C.Noble
12th February 2010, 12:37 AM
Am I the only one that thinks the press/media, and in particular the BBC, are giving Toyota a bit of a hard time over the recent Prius and Aygo recalls?
They are getting a kicking for what I think is not much at all... certainly nothing compared to other manufacturers.
Dont get me wrong, I am not a huge Toyota fan, but I have to admit they know how to build cars, with reliability that other car companies can only dream of, but I cant understand why they are being targeted by the media so much recently.
I took a look at recall statistics over the last 18 years on the VOSA website and the results were certainly not what I thought they would be...
Here is list of car companies with th amount of recalls they have issued over the last 12 years;
Ford - 209
Peugeot - 188
Mercedes - 172
Citroen - 165
Renault - 144
Fiat - 146
Toyota - 135
Vauxhall - 109
BMW - 88
Audi - 80
Ferrari - 54
Porsche - 51
Mitsubishi - 50
Jaguar - 38
Tata - 7
And would you believe MINI - 1:thud:
Now Toyota looks pretty bad here, but it turns out alot of their recalls involve faulty components that they fit accross their model range (each model counts as one recall even though it is basically all the same recall), this means the real amount of recalls is actually around 54.
But clearly too much cannot be read into these figures alone... Obviously Ford has a high recall rate because they sell their stuff by the bucketload, and I dont think for 1 minute that anyone outside Italy would seriously believe Fiat make better cars than Mercedes... or that if you buy a Tata, you can be assured that the Indian car industry has superior build quality and safety reliability than those Germans throwing together their cheap Porsches!
Its when you read some of the reasons for the recalls, the story becomes totally different...
Pug 405s that have airbags that dont deploy, 806s that have airbags that go off for no reason! Front suspensions that collapse on 306s and rear spoilers falling off 206s at speed!
Alarmingly almost every model of Pug, at differing build years, have had to go back to have seatbelt mountings reinforced!
The 307 is Pugs biggest headache...Front suspension with bolts that have not been tightened, ABS and ESP system failures, lights switching off without any warning... that must be fun doing 60 along a country road!
Clearly the guy that Toyota took onto design the brakes for the Prius must have been an ex Pug employee as the 307 has also had recalls for poor brake performance and recalls for brake failure... then there they have ignition switches that spontaniously combust and badly placed (and not fused!) ABS units that catch fire which are covered under a recall described by Pug technical as "thermal containment issues"... that is a bit like saying George W Bush had "bullsh1t retention issues"!
Some of Renaults clangers are brilliant too, the Sefrane that likes to heat its fuel tank with the exhaust, turning an inflamable liquid into an explosive gas! One of the Pug guys must have gone to Renault on day release as the Twingo has suddenly developed the old "exploding airbag in the face at 70mph" trick too.
Before going to Toyota that guy that was sacked from Pug must have taken an agency job for Renault... because the Laguna was recalled 6 years ago for throttles that stuck wide open... Auntie beeb must have missed that one!
The Espace is brilliant, complete with 007 style rear facing projectiles... the little winch that holds the spare wheel fails and throws it at the poor sod behind you on the motorway, then it is just as likely to "poach" your passengers as the heater can go faulty and spray everone inside the car with boiling coolant, then, just for good measure, it can just suddenly go on fire!
It would also appear that every Renault model ever produced can suffer from servo brake failure leaving you with a brake pedal like a breeze block... thats ok if your in an Espace though, because you probably cant see what your going to hit through thick black smoke as you and your family are being barbequed... and even if you could, your face would already have been boiled off by that heater!
As I said, I am not a Toyota man (MINI and Mitsubishi through and through!) but I really think the French are getting off rather lightly in the build quality stakes and dont understand why the Japanese are getting it soooooo bad...
Sorry. Rant over!
Craig.
They are getting a kicking for what I think is not much at all... certainly nothing compared to other manufacturers.
Dont get me wrong, I am not a huge Toyota fan, but I have to admit they know how to build cars, with reliability that other car companies can only dream of, but I cant understand why they are being targeted by the media so much recently.
I took a look at recall statistics over the last 18 years on the VOSA website and the results were certainly not what I thought they would be...
Here is list of car companies with th amount of recalls they have issued over the last 12 years;
Ford - 209
Peugeot - 188
Mercedes - 172
Citroen - 165
Renault - 144
Fiat - 146
Toyota - 135
Vauxhall - 109
BMW - 88
Audi - 80
Ferrari - 54
Porsche - 51
Mitsubishi - 50
Jaguar - 38
Tata - 7
And would you believe MINI - 1:thud:
Now Toyota looks pretty bad here, but it turns out alot of their recalls involve faulty components that they fit accross their model range (each model counts as one recall even though it is basically all the same recall), this means the real amount of recalls is actually around 54.
But clearly too much cannot be read into these figures alone... Obviously Ford has a high recall rate because they sell their stuff by the bucketload, and I dont think for 1 minute that anyone outside Italy would seriously believe Fiat make better cars than Mercedes... or that if you buy a Tata, you can be assured that the Indian car industry has superior build quality and safety reliability than those Germans throwing together their cheap Porsches!
Its when you read some of the reasons for the recalls, the story becomes totally different...
Pug 405s that have airbags that dont deploy, 806s that have airbags that go off for no reason! Front suspensions that collapse on 306s and rear spoilers falling off 206s at speed!
Alarmingly almost every model of Pug, at differing build years, have had to go back to have seatbelt mountings reinforced!
The 307 is Pugs biggest headache...Front suspension with bolts that have not been tightened, ABS and ESP system failures, lights switching off without any warning... that must be fun doing 60 along a country road!
Clearly the guy that Toyota took onto design the brakes for the Prius must have been an ex Pug employee as the 307 has also had recalls for poor brake performance and recalls for brake failure... then there they have ignition switches that spontaniously combust and badly placed (and not fused!) ABS units that catch fire which are covered under a recall described by Pug technical as "thermal containment issues"... that is a bit like saying George W Bush had "bullsh1t retention issues"!
Some of Renaults clangers are brilliant too, the Sefrane that likes to heat its fuel tank with the exhaust, turning an inflamable liquid into an explosive gas! One of the Pug guys must have gone to Renault on day release as the Twingo has suddenly developed the old "exploding airbag in the face at 70mph" trick too.
Before going to Toyota that guy that was sacked from Pug must have taken an agency job for Renault... because the Laguna was recalled 6 years ago for throttles that stuck wide open... Auntie beeb must have missed that one!
The Espace is brilliant, complete with 007 style rear facing projectiles... the little winch that holds the spare wheel fails and throws it at the poor sod behind you on the motorway, then it is just as likely to "poach" your passengers as the heater can go faulty and spray everone inside the car with boiling coolant, then, just for good measure, it can just suddenly go on fire!
It would also appear that every Renault model ever produced can suffer from servo brake failure leaving you with a brake pedal like a breeze block... thats ok if your in an Espace though, because you probably cant see what your going to hit through thick black smoke as you and your family are being barbequed... and even if you could, your face would already have been boiled off by that heater!
As I said, I am not a Toyota man (MINI and Mitsubishi through and through!) but I really think the French are getting off rather lightly in the build quality stakes and dont understand why the Japanese are getting it soooooo bad...
Sorry. Rant over!
Craig.