Toyota experienced a major downfall worldwide due to recalls of millions of vehicles for issues causing accelerators to get stuck. This led customers to lose trust in Toyota and switch to other automakers like Ford, whose sales greatly increased. Toyota worked to address the problems through fixes, halting some production, and paying fines, but restoring confidence in the brand remained difficult.

1. What Led to The Downfall of
The Toyota Brand-Name Worldwide?
s1170178 Yuya Ito

2. About Toyota
 Toyota was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937, and Akio
Toyoda is grandson of the company’s founder is Toyota’s
president.
 Toyota is a multinational automaker headquartered in
Toyota, Aichi, Japan.
 Toyota has about 318,000 employees, and is the world’s
largest automobile manufacture by production.
 Toyota group companies are Lexus, Daihatsu , Hino and so
on.

3. What are The Factors
for Toyota Downfall?
 Lexus crashed because accelerator is stuck in August
2009, and all four people in the vehicles was killed.
 U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned
Americans not to drive recalled cars in February 3,
2010.
 Many fatal accidents happened after first case, and
Toyota’s handling was too slow.

4. Recall Timeline
 Toyota recalled 3.8 million U.S. vehicles because floor mat
problems cause the accelerator to get stuck in September
2009.
 Toyota recalled millions of vehicles involving popular to fix
a problem that could cause accelerator pedals to stick even
without the presence of floor mats in January 21, 2010.
 Toyota widened the recall of vehicles affected by the floor
mat accelerator problem by more than one million vehicles
in January 27, 2010.
 Toyota recalled million of vehicles in Europe in January 29,
2010.

5. Recall Timeline
 Toyota recalled about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid
vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems in February 9,
2010.
 Toyota recalled about 8,000 Tacoma to fix a problem with
the front propeller shaft that could cause the vehicle to
lose control February 12, 2010.
 Toyota recalled about 3,800 Lexus in U.S. to fix a problem
with the steering system in May 21, 2010.
 Toyota recalled about 270,000 Lexus vehicles worldwide to
fix engine stalling problems in July 2, 2010.

6. Effect of Other Automakers
 Toyota has an extremely broad product line, so other
automakers came from Toyota which sell a similarly
broad spectrum of cars.
 GM (12 percent), Nissan (29 percent), Honda (13
percent) and Hyundai (10 percent) all experienced
strong gains over sales in February 2009.
 Biggest winner Ford sold 142,006 cars and light trucks
compared with 99,050 in February 2009.

7. How is Toyota Trying to
Deal with This Problem?
 Toyota had be reconfiguring the shape of the accelerator
system, redesigning the floor mat and installing a break
override system in November 2009.
 Toyota had be temporarily suspending sales of popular
vehicles and also halted production at five manufacturing
facilities for the week of February 1 in January 26, 2010.
 Toyota came up with a plan to fix the accelerator pedals
and that parts are being shipped to dealers in February 1,
2010.

8. How is Toyota Trying to
Deal with This Problem?
 Toyota paid a $16.4 million fine to settle allegations by
U.S. regulators because Toyota was too slow to recall
vehicles in May 18, 2010.
 Toyota offered 0 percent financing over five years on
80 percent of its lineup to boost lagging sales.
 Customers who already own Toyota products
received two years of free maintenance on a new
purchase.

9. Conclusion
 Toyota happened problems from some parts of its
vehicles, and Toyota recalled vehicles.
 Customers who want to buy car moved from Toyota
to other automakers, and especially Ford increased
extremely sales.
 Toyota worked out various schemes for problems, but
restoration of the Toyota’s confidence may be
difficult.

10. References
 CBSNEWS.COM, Toyota’s Humbling Fall,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/24/eveningnews/main624
0051.shtml
 The Washington Times, Toyota sales fall; Ford sharply,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/03/toyotas-sales-
fall-as-more-fatalities-reported/
 Wikipedia, Toyota, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota
 msnbc.com, Toyota recall timeline,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35240466/ns/business-
autos/t/toyota-recall-timeline/#.TxvVN4FGSuI
 DailyFinance, Ford and Honda May Benefits as Toyota Recall Grows,
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/28/ford-and-honda-may-
benefit-as-toyota-recall-grows/