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381 – Recalls tarnish reliability crown

Toyota and Honda – normally bywords for reliability – have issued safety recalls. What’s going on out there?
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Toyota iQ: one of the car models involved in Toyota's massive safety recall

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30 January 2010

Toyota iQ
Toyota iQ: one of the car models involved in Toyota’s massive safety recall

Editor’s Blog: Ralph Morton

THERE are two manufacturers that come to mind when talking reliability: Toyota and Honda. Between them they vie to win every reliability survey going.

Quite rightly, both companies have put great store by ensuring their cars are truly fit for purpose. For many business car drivers, something that is ultimately reliable is better than something with a touch more dash.

But what do we make of this? A massive recall on Toyota cars worldwide involving eight models and potentially 1.8m models. It started in America with a potential accelerator pedal issue – not the first time recently Toyota has issued a recall in the States – and quickly spread to Europe.

The models affected are these:

  • AYGO (Feb 2005 – Aug 2009)
  • iQ (Nov 2008 – Nov 2009)
  • Yaris (Nov 2005 – Sep 2009)
  • Auris (Oct 2006 – 5 Jan 2010)
  • Corolla (Oct 2006 – Dec 2009)
  • Verso (Feb 2009 – 5 Jan 2010)
  • Avensis (Nov 2008 – Dec 2009)
  • RAV4 (Nov 2005 – Nov 2009)

If you have any concerns then Toyota says you should contact Toyota Customer Relations on 0800 1388 744 for assistance. But the company is writing to all those owners affected.

And then Honda quickly followed suit with a recall all of its own on the Jazz model.

Honda Jazz
Honda Jazz: even legendary Mr Reliability Honda is affected by a recall on the Honda Jazz model

Is the world turning upside down? What is going wrong with these car makers?

More to the point, at least Toyota has been commendably upfront about the issue. Less so in the case of Honda. I picked the story up from the BBC website – there’s been no announcement on the normal news wires.

If Honda thought they could bury their bad news under Toyota’s more massive misfortune then they were mistaken.

For both Toyota and Honda the issue is clear: get these issues fixed and to not let them happen again so car buyers can rebuild faith in the Mr Reliabilities of the motoring world. Otherwise Hyundai and Kia are coming up fast in the outside lane…

And if these two huge recalls didn’t make you question the world order of things, then consider this.

Dear old Saab, the lovely brand we remember (as opposed to the GM-debased version) might just live, thanks to Dutch sports car maker Spyker.

However, caution is required rather than excitement. I seriously question how a specialist sports car maker with a turnover of 8m Euro is going to support a prestige car maker with ambitions to produce 100,000 cars a year. It doesn’t add up. At least to me.

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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