Toyota’s recall jeopardized Japanese cars

　　In recent days, lots of news is related to Toyota's sweeping recall. Toyota, known for its lean management, also endured such massive global recall of its cars indeed made many people feel surprised. In order to know Chinese consumers' opinions towards Toyota's recall and effects of the sweeping recall, Sohu Auto and Sinotrust jointly conducted a survey called whether Toyota's recall will impact your purchase plan. Finally, a total of 395 valid questionnaires were recovered.

　　Near 90% of the respondents think Toyota’s recall is abnormal and its brand image will be damaged

　　Recently, Toyota's recall attracted considerable attention from many consumers.99% of our respondents said they know the matter. Toyota respectively has recalled 2.3 million, 270,000, 1.8 million and 75000 unit cars from USA, Canada, Europe and China thanks to the problem of gas pedals from late January this year. Toyota also recalled many times in 2009.In just one year Toyota has recalled more than 10 million units worldwide and the figure even surpassed its 2009 global sales number. Therefore, how about consumers' opinions towards Toyota's massive global recall? According to the survey, nearly 90% of the respondents think the matter is abnormal. Among them, 59.7% said the reason is that the massive recall illustrates Toyota's quality problem.29.1% said there is some problem with Toyota's management system. Meanwhile, less than 10% of the respondents think Toyota’s massive recall is normal and a demonstration of responsibility.

　　One view of the industry people believes the massive recall is closely related to its continuous expansion. In the past 10 years, Toyota tried its best to expand and successfully surpassed GM as the world largest auto manufacturer of car sales number in 2008. In 2009, Toyota won the title for another year. Drastic market strategy did harm to its standardized product supply system. Another view of industry people traces Toyota's massive recall to keeping reducing cost. It is reported that former Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe once in charge of a plan to reduce 30% of the cost from 2002 to 2004 in late 2001, which also involved 80% of the auto parts and components, however, recalled cars this time including products made in 2004.Based on the above fact we can know that its quality was damaged after Toyota kept reducing cost. Experts think reducing cost is not always a bad thing but cost has conflict with quality, so Toyota must find a balance between them.

　　Considering that the recall of Toyota is very massive, its brand image will be damaged to a certain extent. Therefore, what consumers' opinions are towards Toyota's massive recalls? Result of the survey shows that more than 90% of the respondents think it will do harm to Toyota's brand image. Among them, 70.9% think the negative effect can be defined as seriously damaged and 23.8% think the negative effect is slight though brand image also damaged. Industry people pointed out that auto manufacturers should seriously obey safety standard. There are a lot of auto products in China, so consumers can have wide space to make choices. Brand loyalty is playing an important role in deciding whether an auto enterprise could gain sustainable development nowadays.

　　The massive recall jeopardized Japan auto manufacturers and image of fuel-efficient dipped

　　For Chinese consumers, will the massive recall impacts their impression on Japan auto manufacturers? The survey indicates that nearly 90% of the respondents said their impression on Japan auto manufacturers somewhat changed thanks to the massive recall. Among them, 59.7% think the impact is serious and 30.4% think their impression is affected a bit.

　　While Toyota's car sales declined sharply due to the massive recalls, sales performance of other Japan auto manufacturers represented by Honda was once excellent, besides, their market share also climbed up dramatically. In China, Japan auto manufacturers' market share once accounted for more than 30%, which was better than other countries' auto manufacturers. There is no denying the fact that Japanese cars have their unique advantages for their popularity with Chinese consumers. What kinds of advantages that can appeal to many Chinese consumers? Our survey shows that good fuel economy is the biggest advantage of Japanese cars for many Chinese consumers. Except for fuel economy, appearance and inner decoration are also recognized by some Chinese consumers. Compared with other countries’ auto manufacturers, Japan auto manufacturers focus on cost controlling, fuel economy and comfort in the process of production. As a result, characteristics of Japanese cars commonly are fuel-efficient, practical car design and delicate surface, so it is relatively high cost performance of Japanese cars that meets Chinese consumers' demands.

　　More than 40% of the respondents have plan to purchase Japanese cars, however, massive recall changed their choice

　　Whether there are respondents who have the plan to purchase Japanese cars or not? The survey shows that respondents' attitude differs sharply.41.3% of the respondents clearly said yes while 50.4% of the respondents said no. As can be seen from the above percentage, we can know Japanese cars are still popular with most of Chinese consumers. Among those who have the plan to purchase Japanese cars, how are they influenced by Toyota's massive recall of its cars? The survey shows that nearly 70% said they would choose to purchase cars made by other countries’ auto manufacturers. Meanwhile, 27.7% said they would still purchase Japanese cars. Among them, 16% said recall doesn't represent quality of Japanese cars is not good and 11.7% said the models they want to buy are not in the list of recalled Toyota.

　　Conclusion

　　Through the above survey Sinotrust found that Toyota's massive global recall has attracted great attention from the ordinary consumers and also led to trust crisis. Toyota's status as the largest auto manufacturers is being challenged by its opponent. (Translator: Qinghua Wade)

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　　http://13691142060.blog.sohu.com/146272648.html