1

All Gas No Brakes: Toyotas crisis communications and

resulting media coverage following the tragedies of their
biggest worldwide recall
Gregg Robinette
University of Idaho, ID, USA
Revised November of 2015

Executive Summary
On August 28th of 2009 a series of events began to take place that would end up turning into one of the
biggest crisis communication events in Toyotas long reputable history. It began with an off duty police
officer and three of his family members being killed while in a Toyota rental that experienced
unintended acceleration. This sparked a nationwide investigation into the companies safety protocols
and the design layouts of their cars. Throughout this time period there had been over a hundred
complaints that had been thrown out, and customers were wondering why Toyota hadnt publicly
announced this safety issue earlier and addressed the problems. They put the blame on the floor mats
that were installed and vouched that if these were taken out the problem would be fixed. Then another
incident took place where another Toyota vehicle experienced unintended acceleration and another
customer died, an investigation into this crash found that the floor mats had been placed in the trunk
like the company had asked. The company then realized that it was an even bigger issue and started
looking into the brake override system, they then announced the biggest recall since Fords in 1996. The
issue remained with public relations as customers were infuriated that they had been driving their
Toyotas without knowledge that this problem was still persisting.

Table of Contents

Page
Title Page. 1
Executive Summary..2
Table of Contents...3
Introduction...4
Methods.4-5
Findings..5-6
Results and Discussion.6
Conclusion/ Recommendations.7
Bibliography. 8

Introduction
The purpose of this crisis analysis is to investigate into the decisions of actions the company of
Toyota made following the events of their cars being unable to stop. On August 28 of 2009 an
off duty Californian highway patrol officer named Mark Saylor was traveling down the highway
with three of his family members. He was driving a 2009 Lexus ES350 that he had rented that
day from a Toyota dealership called Bob Baker Lexus of San Diego while his was getting
repaired. There was a frantic 911 call where a passenger in the car said we cant control the
car, we have no brakes. The car he is driving starts traveling at uncontrollable speeds and they
hit another car, and tumbled down an embankment where it caught fire; all of them died. This
sparked questions all over the country, investigations into Toyota and the incident were
carefully studied. In this process it was found that there had been nine complaints about Toyota
cars not being able to stop, but had been thrown out due to a lack of evidence. The dealership
claims that the issue lied in the floor mats, and said that the wrong ones had been installed
which in turn interfered with the gas pedal. A few days later Toyota released a public statement
and concluded that no defect exists in vehicles which the drivers side floor mats are installed
properly. They urged that customers removed the floor mat on the drivers side and place it in
the trunk, stating that this is the most immediate way to address the safety risk and avoid the
possibility of the accelerator being stuck. These methods proved to be a public relations fail,
because months later another Toyota owner lost their life due to not being able to stop, and
the floor mats were found inside the trunk. They started to hear complaints and questions like
crazy, and many Toyota owners were scared to drive their vehicles. Their public relations and
profits plummeted downward and they were faced with decisions that would be vital in saving
their company. This study identifies how the media presented the crisis communication
concepts.
Method
A quantitative content analysis was conducted to analyze the news stories and social media
responses following the incidents. It uses both survey and research analysis to examine crisis
communications at Toyota.
Two hypotheses were proposed: first, that Toyotas sterling reputation wouldnt be effected
since an apology video was immediately released; and they had an immediate (fix) in mind.
Second, Toyota would have received more positive news and social media coverage if their first
resolution hadnt been such a quick and unproductive resolution.
The analysis contained three unsuccessful methods of crisis communication within the
company: (1) shifting of the blame, evasion of responsibility (2) attempts to minimize the
problem (3) resolution through a worldwide recall, and acceptance of blame. A search of
Toyota recall crisis on Google led me to an article written by Motor Trend that laid out the
timeline of the crisis. The search produced about 195 results, and all reputable sources of
documentation about the crisis involving newspapers, articles, and Toyotas website were used.

