Toyota Boss Says Automaker Grew Too Fast; Outlines Quality Reforms

TOKYO - Conceding that breakneck expansion led to Toyota Motor Corp.'s current recall crisis, President Akio Toyoda outlined reforms meant to get quality back on track, including more active use of the car's so-called black box crash data recorder, Automotive News reported.

Toyoda, grandson of the carmaker's founder, also indicated he won't sit before U.S. Congressional hearings into the quality lapses that have triggered recalls of more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide.

In Europe, Toyota has recalled more than 1.85 million cars. That includes about 1.8 million units of its eight top-selling models to fix a problem with the cars' accelerator pedals and 52,903 units of the Pruis to modify the software used to manage the hybrid sedans' ABS.

During a news conference in Tokyo today, Toyoda outlined several new measures meant to improve quality. The automaker will:

• Appoint a chief quality officer for each geographic region;
• Expand the network of local technical offices to conduct on-site troubleshooting;
• Install brake-override systems on all future models worldwide;
• Make better use of the onboard data event recorders to analyze accidents.

The overhaul builds on more general improvements outlined by Toyoda earlier this month. Toyoda said then he would chair a newly created a Special Committee for Global Quality.

The regional chief quality officers will sit on that committee and be responsible for rounding up customer feedback so the company can react more quickly when problems arise.

The global committee will hold its first meeting March 30.