Toyota's promise to do better

Japanese watchers were quick to notice something out of the ordinary about Toyota president Akio Toyoda's apology this week for the company's global recall of millions of vehicles.

It is very typically Japanese for a CEO like Toyoda to take responsibility for letting down customers. As a rule, the apology would first be delivered in Japanese.

But Toyoda issued his statement in English. "As president of Toyota, I take personal responsibility. That is why I am personally leading the effort to restore trust in our world and in our products," he said. It was a clear sign that the carmaker is desperate to reach out to its global audience and in particular, the huge American market, say analysts.

Apologies are a part of the business world for Japanese companies, wrote one. A corporate leader accepts responsibility for all accomplishments and failures of his business, and because Japan is not a litigious society, they worry less about lawsuits.

Toyota's apology was carefully planned. It may have been a long time coming, but there was a lot of planning and plotting before Toyota expressed its regrets.

Toyoda said: "We will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers." He ended his statement with a deep and proper bow. His message: he is truly sorry.

The first sign that holes were appearing in battleship Toyota came in October last year, before the recall crisis. President Toyoda warned that his company was imperiled by hubris.

"Toyota has become too big and distant from its customers," he said at a press conference. He also said the world's largest carmaker was "grasping for salvation".

Now with the emergency finally landing in Toyota's backyard, Japan's normally doting lawmakers, regulators and media are beginning to agree with that dour assessment.

Toyota's recall this week of 437,000 hybrid vehicles - including the popular Prius - adds to the 8.1 million vehicles already recalled worldwide for faulty floormats and sticking throttles since last year.

Complaints about the Prius' brakes have mostly come from Japan and the US. Owners have complained that the brakes have an unsettling tendency to release for up to a second when the vehicle hits a pothole, bump or icy patch.

Apple computer co-founder Steve Wozniak said his Prius would "go wild" at times. Another American owner said he has experienced the feeling of brake loss "many times" in his 2005 Prius, under conditions that would be unlikely to disrupt the operation of other vehicles.

Yet another said she had a crash in her 2008 Prius "due to the brakes not stopping the car in bumper-to-bumper traffic". Her dealer was unable to find anything wrong with the vehicle, she said.

Toyota has previously acknowledged that there were some issues with earlier Prius traction control technology, which also involved the programming of the hybrid's brake controller.

Anti-lock ABS brakes, traction control, electronic stability control and various other technologies all rely, at least in part, on braking to improve the stopping, handling and stability of today's cars, including Prius.

Toyota now blames the "aggressive" programming of the 2010 Prius' anti-lock brake system. The Prius' brakes have a dual function: they are designed to initially regenerate energy normally lost in braking and store it in the vehicle's batteries.

Under more aggressive braking, or if the vehicle senses a skid, conventional hydraulic brakes take over.

Toyota New Zealand will upgrade the braking software in its Prius fleet. After sales general manager Paul Carroll says all 260 Prius owners in New Zealand would be contacted.

"While we had no comments from New Zealand customers, some customers in the US and Japan market had complained of a split-second delay in pedal response under slippery road conditions when the ABS system activated," he said. "This software change will eliminate that delay."

Toyota NZ executives at the launch of the Melbourne-built Camry hybrid in Auckland on Monday can be expected to echo Toyota Australia sales director David Buttner. Like the Prius, the petrol-electric Camry also generates energy under braking. Buttner confirmed he was looking into two Australian complaints about Prius brakes, but insisted there was nothing wrong with the Camry Hybrid. "The braking system in the current generation Prius and the Camry hybrid is completely different," he said.