2010 Toyota Corolla

2010 Toyota Corolla

The New Year is certainly not starting out the way Toyota would like to see it. In the last six months they have seen now two different recalls that have affected the vehicles safety and affected over 4 million cars to date. The other unfortunate part of this story is that it both recalls have been linked to accidents, some with fatalities. So where does that leave the market leader in automotive sales, especially with such popular cars like the 2010 Toyota Corolla that are known for their quality and safety.

Dashboard - 2010 Toyota Corolla 4-door Sedan Auto (Natl)

Dashboard - 2010 Toyota Corolla 4-door Sedan Auto (Natl)

The circumstances for Toyota are unfortunate, especially with all of the successes they have had over the past couple years with the second generation Toyota Prius and then the all-new 2010 Toyota Prius. There is no question that Toyota is leading the way in mainstream hybrid development, but is there focus on new and emerging technologies forcing them to loose sight of what built the business? As Jessica Caldwell, senior auto analyst at Edmunds.com said, “This is major.” We couldn’t agree more and the reputation of Toyota is riding on how they handle the situation.

For the moment Toyota has put production and sales of the following models on hold until they resolve the issues with the sticking accelerators: 2005-10 Avalaon, 2007-10 Camry, 2009-10 Corolla, 2010 Highlander, 2009-10 Matrix, 2009-10 RAV4, 2008-10 Sequoia and 2007-10 Tundra. This latest recall situation is reported to affect 1.7 million vehicles, some of which were also included in the previous 4 million plus cars from the 2009 floor mat recall.

Bottom line—The Corolla has been one of Toyota best sellers and we hope that the current situation doesn’t damage decades of hard work.

 

Be sure to check out the continued coverage from the High Gear Media group of websites, including CollegeCarGuide.com’s coverage earlier today.[Source: USA Today]