Toyota in Trouble Again

This just isn't Toyota's month. First the brouhaha over their joining together with the other automotive companies to oppose stricter CAFE Standards, and now they are off the list with Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports practice has been to recommend all Toyota vehicles, no matter the model. But with two vehicles, the Camry 6-cylinder (not the hybrid) and the four-wheel drive V-8 Tundra, getting below average rankings, Consumer Reports will no longer be recommending Toyota.

Toyota quickly put out a press release pointing out

led the industry with the greatest number of models, 17, ranked "Most Reliable" in this year's Consumer Reports Reliability Survey. With dozens of models from three dozen makes vying for a spot on the magazine's "Most Reliable" list, only 39 were chosen. Toyota, Lexus and Scion models accounted for 44 percent of the list."

Which is all well and good, but it's still a downturn for them.

At the Toyota Open Road Blog, Toyota was more realistic about what the new report means for them.

Not the kind of glowing remarks we're used to seeing in this unassailable publication.

In the overall rankings, Toyota slipped from first to fifth place, while Scion finished third and Lexus sixth among all automakers, with the Camry V6, Tundra 4x4 and Lexus GS AWD not being recommended.

...

we aren’t happy with the results and will re-double our efforts to strengthen our quality and reliability--to Kaizen. After all, these two issues are of the utmost importance to consumers and the hallmark of our brands.

What this means for their hybrid production is: not much. Despite other Toyota models slipping some, hybrids are still getting very high satisfaction and reliability reports from all over.