10 million vehicles, but maybe I shouldn’t have put so much trust in a major corporation whose main motive is to turn a profit.

The recall isn’t the only problem my car has encountered in its two short years of life. It had something wrong with the air conditioner, which caused fluid to leak onto my foot while driving. This was fixed and covered under my warranty, but it made me doubt the quality of Toyota’s craftsmanship. Much worse than that mere inconvenience was when my car completely died last year and was out of commission for two weeks last summer. Not only did it take several days to even figure out the problem, but once they did, it required my car to be outfitted with all new computers. They had shorted out and died after something in the junction box went sour. Not normal for a practically brand new car. Luckily this was also covered under my warranty, but if it hadn’t been, the repairs would have been thousands of dollars.

I finally got rid of Big Bertha, my 10-year-old Toyota Avalon because I have to drive really far every day and I wanted a reliable vehicle to schlep me to and from work. Unfortunately, I’m now more worried about my new car than I ever was about the old. I read this morning that Toyota has a fix for the sticky accelerator and once it gets approved by the government, they will start manufacturing the part and installing it in the affected cars.

Regardless of when my car gets fixed, this has really soured me on Toyota. It seems to me that they’ve gotten to big for their britches too fast. I honestly don’t know whether I’d ever buy another Toyota after all of this nonsense. So far the service has been fine, but my warranty has less than 5,000 miles left on it. I’m hoping to negotiate for a good deal on an extended plan in light of the recall and other problems, but this whole experience has really turned me off to Toyota.

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