There's no doubt that things have been tough for Toyota over the past couple of months. The mainstream media, particularly in the US, has seized upon the story of safety concerns and global recalls with such conspicuous glee that the company has had to endure an almost hysterical level of press attention.
Toyota's US PR department responded to the crisis by kicking into high gear - issuing a torrent of press releases in an attempt to preserve the manufacturer's stellar reputation, and then defaulting to damage control as the story snowballed.
Toyota's investigation into the events surrounding the San Diego "runaway Prius" in the US has revealed serious inconsistencies between the driver's account of what occurred and the initial findings of the manufacturer's engineers.
After a two day technical examination of the car in question, Toyota's experts concluded that the Prius's accelerator pedal, push button power switch and gear selector were all working normally. The brakes, though heavily worn, were also considered to be functioning correctly.
Though the final report is not ready, a strongly worded press release makes it clear that Toyota's technicians were unable to recreate the incident, and considered the circumstances described by the driver to be highly unlikely.
The head of Toyota was handed a stark warning just over three years ago of
significant problems with the safety of a number of models as the result of
cost-cutting and the use of temporary workers.
