Team B Assesses Public Relations for Toyota SUA Recalls
MKT/578
University Of Phoenix

Team B Assesses Public Relations for Toyota SUA Recalls In August of 2009, an off duty California Highway Patrol officer and three family members died when their Lexus crashed after the accelerator pedal stuck. The car was traveling at a high rate of speed and could not be stopped according to a panicked call from the driver (MacKenzie and Evans, 2010). This tragedy kicked off a crisis for Toyota as it had to deal with accusations that a faulty accelerator pedal is what caused the crash. The company faced negative publicity from the media, the public and the NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) as a result of this accident and other accidents involving sudden unattended acceleration (SUA) from a stuck accelerator pedal. In response to these incidents and the publicity, Toyota eventually recalled 7.5 million vehicles to fix the stuck accelerator problem and shut down production of its effected vehicles until the problem could be solved. In this paper, Learning Team B has evaluated the role public relations played in this case and how the company could better prepare for a similar crisis.
Problem
Toyota realized it had a public opinion problem after numerous reports of “runaway” cars were claimed to have been caused by an accelerator pedal that would remain pressed down after the driver released the pedal. This resulted in the California accident and various others. In addition to recalling millions of cars, Toyota was sued and reached a billion dollar settlement for the resulting accidents and recalls. Although they did not admit fault with its accelerator pedals, the company still faced a backlash from the recalls and lawsuit. After the recalls, Toyota saw a decline in sales and trust from their customer base, partially due