When a large company succeeds in business, the effects can be dramatic and impressive. Equally though, when they fail, they can fail on a very large scale. In the case of Toyota, the phrase ‘the harder they come, the harder they fall’ might be applicable this week: they have had to recall a total of 878,000 vehicles across the United States and Canada, following the detection of a fault with the rear suspension arm.
The models affected are the RAV4 sports utility vehicle (859,000 units) and the Lexus HS 250h car (19,000 units). Toyota said that the rear suspension arm could rust and separate if during servicing the bolts were not tightened properly.
The news is even less welcome to Toyota given a series of recalls made by the company over the last few years.
The new problem comes just as Toyota’s sales figures are starting to see improvements following the dip in sales caused by 2011’s tsunami and floods, which affected output from Japanese and Thai production facilities. July actually saw a year-on-year sales increase of 26%, while fellow Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan enjoyed 45% and 16% increases respectively. It seems brand loyalty towards these Japanese marques is very strong – largely due to the exceptional levels of reliability that Japanese cars are known for throughout the world; owners of Japanese cars who take out cover for car breakdown situations tend to use it much less than owners of European and American cars.
As yet there is no sign that British buyers of Toyota vehicles will be affected by the rear suspension problems.
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