Press Conference Speech Welcome everyone. I’d like to take a few minutes to update you on the Toyota Motor Corporations efforts regain the public’s trust and confidence in our vehicles. I believe you will see our company is taking great measures to ensure our cars are safe and meet the needs of our consumers. We are also taking extra steps to ensure better and more expedient customer service. Over the last several years, Toyota has faced many challenges including a massive recall of our cars that has brought many questions and some wavering faith from our customers and potential customers. First of all we would like to thank those who continued to support us throughout this time. For those who lost faith in us, we hope we have been able to regain that faith and trust. We want you to know that we take your safety very seriously and will continue to do so in the future. In 2010, Toyota made a lot of strides in the right direction. We really began to see the problem and the significant need for a recall. Since the recall was issued more than 3.5 million cars have been repaired by our service members. The majority of those involved the potential for stuck accelerator pedals and the floor mat pedal entrapment issues. In addition to making these repairs we have also initiated extra safety measures that will prevent these issues in the future. There are some who say Toyota was slow to respond to the initial complaints that prompted the recall. We took a hard look at the situation and have taken steps to ensure the most prompt attention to our customers and their needs. In 2010, the Quality Advisory Panel was created and a new Chief Quality Officer was appointed. The panel is comprised of experts in the fields of manufacturing, education, government, business, and non-profit organizations. Panel members will meet with Toyota representatives around the world to discuss safety measures and
customer service. This group will be able to evaluate Toyota’s current standards and recommend improvements. The new Chief Quality Officer will serve as the voice of the customer. In the United States, this position was given to businessman Steve St. Angelo. He reports directly to Toyota President Akio Toyoda on matters of safety. The company’s newly implemented SMART evaluation process takes consumer safety to the streets. This group of 200 engineers and field technicians can be assigned to any area in the United States to immediately investigate any complaints of unintended acceleration. This team has already completed more than 600 on-site inspections in the first year. We appreciate all of our customers and we want to ensure their safety and the safety of their loved ones. We believe these new steps have already begun to reestablish Toyota as a premier automobile manufacture who cares about the customer. We recognize we are not perfect, but we also recognize the need to accept responsibility and to correct our mistakes. The steps I’ve just outlined do just that. Thank you all for coming today. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.
Reference Toyota USA Newsroom. (2010). Toyota Motor Sales USA. Retrieved March 21, 2011, from http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/default.aspx