Capital Toyota

February 18, 2010

 

Dear Customer, Client, Friend,

 

I am sure you have heard some negative information during the past few weeks that has given you cause for concern.  For that I apologize.  I, as well as all of those connected with Toyota do not take lightly any issues that undermine the security and confidence that those driving a Toyota have always felt.  Your safety and satisfaction is our top priority.

 

That said; please allow me to share with you some additional information about Capital Toyota and Toyota Motor Sales.  Capital Toyota was established in 1966 at the exact same location where it stands today.  I originally started with 7 employees, we now employee 168 associates.  We support several local charities, collect and pay more than $2,500.000.00 in Tennessee state sales tax annually, purchase goods and services from local vendors in excess of $3,000,000.00 annually.  We are a family owned, family operated business.  We have many long term employees and long term customers.  We are happily serving 3 generations of customers, many of whom bought their first car from me years ago.

 

Toyota Motor Sales is a corporation with integrity.  They acted swiftly to correct the issues at hand by putting their customer first.  They halted production and sales so that customer vehicles effected could be corrected first.  They placed customer safety above profit margins.  Toyota Motor Sales, North America has over 35,000 direct employees and over 166,000 indirect employees in the United States.  Toyota produces over a million vehicles in the United States annually.  Toyota has purchases of over $30 billion in the United States.  Although Toyota temporarily halted production in three plants in order to make sure that all customer vehicles and dealer stock units were corrected first, no Toyota employee lost their job because of it.  Toyota offered employee's options to take paid leave time, to train on other positions or do volunteer work on behalf of Toyota.  Toyota is so much more than just the name of a car company.  It has been the standard of excellence for many years.  Each year that Toyota has grown so has the number of employees from all aspects of the business, from the factory, their vendors, the dealerships and their vendors, all have seen growth and success in large part to the unwavering desire that Toyota has to have the absolute best product on the market.

 

I tell you all of things as evidence, evidence that we are committed to this dealership.  We are committed to our customers, our employees and our community.  We will do everything that is possible to get your vehicle safety concerns completed as quickly as possible while we make waiting as painless as possible.  We have extended service department hours until 7:00P.M. Monday - Thursday.  We have purchased additional equipment so that more certified technicians can complete campaigns on more vehicles in a timelier manner.  We are currently caught up with the local demand and have completed the 'fix' on our entire inventory, making it available for immediate delivery.  We will continue to make adjustments and changes in order to meet your needs.  Our intention, along with Toyota, is to place the safety of our customer first, to maintain the quality and dependability of our vehicles and our service.

 

I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you for the past 44 years.  It has been and honor and a privilege.  With your continued support my family and I will continue to meet and hopefully exceed all of your automotive needs for many years to come.  I look forward to a better year for all of us.

 

                                                            Sincerely,

 

                                                            Bob McKamey

                                                            Owner, President

                                                            Capital Toyota/Scion

                                                            Lexus of Chattanooga

More than 70 years ago, Toyota was founded with one mission in mind - to provide our customers with the safest, most reliable vehicles in the world. That's why 80% of all Toyota cars and trucks sold in the United States over the last 20 years are still on the road today.*

We're proud of our heritage and recognize that, lately, we haven't lived up to it. All 172,000 Toyota employees and dealership personnel in North America are working around the clock to make things
right for you and earn back your trust.

We've launched a comprehensive program, led personally by our President, Akio Toyoda, to improve quality controls worldwide - from when we design your vehicle to the day you stop using it - and
respond more effectively when there's an issue.

Here's what we are doing:
1. We are launching a top-to-bottom review of every process related to quality in design, production, sales and service, and verifying the causes that prompted our recent recalls.
2. We're improving communications with our customers to gather information faster and further strengthening our dialogue with our regulators.
3. When we learn about a problem our customers are experiencing, we'll investigate without delay, and we'll quickly address any safety issues we find.
4. We'll ask outside experts to confirm that the enhanced quality controls we're putting in place conform to best industry practices.

At Toyota, we have always believed that continuous improvement - doing better every day - is the best guarantee of success. And we believe that the best companies learn from their mistakes. We know we need to do better. We are committed to doing just that.

Sincerely,

Jim Lentz
President and Chief Operating Officer
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
*Based on R. L. Polk & Co. U.S. Vehicles In Operation registration statistics 1989-2009, as of January 1, 2009.

By James B. Meigs, Editor-in-Chief, Popular MechanicsPublished on: February 9, 2010
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4345385.html

To judge by press accounts and statements from government officials, those innocuous-looking Toyota sedans and SUVs in millions of American driveways are somehow kin to the homicidal '58 Plymouth Fury in the Stephen King novel "Christine"-haunted by technological poltergeists and prone to fits of mechanical mayhem. In the midst of three major recalls, Toyota has been hammered by daily newspaper and TV pieces suggesting it has been slow to address safety problems. U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood announced that anyone who owns one of the recalled vehicles should "stop driving it." (He quickly backpedaled on that pronouncement, but warned, "We're not finished with Toyota.") Displaying a previously undisclosed concern for the safety of American owners of foreign-badged automobiles, the UAW quickly piled on. And now, Toyota's North American president Yoshi Inaba must submit to ritual humiliation at the hands of the U.S. Congress in a hearing on Wednesday.

