Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood brings a harsh message to Toyota City.
It took a personal visit from America’s top transportation official to finally get Toyota executives to understand the depth of their problems, Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, said during a visit to Toyota City, on Monday.
Referring to a meeting with the Japanese maker’s CEO, last February – a month after the second Toyota recall for sudden acceleration problems, Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, “understood maybe for the first time that Toyota was facing some very, very serious credibility problems in the United States,” LaHood said.
On the positive side, CEO Toyoda “has listened and he has paid attention,” LaHood added.
That was something the 54-year-old executive, grandson of Toyota’s founder, tried to emphasize during his own comments, insisting, “Toyota will fully cooperate with NHTSA in working toward a common goal of creating a safe automobile society.”
In an unusual move, Toyoda delivered comments, following the meeting, in English. He was surrounded by a cadre of senior managers who wore the same taut, glum expression as the CEO.
The two executives seemed intent on finding common ground during and after their meeting in Toyota City, headquarters of the world’s largest automaker. That’s a sharp detour from the tenor of recent months, especially on the part of LaHood and other U.S. government officials. At one point, the Transportation Secretary accused Toyota’s Japanese officials of being “safety deaf,” later responding to a reporter’s question suggesting that owners of Toyota vehicles facing recall shouldn’t drive them – a comment LaHood later retracted.
But the government’s frustration with Toyota’s slow movement on its various safety problems boiled over into a record $16.4 million fine – which specifically charged that Toyota “knowingly hid” a problem with sticky accelerator pedals. The maker ultimately agreed to pay the fine. But LaHood and other U.S. officials have not ruled out further penalties against a company that has so far issued seven separate recall orders this year.
“We will continue our review of documents presented to us,” LaHood said, noting that the DoT is sifting through more than 500,000 company documents for any indication of further problems. “If a fine is required, I think everyone recognizes now that safety is our number-one priority. When we have recommendations to make, we will make them.”
A federally-appointed panel is currently in the process of choosing the lead attorneys who will take to trial more than 200 lawsuits against Toyota for safety-related issues and other matters. And the number of legal complaints continues to grow.
Struggling to reverse the severe hit to its image done by the safety crisis, Toyota launched aggressive new incentives in March. The first month saw a huge rebound in sales, but demand softened more than expected in April, leading observers to wonder what the long-term damage will be to a company that long seemed incapable of making a mistake.