S&P 500
7,226.20
+0.01%
Dow Jones
49,494.60
-0.62%
Nasdaq 100
27,685.40
+0.66%
Russell 2000
2,804.78
-0.02%
FTSE 100
10,364.50
0.00%
Nikkei 225
59,260.50
-0.78%

Cars and Drivers

What Quality Problem? Toyota (TM) Recalls 470,000 Vehicles

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Recently, the signs on the road have looked bad for Toyota (TM). The last Consumer Reports survey of vehicle reliability dropped the biggest Japanese car company to third place after it had the front seat for years. And, the company’s shares are trading near a 52-week low, perhaps because UAW contracts promise to make GM (GM) and Ford (F) more financially competitive.

Now, Toyota has recalled 470,000 vehicles in its home market of Japan. According to the FT, it is the company’s fifth recall this year. The latest recall is for various models, including the Crown luxury sedan, made in Japan between September 1999 and October 2004, and the specific problems include fuel pumps, fuel control and steering, according to Reuters.

It may be that Toyota has grown so fast that it no longer has a good handle on its well-known quality control systems. As the company expands into new plants to cover new markets, the number of managers with the background to move Toyota’s systems into new locations has to be stretched.

And, it is paying the price.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Fed’s Rate Freeze Could Sting for Social Security Recipients
Maurie Backman |

Fed’s Rate Freeze Could Sting for Social Security Recipients
'Convert $100,000 a Year to Get Them to the Top of the 22%': The Roth Plan for a Couple With $2.3M in 401(k)s
Jeremy Phillips |

'Convert $100,000 a Year to Get Them to the Top of the 22%': The Roth Plan for a Couple With $2.3M in 401(k)s

Continue Reading

Toyota Recalls 1 Million Prius Cars
Paul Ausick |

Toyota Recalls 1 Million Prius Cars

Toyota has issued a voluntary recall for more than a million of its Prius vehicles, including nearly 200,000 in the…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

24/7 Wall St. Toyota 2010 Forecast: 500,000 Lost Sales, CEO Resignation, 40,000 Layoffs

The bad news is just beginning for Toyota (TM). The eight million vehicles the company has recalled, the shut down…
Toyota Prius Recall Affects 2.4 Million Vehicles Worldwide
Paul Ausick |

Toyota Prius Recall Affects 2.4 Million Vehicles Worldwide

Toyota announced Friday morning that it is recalling 2.4 million vehicles worldwide to install a software fix to prevent certain…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Why Are Toyota’s (TM) Shares Down 20%?

Over the last year, shares in Toyota (TM) are down well over 20%. The fact that GM (GM) and Ford…
247Editors |

Cars with the Most Safety Complaints

Last year, the government received nearly 30,000 complaints from car owners concerned about potentially dangerous defects with their vehicle. Since…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

The Top Seven Cars Not Being Recalled

Toyota (TM) has recalled over seven million cars worldwide which includes eight of it most popular vehicles. The company is also faced…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Toyota’s New 1.52 Million Recall: Poor Workmanship Or Fear Of Government Reaction

The Transportation Department probably keeps statistics on car recalls which date back to the Model T. It does not matter…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Toyota May Recall All Of Its Cars

Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) announced that it will recall 1.7 million cars, most of them in Japan. The vehicles may…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Toyota (TM) Recall: Quality Problems On Top Of Poor Sales

Toyota (TM) moved from making most of its cars in Japan to opening plants all over the world as it…

Top Gaining Stocks

Cboe Global Markets
CBOE • Vol: 1,568,143
New Pluto Global
PSKY • Vol: 12,285,993
Seagate Technology
STX • Vol: 7,378,346
Oracle
ORCL • Vol: 26,317,675
Datadog
DDOG • Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ • Vol: 4,367,433
Clorox
CLX • Vol: 13,260,523
Stryker
SYK • Vol: 4,519,455
Mohawk Industries
MHK • Vol: 1,859,865
Amgen
AMGN • Vol: 3,818,618