In recent years, Japanese brands have developed very rapidly in China, of which Toyota is the most obvious. For a long time, Toyota has been firmly at the top of the sales list of Japanese brands. The reason why Toyota is so favored by domestic consumers is mainly due to the excellent quality of products and good reputation. At the same time, the quality is stable and reliable, and it has also become Toyota's "golden signboard".
Just when Toyota is "barbaric" growing in the Chinese market, it seems to be "lax" in its product quality control, which leads to frequent product quality problems. In 2020 alone, Toyota launched six recalls due to quality problems, involving more than 500,000 vehicles, and the main problem focused on the "stall door".
In 2020, Toyota also suffered a large number of complaints from consumers because of the increase in a large number of oils and oil emulsification problems in its products, and once fell into the "throttle" storm. Toyota was eventually forced to recall in the North American market, but did not take recall measures in the Chinese market.
Entering 2021, Toyota has launched more frequent recalls due to quality problems, and as of November, it has launched nearly a dozen recalls, involving more than 520,000 vehicles. Among them, due to the quality of adaptive cruise carried by vehicles, nearly 230,000 Corolla and Raling vehicles were recalled. Due to the risk of oil seepage, nearly 230,000 vehicles of Corolla, Highlander, Lexus and other vehicles were recalled. Due to fuel pump problems, more than 50,000 Vehicles such as Camry and Highlander were recalled.
Recently, Toyota issued a recall announcement. The number of recalled vehicles is also quite staggering, approaching 900,000. The recall involves three major brands: GAC Toyota, FAW Toyota and Lexus. Among them, GAC Toyota became the "hardest hit area", recalling 468,400 vehicles. The Camry has become a "key care" model, and 344,000 Camry will be recalled. It was followed by FAW Toyota, which recalled more than 300,000 vehicles, involving hot models such as Toyota RAV4 and Asia Dragon. At the same time, even Toyota's high-end brand Lexus has also been "recruited", with a recall of up to 127,000 vehicles, and the Lexus ES has become the main recalled model.
The reason for the recall is that the internal components of the engine exhaust gas recirculation valve (EGR valve) of the vehicle within the scope of the recall may be corroded by the higher concentration of chlorine in the fuel, resulting in poor valve movement. It may cause the engine to run poorly, and in extreme cases, the vehicle will be turned off at low speed, increasing the risk of collision accidents and potential safety hazards.
Due to the huge number of recalls, Toyota's recall became a hot spot on the Internet for a while. At the same time, Toyota's quality has also been questioned by consumers. I have to say that this recall is undoubtedly the rhythm of "smashing" Toyota's "golden signboard".
In addition, careful automotive professionals have found that the models recalled by Toyota are based on Toyota's latest TNGA architecture. Building a series of models through the TNGA architecture will undoubtedly enable Toyota to greatly reduce costs. However, once there is a quality problem, it is a chain reaction, and the models under the platform will face the danger of "total annihilation".
The reason why Toyota has such a quality problem is undoubtedly the result of its "lax" control of product quality. A moment of laxity, in exchange for a huge recall cost, but also will make the good reputation lost, Toyota's move gives people a feeling of more than worth the loss.
In the face of the gradual deterioration of word of mouth, Toyota does not seem to have a tendency to "repent", but gradually drifts away from excellent quality. Recently, some media reported that Toyota officially announced: "It will start production using defective parts from suppliers." It is speculated that Toyota's reason for doing this is to alleviate the problem of rising costs caused by chip shortages and raw materials, and to achieve the predetermined production speed. At the same time, Takefumi Shiga, chief project leader of Toyota Motor R&D Center, also said at the online briefing on the 7th: "It takes courage to relax the standards for parts. ”
The use of defective parts will undoubtedly accelerate the deterioration of Toyota's product quality and accelerate the frequency of product quality problems. With the decline in product quality, Toyota's reputation will further decline, followed by a sharp decline in sales. It is understood that following the decline in production and sales in October, Toyota's sales in China declined again in November, and Toyota's sales in November were 172,200 units, down 3.1% year-on-year. Although Toyota's position as the sales champion among Japanese brands has not been shaken, with the decline in sales, Toyota is just around the corner.
Write at the end
After losing the reputation of stable and reliable quality, what else is toyota worth choosing for consumers? The release of the recall seems to be to safeguard the interests of consumers, but frequent recalls are not difficult to see that toyota's product quality is gradually deteriorating. And when the "iron fans" of Toyota and Lexus wake up, can Toyota continue to maintain a strong performance in the domestic market?
(This article is originally produced by Wenwu Lane New Media Studio, please indicate the source: Wenwu Lane, the author of this article: Xia Mu)