Toyota CEO Apologizes to Customers for Recalls, Brake Problems
Toyota CEO Akia Toyoda held a press conference this morning to apologize to customers for all the recalls of Toyota cars. There have been seven million Toyotas involved in the recalls worldwide. Toyoda is the grandson of the founder of the company and was promoted to CEO in 2009. Toyoda assured customers that he would personally oversee the investigation and that he would fix the problem.
"We are facing a crisis," he said, publicly confronting the automaker's safety problems for the first time since the global recalls were announced Jan. 21.
He said the company is setting up a special committee he would head himself.
It would review internal checks, go over consumer complaints and listen to outside experts to come up with a solution to the widening quality problems.
"I offer my apologies for the worries," he said. "Many customers are wondering whether their cars are OK."
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Toyoda, 53, has been criticized for not coming out sooner to answer questions about the flood of quality problems that have hit Toyota.
Masaaki Sato, an auto industry expert who has written books on Toyota and its Japanese rival Honda, said Friday's public appearance was the company's last chance to keep the situation from worsening.
"He should have come out a week ago," Sato said of Toyoda during an appearance on a popular late night news program following the press conference. "After all the foot dragging, he was pushed into a corner."
