Clark Behind The Headlines
From HLN’s Money Expert Clark Howard
This Toyota story has really turned into an ongoing soap opera.
At first, Toyota was in corporate cultural denial of the problems going on with the gas pedals getting stuck. Then, the company bungled its response to its customers, and it’s now falling all over itself to apologize. And Toyota is going to start with the repairs to people’s vehicles in the next week or so.
Now, what do you need to know if you’re a Toyota owner?
First thing: you don’t get an appointment – at least under the system they’re using now – until you get a certified letter from Toyota saying they’re ready for you. Toyota dealers are going to burn the midnight oil doing these repairs that – if Toyota is right and a simple shim will fix the problem – will be a pretty quick one. It should take about the same amount of time as an oil change. But it will take mechanics a short while to come up to speed on how to do it. There will be a learning curve. So you actually don’t want to be one of the first people to have your car repaired.
Should you be afraid to drive your Toyota? I remember when Audi went through this thing with sudden acceleration in the 80s. Audi absolutely blew the public response, and people became so afraid they parked their Audis in the garage or the driveway and didn’t drive them. I think that was a direct by-product of how Audi handled the problem.
In this case, Toyota – late in the game – is taking responsibility. And I would have no problem driving a Toyota. I’ve explained how you shift into neutral to stop a Toyota if it goes out of control, and there are several briefings on the Web about that.
Now, there is an oddball opportunity right now. I talked with people in the used car business about this to get a number. And what are known as late-model cars, from the last three model years, have seen a big drop in value. This is a temporary window, but you may save as much as $3,000 right now buying a used Toyota, vs. what that same car might have brought just two weeks ago. There are dealers right now that are even refusing to accept Toyotas in trade because they’re too worried about what the marketplace is going to do to the value of the vehicle after they take it into inventory.
The ultimate point here to me is one that comes up over and over again in politics: it’s never the problem, it’s always the cover-up. And if you look at the Toyota situation, a person or company can build up a good reputation over years and it can be destroyed in an instant. That’s what happened to Toyota in this case and they’re going to have to ask for forgiveness and rebuild their credibility step by step.
Let this be a message to anyone who owns a business. If you mess up, ‘fess up. It’s really that simple.
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