Toyota Gained a Bad Reputation Among US Customers

Americans are not too confident that Toyota is a manufacturer of quality, reliable cars lately, mostly because of the series of recalls that the Japanese manufacturer had to make in the past year. New-car buyers are avoiding Toyota showrooms because of quality and safety problems, according to a study carried out by J.D. Power and Associates.

The market research firm has released its yearly Avoider Study today, which found that 19 percent of new-vehicle buyers said they avoided Toyota because of “bad reputation of manufacturer”. That's an increase of 17 percentage points from a year ago. Fifteen percent of the shoppers surveyed said they had “bad experience with this manufacturer,” up 12 points from 2009. Another fifteen percent said they were “concerned about the future of this vehicle brand,” up 11 percentage points from 2009.

“In terms of reliability perception, Toyota has always done well in the past,” said J.D. Power and Associates analyst Kerri Wise. “A couple of areas where Toyota really took a hit were in terms of bad reputation of the manufacturer and bad experience with the manufacturer.”

In spite of a bad reputation and bad experience with the brand, Toyota is still the most considered auto brand among new-car shoppers, concluded a study carried out by Kelley Blue Book. Another study by Market Intelligence Brand Watch indicates that 25 percent of the Kelley Blue Book website visitors showed interest in Toyota. The brand is followed closely by Ford and Honda with 24 percent and 23 percent respectively.

Toyota topped all other brands in all vehicle segments between the first quarter of 2007 and the third quarter of 2009. The brand had experienced a decline, falling to second place between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the second quarter of 2010, due to the automaker's global recall crisis, which involved more than 15.4 million vehicles over a year, allowing Ford to gain the first place.