Toyota & SUV recall: Should Vehicle Quality Ratings be Questioned?

29 April, 2010 Autos 3:55 pm

This year Toyota’s reputation has suffered some serious blows, this is due to vehicle recalls which seem to have been never-ending for the once popular car manufacturer.

Obviously the main fault is with Toyota’s manufacturing and testing processes, however all road vehicles also go through quality rating tests, if a vehicle manufacturer receives good reviews on Consumer Reports chances are its future is promising.

Now that Toyota have recalled vehicles for a wide-range of problems it makes you wonder if quality ratings are questionable, lets face it if Consumer Reports or J.D. Power managed to pick up some of the more serious faults (faulty gas pedals, interfering floor mats) Toyota could have rectified these problems before vehicles were available to consumers.

I’m not saying that people carrying out quality ratings are at fault, but perhaps their processes should be looked at, and modified to try to notice faults before consumers find out the hard way.

Are you losing faith in ‘independent’ quality ratings? Or is it all the manufacturers fault?

Source: CTVNews

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100429/autos-car-ratings-100429/20100429?s_name=Autos

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joann johnson

I have a 2003 toyota 4 runner and the dash on the right is cracking is this ever been a recall. I also owned another 4 runner 2003 and the dash was cracking in the same area on right. Please email me back to let me know what I can do about this situation and is toyota responsible to replace the dash. My email address is jajb4552@aol.com
- scubagirl
  
  I have a 2004 4runner and the dash is cracked in 3 places. They each get worse daily.
bill

I have a 03 4runner dash cracked on the right side a foot long 15,000 miles Toyota said
no way. Pice of sh#t. I own a 06 Tacoma 02 4RUNNER 03 4RUNNER. I use to have a
98 4runner also. Next car will be BMW or Mini. billandkim@hotmail.com

Toyota days are over
bill

PLEASE EVERYONE WITH THE CRACK ABOVE THE PASSANGER AIRBAG ON THE TOYOTA 4RUNNER 03 TO 09 GO TO THE NHTSA AND FILE A REPORT SO WE CAN GET
THIS PROBLEM CORRECTED 03 04 05 06 07 08 09. MAKE TOYOTA CARE ABOUT US
NOT JUST THE MONEY. THEY DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THE RECALL.

SSGT WILLIAMS USAF AIRCRAFT ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS
Toyota Master Tech

I'm a toyota tech and I've never seen these "cracks". You guys probably just broke your dashboards. Also, a cracked dash is not a safety problem so it would never be recalled.
- Frustrated
  
  I too have a 2004 4Runner with a cracked dash in two places. I took mine in to the service department to see if there was a recall. They told me to replace the dash because it WAS a safety problem if the air bag deployed. There needs to be a recall
Solrayz

My '03 4Runner also has a "seam" like crack that runs from the driver side air vent, across the leading edge over the gauge cluster and is currently stopped over the radio cluster. I also have a crack over the passenger side air vent and nearing the air bag. This is obviously a material and design defect and more and more people are reporting this. I fear all 4th gen 4Runners will have this problem. I will file a complaint with the NHTSA after posting this. Thanks.
Anonymous

Funny that this guy is called a Master Tech and he immediately slams people with these issues. Yes we need to complain to NHTSA and we also need to do a report. I too have a 2004 4Runner with cracks. I have 41k miles and it is garage kept. I also worked for Toyota for 5 years and I believe the Master Tech should not assume that Toyota won’t fix it and should not call it a non-safety issue. No one knows how an airbag will react as the dash pads cracks and falls apart.