Does Toyota-or any car company-deserve this? Well, if they are knowingly selling an unsafe car, yes. But is that what's going on here? Not so fast. There's no question that unintended acceleration is a serious problem that needs to be fixed. But a little perspective is in order. As Popular Mechanics automotive editor Larry Webster has pointed out, every major carmaker receives occasional reports of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA). In the last decade, the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency logged some 24,000 SUA complaints. Less than 50 of these red flags were investigated. Why so few? The main reason is the nebulous nature of SUA. Often the problem occurs once, never to happen again. It's tough to fix a defect that can't be replicated. And then there's the driver variable. As awful as this is to think about, it's been shown that sometimes drivers simply mix up which pedal they're pushing. In the late 1980s, the Audi 5000 was the target of a barrage of SUA allegations, lawsuits and press reports (including a notorious "60 Minutes" episode that was later discredited). Then, as now, there were accusations that mysterious electronic gremlins somehow took over the car. In the end, NHTSA concluded that driver error was the only likely explanation for the incidents.

But many safety concerns do have validity, and every carmaker has conducted numerous recalls involving critical safety features of their vehicles-brakes, steering, airbags, seat belts, and more. Still, the fact that some safety problems don't emerge until cars have been on the road for months or years is not a sign that automakers are criminally cavalier about safety. Quite the opposite. The safety issues that lead to recalls generally occur in very small numbers, often barely rising above statistical noise. Toyota's unintended acceleration problem, for instance, involved a handful of cases in literally billions of miles of driving.

As those cases come to light, it is necessary for carmakers to take action, and it is natural for consumers to be concerned. But the intensity of the backlash against Toyota is almost unprecedented. Here's what is being missed in most of the coverage of the issue: All cars are inherently dangerous. They propel their fragile human cargo at high speeds over unpredictable terrain. They combine thousands of parts that need to interact flawlessly-in environments ranging from Death Valley heat to Fairbanks cold-in order to maintain safe operation. Their radiators contain scalding fluids; their batteries are full of toxic acid; and their gas tanks hold explosive power equivalent to more than 100 sticks of TNT. And, by all accounts, Americans drive those cars faster than ever, on increasingly congested roadways.

Nonetheless, driving gets safer every year. Fatalities per mile driven have fallen more than 25 percent since 1994, in part because cars themselves are safer. Compared to those of 20 years ago, the typical vehicle today has better brakes, better steering and more (not to mention smarter) airbags. Electronic stability-control systems have helped prevent countless accidents. Still, even the best cars are far from perfect. And much of the outrage over Toyota's troubles seems based on the unrealistic expectation that cars should be infallible. That's an unattainable goal; even well-designed components can wear out and fail in unexpected ways. Recalls are not a sign that carmakers are indifferent to the safety of their customers. On the contrary, recalls are part of the process by which automakers address safety or reliability issues that are often fairly subtle.

So why did Toyota's safety issues become front-page news when similar recalls by other automakers barely made the business pages? One is the scary nature of unintended acceleration itself, which taps into our almost instinctual fear that our machines will suddenly turn on us (HAL, anyone?). Another was the horrific 911 call from the passenger of a Lexus that crashed in Santee, Calif., in August of last year. And then there was timing. Toyota responded first to the problem of shifting floor mats (the likely culprit in the Santee crash), and only later to the much more subtle issue of accelerator pedals that are slow to return to idle. Those are two unrelated problems that needed to be addressed separately. Perhaps in a different climate, Toyota could have convinced the public that the accelerator pedal recall was an example of extreme diligence in pursuit of safety. Instead, the second recall struck the public as an admission of culpability-just another shoe dropping in a much larger scandal.

By the time conversation got around to disconcerting glitches in the antilock brake system on Toyota's high-tech Prius hybrid, there was no containing the outrage. (The fact is, most hybrids exhibit slightly twitchy braking as they try to manage the switchover from the electrical braking that recharges the batteries to the hydraulic braking needed for more aggressive stops. Conditions that engage the antilock braking system only complicate that challenge.) Without the previous incidents, news that Toyota was making a small change in its Prius braking software would have been a non-story. Instead, it completed the trifecta of bad news that has made this Toyota's annus horribilis.

Crisis managers will no doubt study Toyota's handling of this issue, looking for lessons in avoiding that company's predicament. After all, it took years for Audi's sales to rebound after that company's trip through the SUA gauntlet. Still, some good did come of Audi's experience: Today all cars have interlock systems that make it impossible for drivers to move the shift lever out of park unless their foot is on the brake (thus preventing them from shifting into gear while accidentally flooring the accelerator). One likely outcome of the Toyota episode will be a requirement for a similar interlock that automatically disengages the throttle whenever the driver steps on the brake. And that would help make all cars just one, tiny increment safer than before.

Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda outlines the company's plans for earning back customer trust in an op-ed in The Washington Post. Click here to read the op-ed.

Read the latest information on the 2010 Prius.

- Posted February 8, 2010

Here's the latest update on the recall:

1. We're starting to send letters this weekend to owners involved in the recall to schedule an appointment at their dealer.
2. Dealerships have extended their hours - some of them working 24/7 - to fix your vehicle as quickly as possible.
3. Trained technicians have begun making repairs.

Our entire organization of 172,000 North American employees and dealership personnel has been mobilized. And we're doubling our quality control efforts across the company.

Ensuring your safety is our highest priority. We will continue to update you with accurate and timely information about the status of the recall in the days and weeks ahead.

- Posted February 5, 2010

Recently, Toyota announced two safety recalls that cover some of its models. Both recall campaigns address conditions related to the accelerator pedal. The first recall, "Floor Mat Entrapment," regards the potential for an unsecured or incompatible driver's floor mat to interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause it to get stuck in the wide-open position.

The second recall, "Pedal," is being conducted because there is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position.

Is your Toyota subject to one or both of the recalls? Visit http://www.toyota.com/recall/ and select your model from the list at left to learn whether either or both of these recalls apply to your Toyota vehicle and what you should expect regarding the recall remedies.

If you have additional questions or concerns that have not been addressed here, please contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331. The Toyota Customer Experience Center hours are: Mon.-Fri. 5:00 am-6:00 pm PST, Sat.-Sun. 7:00 am-4:00 pm PST.