Toyota’s having a bad week. It is already recalling millions of cars to fix floor mats and gas pedals that have led to unintentional acceleration — a snafu costing the company more than $2 billion. Now it has announced that it will recall about 150,000 of its hybrid vehicles due to problems in the software controlling the anti-lock brake systems in its 2010 Prius and 2010 Lexus HS 250h models. The majority of the recalled cars, 133,000 to be exact, are Priuses. Will this knock Toyota off its green automotive throne?
A lot of rivals are looking for the hybrid-maker to mess up. The Prius made Toyota the green brand — the name everyone thinks of when they hear the word “hybrid” (and the Lexus line brought the concept to luxury cars). But now Nissan, Mitsubishi, BMW, and Ford all have their own eco-friendly cars in the works — not to mention Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and Th!nk Global. If Toyota makes too many missteps, its new plug-in Prius, expected in 2013, may not be the automatic winner it could be.
Already the Kelley Blue Book price for the 2010 Prius has dropped $1,500. Even the used car price for 2009 and older models has dropped 1.5 percent.
About 1,400 complaints have been received that the Prius and Lexus HS 250h have an inconsistent feel to their brakes on slick or rough roads. Ideally, anti-lock brake systems engage and disengage brakes many times per second so that this doesn’t happen. Toyota has already fixed the glitch in production of the Prius, but acknowledges the safety concerns presented by models already in the field — 40 accidents have already been attributed to the issue, though fortunately no fatalities.
Still, the media storm around the recalls is an ongoing PR nightmare for the company, which is struggling to handle an avalanche of angry calls, emails and press. Several drivers told the Christian Science Monitor that they don’t feel like Toyota is taking their concerns seriously — that it is dismissing their safety out of hand. The same article points out that a lot of people have reported problems completely unrelated to the recall issues, simply because it seems like a good time to dump on Toyota.
How the company handles this week could determine its success for the next year. If needs to appear as responsive as consumers expect — a nearly impossible task — or the brand could take a hit for a while. And it’s not out of the question that the Prius will lose its halo — boding poorly for Toyota’s future releases in the green sector as the competition piles on.
