Toyota has recalled over 8.5 million automobiles worldwide. Of the automobiles that Toyota recalled all over the world, 5 models were manufactured and sold in China, including the RAV4, Corolla, Camry, Highlander and the Yaris.
Toyota's sales are sharply decreasing in the U.S. as a result of the "recall incident." According to data issued by TrueCar.com, Toyota's market share in the U.S. auto market dropped from 17.5 percent January 15 to 12.1 percent February 15.
Meanwhile, Honda's market share increased by 1.8 percent reaching 13 percent, Ford's market share increased by 1.1 percent to reach 11.7 percent, and the market shares of the auto enterprises including Hyundai, Nissan, KIA, Volkswagen and Mazda all slightly increased as well.
To make things worse, Toyota's best-selling automobile, the Corolla also received several consumer complaints. If the Corolla is also put on the recall list, the amount of automobiles Toyota will recall will reach a higher level.
So far, Toyota has only recalled the RAVA in China. Starting February 28, Tianjin Faw Toyota Motor Company will recall 75,552 RAV4s manufactured during the period from March 19, 2009 to January 25, 2010.
Toyota Motor (China) Investment Company said the company has not recalled the other 4 models in China because the accelerator pedals on the Toyota vehicles produced in China and those produced in North America are provided by different auto part manufacturers. The accelerator pedals on the Toyota's produced in China do not have any problems and do not need to be recalled. Meanwhile, the Toyota (China) also said the Prius vehicles being sold in China are second generation, and their brake systems do not have any problems and do not need to be recalled. The Prius vehicles that have been recalled in other countries are third generation.
Jia Xinguang, a senior auto analyst points out whether enterprises like Toyota can win back customers' hearts by recalling their products after a quality crisis is still unknown. He says that blindly expanding the size of an enterprise is one of the reasons for product quality falling. Meanwhile, if the auto enterprise cuts cost in the link suppliers and do not carry out strict management, a quality crisis will inevitably occur.
Although Toyota did not recall a large amount of vehicles in China, negative effects still appeared. Toyota's sales volume in January decreased by 16.28 percent compared to that of the previous month, and for the first time, Toyota automobiles have disappeared in China's top-10 bestselling models. However, China's relevant listed companies have currently not been heavily affected by Toyota's recall crisis.
