rookie1
07-20-2006, 04:51 AM
Quality not solely a domestics problem
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp., plagued with a rise in vehicle recalls and facing a legal probe into past recall practice, vowed on Thursday to step up quality efforts, saying this was imperative to ensure continued growth.
Japan's top auto maker, which has built its reputation on offering safe and reliable cars at reasonable prices, has recalled more than one million vehicles in Japan alone so far this year, and on Wednesday issued a recall of some 400,000 SUVs in the United States, its single-biggest market.
In a first for the company, Toyota is also being criminally investigated by prosecutors in Kumamoto, southern Japan, over whether its quality-control managers had wrongfully delayed a recall filing that could have prevented a road accident in 2004 that injured a couple and their three young children.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp., plagued with a rise in vehicle recalls and facing a legal probe into past recall practice, vowed on Thursday to step up quality efforts, saying this was imperative to ensure continued growth.
Japan's top auto maker, which has built its reputation on offering safe and reliable cars at reasonable prices, has recalled more than one million vehicles in Japan alone so far this year, and on Wednesday issued a recall of some 400,000 SUVs in the United States, its single-biggest market.
In a first for the company, Toyota is also being criminally investigated by prosecutors in Kumamoto, southern Japan, over whether its quality-control managers had wrongfully delayed a recall filing that could have prevented a road accident in 2004 that injured a couple and their three young children.