Camry stuck in braking-gate scandal

Guangzhou Toyota began last Friday to recall 259,119 Camry sedans in China to fix faulty brake systems, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine(AQSIQ).

The recall itself is not so surprising. However, unusually, it's possible the first time for AQSIQ to announce publicly in the media on April 21 that Camry's brake problem is a safety defect existing in large batch and it must be solved in recall way without issuing some related report. And, what tends to be more intriguing is the official statement sent by Guangzhou Toyota to media on April 22.

According to the statement and some related reports, some Camry drivers complained the brake system problems and AQSIQ asked Guangzhou Toyota to take measures. The automaker said, "the reason why we use Market-Technology-Service instead of recall is based on: 1), the driver can predict and properly handle the danger while he/she hears the abnormal noise. 2), Even the worst braking power meets the braking force standards "(editor: what standard? Some customers say that in some cases the braking system totally fails or does not work at all). So Guangzhou Toyota "submitted a Market-Technology-Service report to the Defective Products Management Center, AQSIQ on March 2nd" to change the brake vacuum pump for the customer freely in six months."
On March, 3rd. Guangzhou Toyota received the acknowledgement from AQSIQ, which said that" they would organize an investigation and judgment on the problem, before that, they would not agree with our Market-Technology-Service apply."  "While we were waiting for the final result, on April 21st, we saw the reports on this problem from the media, and this is the first time that we get the AQSIQ's position on this issue. in order to eliminate the customer's worry about this and take the responsibility, also under license of TOYOTA co. we apply for recall these products to the Defective Products Management Center, AQSIQ. on April, 22nd," according to the statement by Guangzhou Toyota.

Apparently, the statement's subtext is "it's not a big deal and technical service can solve it, how should we know the AQSIQ attacked us suddenly in the media. Under their despotic power and also in order to eliminate the customer's worry about this and take the responsibility, we have to apply for recalling to the Defective Products Management Center, AQSIQ. on April, 22nd."

Of course, there is no need for the AQSIQ to respond the unlucky Guangzhou Toyota, but it may be unsurprising to hear such words, "We hoped yourself to recognize how bad the problem is and to recall your damn Camry voluntarily but not offer some six-month free technical service and let the consumers spend money by themselves after the period. However, we gave you one month and a half, and you just didn't do it. Finally, we were forced to report your scandal through the media, and see, it works!"

THE FACT IS:

The first Camry with this defect was produced and sold in middle 2006, till now, about 260,000 Camrys are involved in China. If all the defect Camrys are recalled, changing of the parts will cost Toyota more than 1000 million US dollars. That's why Toyota (Guangzhou) remained silence and refused to recall these cars in the 3 years. During the 3 years, a lot of car accidents happend because of this. Lots of lives are lost because of Camry's low quality breaking system parts.

How much a life is worth of? 1000 million/260,000? Maybe it's far less than that, at least in Toyota's thoughts.