The New York had an article that went into detail about the events before and leading up to the
crisis. The sample units consisted of entire news stories, apology videos, and reputable articles.
Most experts advocate holistic public relations efforts aimed at anticipating crises, planning for
crises, communicating during crises, and identifying those affected by crisis situations (Horsley
& Barker, 2002).
Findings
The procedure for finding appropriate news articles produced a total of 7 stories. Five of those
seven were written after their first response to the crisis, and two of them were written after
the first accident that brought worldwide coverage. The companys crisis response strategies
can be divided into three phases, which were stated in the methods. Here is a detailed analysis
of the findings.
Phase 1- shifting of the blame, evasion of responsibility
Toyotas initial efforts at managing the situation centered on the problem being a
miniscule issue and that it was an easy fix. They gave their customers their word that they had
identified the issue, which turned out to be a false statement. They initially put the blame on
the dealership that issued the car, saying that the floor mats had not been properly installed
and the crash wouldnt have happened if that wasnt the case. They could have used this crisis
to show their customers that they care about their safety and wellbeing over profits by
conducting a more thorough investigation into the actual causes of the issues, instead they
allowed the problem to persist causing more issues in the latter months. Following this their
CEO retired without notice.
Phase 2- Attempts to minimize the problem
The new Chief Executive of Toyota issues an apology statement, which was a good from
a PR standpoint. It seemed sincere and his body language showed his words to be true, the
deaths were mourned and it seemed as though Toyota was in the clear other than the
settlements they would have to later pay to the families that died in the accident (Bunkley, Nick
2010). Following an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, Toyota wrote a letter to the paper
reiterating their stance that the floor mats were the root cause of the unintended acceleration
claims. Their PR and ads pointed to how safe and reliable their cars were, hoping that people
would feel safe using their vehicles due to the fact they located the issue.
Phase 3- Resolution through a worldwide recall, acceptance of blame
In December of 2009 a Toyota Avalon crashed into a lake after accelerating out of control, all
four occupants died. Floor mats were ruled out as a cause because they were found in the
trunk. This was the point when Toyota realized that there was a bigger issue at hand and they
publicly announced that the brake over ride system may be the root cause behind the

unintended acceleration. They issued an apology statement, which seemed to be too little to
late because responses to it were not positive towards the company. They recalled a total of
eight million cars worldwide. They stopped production of 11 models which lost them 2.5 million
dollars a week. Their reputation took a big hit, and recalling the cars to fix them was only the
first step in rebuilding the trust they had globally.

Results and Discussion

Toyota created a lose- lose situation for the company in my opinion, their quick response that
in turn was false led to many questions about the transparency of the company. Many also
questioned how their methods of safety and consideration when it came to terms of the overall
wellbeing of their customers. Many customers felt as though the company had lied in order to
keep their reputation untarnished. This hurt their profitability and stock price which shows how
important honesty and openness in communication during a crisis is. They should have taken
the tragedies that have happened as a way to make the bond between themselves and the
customer stronger by initiating an immediate recall to prove that the customer comes before
everything. Instead the company proved to most that it was only looking to save its own skin
and keep the money coming in. Dialogue and ethics are the main ways to maintain relationship,
and their crisis communication failed in both of these aspects.
If customer satisfaction and safety is their main concern then they should have conducted a
much more thorough investigation into the causes of the unintended acceleration issues, and
also announced publicly the steps they would be taking to accomplish this. Instead they
withheld information and tried to sweep the issues under the rug, only to find a bigger mess
when the rest of the story was uncovered by later incidents. They should have made this into a
win lose situation by taking the hit financially and immediately recalling all vehicles that may
have issues, and won by maintaining a good public image and relationship with the customer.
The study illustrates the value of customer satisfaction and safety as well as the management of
relationships during a crisis.

Conclusion/Recommendations
I feel as though the crisis communication by Toyota was fairly good, they survived this crisis and
are thriving in 2015. They could have had better communication between the company and
their customers, as it seemed like the biggest complaints were tailored to the fact that no one
knew why these problems were occurring for the first few months. If this crisis were to happen
again my recommendations to Toyota would be to address the problem quicker, even if it
causes them to lose some profit and they are forced to do another worldwide recall. In their
business customers trust is everything, and they are lucky to have kept the trust of the nation
after this crisis.

Bibliography
Mcnew, David. "Toyota to Hold Worlds Biggest Car Recall in 16 Years." NBC NEWS. 12 Oct.
2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
"Toyota to Recall Lexus SUV's to Fix Floor Mats." KOLO News Now 29 June 2012. Print.
Evans, Scott. "How the World's Largest and Most Profitable Automaker Drove into a PR
Disaster." Motor Trend. 3 May 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.
http://business-ethics.com/2010/01/31/2123-toyota-recall-five-critical-lessons/