The Trouble with Toyotas: Can Toyota avoid Audi’s unintended acceleration woes?

By John LeBlanc Can things get any worse for Toyota these days? As you probably know, the Japanese automaker has stopped selling some of its most popular models and suspending production at five North American plants for the week of Feb. 1 to fix accelerator pedals that stick in 2.3 million vehicles recalled last week. At one of the most cutthroat times in the auto industry, in a down market, this is not good news. Obviously. But long term, can Toyota avoid the catastrophe Audi went through in the 1980s with its “unintended acceleration” fiasco that nearly saw the German automaker leave the U.S. market? To recap: Just as the German brand was making headway in North America with innovative cars like the aerodynamic 5000 sedan, a fabricated episode on U.S. CBS’s 60 Minutes news magazine accused Audi’s of accelerating against the driver’s will.

In the end, CBS admitted they had made up most of the facts. There was nothing inherently wrong with the Audis. But the damage to Audi’s reputation was done. Audi’s U.S. sales, which had peaked at about 75,000 in 1985, plunged sharply an average annual sales of 14,000 cars between 1991 and 1995 "It was a nightmare for the company," said Thomas McDonald, former head of public relations at Audi’s parent, Volkswagen of America, in an AOL article. "We lost billions of dollars in sales and revenues." Audi, obviously, survived. But it took over a decade to regain its lost sales. And the story with Toyota this time is fundamentally different. Unlike Audi in the 1980s, this time, Toyota really did screw up. Toyota admits it had to act to fix the problem (that included an earlier recall of 4.2 million vehicles) that has plagued the automaker for months. "This action is necessary until a remedy is finalized," Bob Carter, Toyota's group vice president and general manager, told the Associated Press. By all accounts, a public relations nightmare. Or is it? In today’s world of fragmented media, no one show has the impact that the highly rated 60 Minutes had in the 1980s. Can formerly-Teflon-like Toyota escape the kind of negative impact Audi suffered through? Knowing now that Toyota’s quality control doesn’t match its sterling reputation, will you strike the Japanese automaker’s offerings off your shopping list? Or has Toyota earned enough respect from its previously bullet-proof products to keep you going back into Toyota showrooms?

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