Point-Counterpoint: Should we continue to trust Toyota?

Point- Imagine you are driving to visit family members, or a friend, and you are taking any of Southern California’s lovely freeways.

You’re caught behind a slower driver, maybe someone who’s overly cautious and driving five miles under the speed limit.

Finally you have room to get around the motorist and lightly step on the accelerator. After speeding up to about 70 miles-per-hour, you let up on the gas, but your car doesn’t as it continues to push the pace.

Now a problem arises as you are fast approaching the driver ahead of you. The natural reaction is to step on the brake, but that doesn’t work right away either.

By the time the car responds, it’s too late, your car strikes the aforementioned vehicle, causing confusion and frustration for both parties.

Such has been the case of Toyota vehicles in recent months, as another recent recall is now in effect for the 2009 Prius model, which started selling last year.

The additional recall comes after multiple complaints that the brakes don’t always react right away.

Adding another 437,000 vehicles to it’s recall list, the company’s total has risen to 8.5 million vehicles globally.

Toyota, which by many has been considered to be one of the safest car brands around, now has a staggering problem, not just with its vehicles, but with its customers wondering if they can trust the auto-maker after all the news.

If the recall was the result of a faulty air conditioner or any other minor problem, it would be shrugged off as just an annoyance, but since the company’s problems have caused injuries and even fatalities, trust in Toyota’s faulty products won’t be restored until it can figure out how to solve this problem for good.

How can one expect to feel safe in a vehicle that may take off at a moment’s notice without warning?

A local Toyota dealership in Orange makes the claim that “You won’t get a lemon”. That claim may still be accurate, but the alternative could be much worse unless they come up with a solution soon.

Counterpoint- Toyota, the Japanese car that has been trusted for years, has now sent out a recall on 11 models, all ranging from ‘05s to ‘10s. 

Toyotas have been known to be the most reliable, longest lasting cars for years. It came as a major surprise when they came out with this recall.

Recalls were being established when owners of the vehicles had accidents due to their car accelerating without any warning. How is it that Toyota, such a trusted and well-known company, had these mishaps?

This has now put a dent into their well-respected legacy. This recall may open doors to lawsuits from previous customers accidents.

Toyota has been manufacturing cars for ages.  Not trusting them and deciding to buy other cars from different companies is a personal choice.

Their cars have been around for years and they are ones to outlast some of the other cars. They get better gas mileage and have high accident crash ratings.

So why let this mistake change ones opinion?

Mistakes are made daily, its unfortunate that someone had to get hurt in order for this problem to get attention, but that’s how you learn and improve. Even throughout history, infamous people have made mistakes.

However, in order to prevent or improve on a problem it has to occur in order to learn from it.

This recall may just be a miracle in disguise. It prevented more people from being hurt and helped Toyota put the recall out early and it is now addressing this problem head on.

Toyota is having a 24-hour service provided for the costumers with the defective cars. They have even stopped production of new car to provide 100 percent attention for the models that are being brought in for repairs.

It’s a positive outcome because instead of Toyota buying silence from their injured customers they are coming out publicly and fixing the problem at hand.

Even if it means putting a dent in their perfect reputation, their customer’s safety comes first.