Posted on Tuesday 30 October 2007
Toyota’s reputation for building reliable cars is continuing to crumble with news today of yet another engine problem, this time with officials in Australia holding back sales of the V6-powered RAV4 SUV. The latest problem surrounds an issue with regard to models equipped with Toyota’s 3.5L global V6. Officials claim the cars were pulled because the engine was not operating “as smoothly as would be expected”, and there appears to be an issue with its electronic management.
Since the issue does not affect vehicle safety it doesn’t constitute an official recall but it’s got senior management back in Japan worried about further quality problems. Only last month, Toyota had to withdraw sales of the high-performance TRD Aurion sedan because of reports of an engine failure.
Sales have been growing by roughly 500,000 to 800,000 vehicles per year and to meet this level Toyota has had to build at least two factories a year to keep pace, reports Drive. This rapid expansion is being blamed for the string of problems but Toyota does have a solution.
To improve on quality Toyota established the Customer First committee and created the Toyota Institute, a place where factory managers from around the world are taught “The Toyota Way” of building cars.