The Auto Writer

A portion of a Toyota ad which ran this past Sunday. Toyota attempts to do some damage control but will customers be convinced?

Battered, bruised, and chastened, the Toyota Motor Corporation finds itself in an uncomfortable position. Once considered to be an impenetrable fortress, team Toyota looks vulnerable, weak, and confused as they absorb one blow after another following a pair of safety recalls.

Digging Deeper

The onslaught against the world’s top automaker comes even as the reasons for these attacks are not being accurately reported. Dig a little deeper and you will discover that there is a darker side to the accelerator problem that needs to be brought to the light and exposed:

• Toyota may have known about this problem as far back as 2004. The runaway Lexus ES350 which killed four people in California last summer heightened an issue that had been simmering below the surface for several years. Unintended acceleration has dogged other manufacturers including Audi, but the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) had been investigating Toyota made models beginning with those made in the 2002 model year.

• This was not a voluntary recall. Toyota faithful, many getting as defensive as team Toyota itself, point out that Toyota did the right thing by pulling the eight affected models from the market, claiming that this was something that neither GM or Ford would ever do. Rubbish. Toyota was REQUIRED by the NHTSA to pull these models. In fact, Toyota continued selling the effected models five days after the NHTSA ordered that these sales be halted.

Lashing Out

Toyota has been lashing out against critics ever since the first of the recalls was announced last September. The automaker has been responding to investigations launched by the Los Angeles Times, ABC News, and other reports which may have forced the government to finally push Toyota for a resolution.

But Toyota has been largely ineffectual in other areas including in social media and networking where information is being circulated by people who want answers. Instead of tackling these issues straight on, Toyota has allowed everyone else to shape perception—the damage has already been done.

Striking Back

Yesterday, Toyota began to fight back by taking out full page ads in major newspapers across the country. Bold letters proclaiming: A temporary pause. To put you first. Sounds caring, right?

But that ad is misleading because it makes no mention of the NHTSA stop sale order. Instead, it paints Toyota as doing the right thing. Baloney.

The Fix

Today, Toyota is sending information out detailing how it will fix accelerator pedals involving more than 2 million vehicles. That will likely be only the first step in what Toyota will need to take to remedy its problems with class action lawsuits and additional government investigations to follow.

All told, The Wall Street Journal expects that Toyota will take a $1 billion hit from the recalls and fixes which involve cars built in the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere and extend to several partner models including the now defunct Pontiac Vibe and a pair of Citroen models.