Toyota and NHTSA have opportunity to hit ‘reset’ and change their course on behalf of U.S. citizens

In February and March, Congress held hearings on the issues surrounding a spate of recalls by Toyota Motors USA. In one of those hearings, I directed a series of questions to Toyota USA President James Lentz. While Mr. Lentz answered my questions forthrightly, my impression was that the level of knowledge he had at his disposal was not enough to allow him to provide the kind of detailed responses I and other House members, on both sides of the aisle, so desperately needed. 

While many questions remain and while I believe Lentz and other Toyota executives are working in good faith to answer all the questions congressional leaders, federal investigators and consumers still have – especially those consumers who’ve been injured or who’ve lost loved ones under questionable circumstances in a Toyota vehicle – of this I am sure. 

What’s needed is more centralized control by Toyota executives in the United States and the upending – if not the complete overhaul – of a corporate culture that is too deferential to iconic leadership in Japan. 

The fact is that well-documented incidents of consumer complaints and questionable fatalities linked to Toyota and Lexus vehicles have grown at an alarming rate during the past 10 years. 

Thousands of those complaints were lodged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and with the company. What concerns me is why it took until the fall of 2009 for Toyota executives to acknowledge there “might” have been a problem. I think the problem lies, in part, with Toyota leadership’s failure to understand some of the age old lessons learned by other top consumer brands like Tylenol, whose leadership effectively confronted the aftermath of a criminal act, or Xerox, an early leader in office systems whose leadership fought hard to re-imagine its core business and, today, is viewed as stronger than it was 20 years ago.  Our nation is full of enterprising corporate leaders who confront challenges head on, fully report to the American public what went wrong and, then, proceed to change course.

That’s what’s needed at Toyota USA.

If Toyota’s leadership does not heed these words, I’m afraid it will permanently lose its once vaunted reputation for quality, performance and safety that helped it become one of the most trusted auto brands in the United States.

Over the course of the last six months, I, like millions of Americans have read a growing number of accounts of assorted safety problems with Toyota’s vehicles.  And who could forget the harrowing account shared by a still grief stricken Toyota owner, Mrs. Rhonda Smith, whose sworn testimony painted a harrowing tale of a near-death experience.  I agree with Mrs. Smith that God was on her side on that day in October, 2006, when after repeated attempts she said the Lexus vehicle she was driving “began to slow down ever so slowly” and that, finally, while the car was still in motion at 33 miles per hour, she was able to turn the engine off.  But God should not have been the one to get the job done.  It should have been Toyota’s expertly engineered luxury vehicle that had less than 3,000 miles on it.  

So what happened between Mrs. Smith’s mishap and thousands of other documented reports such as those that occurred between the time of her incident and the massive recall of more than 4 million vehicles in October 2009? Rising consumer complaints, a growing number of congressional inquiries and an aggressive and engaged news media – in other words, what took place was public pressure, pure and simple.

It strikes me that a company that only does the right thing when it’s backed into a corner is a company that doesn’t have a very bright future if it doesn’t change its ways. 

There’s an opportunity for Toyota to change course as early as the scheduled, May 6, congressional hearing where Congress and the American people will, once again, hear from Toyota’s leadership as well as the recently installed leadership of NHTSA.

On March 11, I held a hearing where NHTSA Administrator, David Strickland, had his first opportunity to speak to members of Congress and the nation about this subject.  While I think his leadership offers great promise for a beleaguered agency, I urge Mr. Strickland and his team to be much more vigorous in their enforcement authority.  They need to make it clear they’ve made a clean break with the eight years of lax regulatory enforcement under the Bush Administration.

Next month, both Toyota and NHTSA can hit the “reset” button and change course on behalf of the American people. I hope the leaders of these organizations will utilize the opportunity at hand to fully disclose the scope of the challenges they face and to offer effective solutions that protect consumers.  That, I think, is the solemn obligation all of us have on behalf of the driving public.

Rush is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.