The Trouble with Toyotas: Silver lining found in latest round of recalls

By John LeBlanc Ho-hum. Another week, another batch of troubles with Toyotas found. I don’t know about you, but I’m becoming a bit desensitized to all these Toyota recalls. This week its stalling engines. The week before that, it was post-crash-test fuel spillage issues. Previoulsy, it was luxury sedans that couldn’t steer straight. And before that, it was luxury SUVs that had a tendency to flip in emergency avoidance situations, etcetera, etctera… Man, if Toyota was the girl that cried Wolf!, she’d probably have lost her voice by now. But among the current batch of recalls, I’ve managed to find a silver lining of sorts. With sales down 22 per cent from this time last year, the automaker seems to be making cars that are less popular, therefore, limiting its quality control liabilities. Unlike the massive recalls from earlier this year, that involved  millions of some of the Japanese automaker’s most popular models being called back to fix wonky floor mats, non-stopping brakes and sticky accelerators, at least the last few problems associated with Toyotas are being found on its less successful models. Progress, indeed. In May, Toyota Canada put a recall out to “address a temporary steering wheel off-center condition that may develop under a specific driving maneuver” for late 2009 and certain 2010 model year Lexus LS full-size luxury sedans equipped with Variable Gear Ratio Steering. But, thankfully, that only involved 140 cars. The recall to update software in its slow-selling Lexus GX 460 luxury SUV’s Vehicle Stability Control system only involved 446 2010 models. The most recent recall on the Lexus HS 250h compact hybrid sedan (it was also included in the previous recall involving problems with the Prius’s ABS) because it “exhibited fuel spillage that exceeded the requirement in the standard” in U.S. government crash tests—think Ford Pinto, but with a high-voltage electric battery on board—is even less worrisome. The HS been less than a sales success for Toyota. And finally, this week’s recall to fix V6 and V8 engines from “abnormal engine noise or idling” or stalling in certain 2006, 2007 and 2008 Lexus GS, IS and LS sedans in Canada only affects about 3,700 cars. So there you go. Rival automakers, take note: By making cars that are not that popular in the first place, Toyota seems to be getting the hang of this recall thing. [Source: Toyota Canada]

Comments