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Research Dossier
Prepared By: Gregg Robinette
Research Subject: Toyotas Communication Crisis
Organizing Methodology: I have organized my data using the action or event that starts the crisis, and
then followed it with the first two phases of crisis communication

Phase 1: Shifting of the blame, evasion of responsibility

Phase 2: Attempts to minimize the problem
Phase 3: Resolution through a worldwide recall, and acceptance of blame
Code Key Aristotelian: Deductive- Appeals to Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. I have added + and signs to the
code labels to show whether the appeals in articles and comments were positive or negative towards
Toyota.
Action or Event That Starts the Crisis:
August 28, 2009: An off- duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor is traveling on Highway 125
in Santee, California, with three family members, when the 2009 Lexus ES350 he is driving accelerated
out of control, hits another car, tumbles down an embankment and catches fire. A call to 911 said the
car is careening down the highway at speeds estimated to exceed 100 MPH and reports the car has no
brakes. All four are killed in the crash.
September 14 2009: Preliminary reports from Toyota and local authorities indicate that the Lexus, which
had been on loan from Bob Baker Lexus of San Diego, may have had the wrong floor mats installed,
interfering with the gas pedal.
Toyota Spokesperson Releases This Claim and Public Announcement: (Oct. 30)
A press release put out by Toyota earlier this week about their Toyota and Lexus vehicles inaccurately
stated NHTSA had reached a conclusion "that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver's floor mat
is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured." NHTSA has told Toyota and consumers that
removing the recalled floor mats is the most immediate way to address the safety risk and avoid the
possibility of the accelerator becoming stuck.
NHTSA publicly rebukes Toyotas statement: (Nov. 2)
The letter Toyota sent to owners re-iterating the statements made on the 30 of October are
inaccurate and misleading, noting that the floor mat recall was an interim measure and that it
does not correct the underlying defect. Toyota publicly apologizes
Quoted in Motor Trend Article by Scott Evans
Tabloids explode across all forms of social media with headlines, photos, and cartoons presenting a
negative view of Toyota.

At this point in time there was nothing except for the NHTSA publicly rebuking the statement that
Toyota made in regards to it being nothing more than a floor mat issue. It also surfaced that there had
been nine complaints about the acceleration issue, but they had been thrown out due to a lack of
evidence. In the two years prior Toyota products had resulted in fatalities and that hundreds of
complaints had been filed with the federal government.
Coding and Analysis:
I would say that most of these sources would be coded as Pathos because they include a lot of
emotional appeals. There were not clear facts at this point other than that the NHTSA said that Toyota
lied, which is the only one I would put as Logos - because they were the only one with the facts of the
cases.

Japanese media reports claim Toyota has made a deal with NHTSA over a recall (Nov 16 2009)

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Toyota denies any agreement had been reached, but the company admits it had already set aside $5.6
billion to deal with the issue.
Code and Notes: Ethos +. The NHTSA was quick to start a resolution for the problems they had been
facing, and they backed it with evidence that pointed towards it was more of an issue than just floor
mats. The statements everyone had about experiencing problems with their Toyota I would consider
logos because they had facts to back their issue, Toyota responds with ethos comments saying that
they had identified the problem already.
Phase 1: denial, shifting of the blame, and evasion of responsibility
This is an update to the statement the NHTSA released
Update Nov/29: A new Los Angeles Times story claims a number of Toyota drivers say their vehicles had
still accelerated out of control with the floor mats removed. TheTimes also reports complaints of
unintended acceleration increased after Toyota began using its drive-by-wire system in 2002, starting
with the ES 300. According to the Times, unintended acceleration complaints on Lexus ES 300s jumped
from an average of 26 per year in 2001 to 132 per year in 2002, and there had been 19 deaths since
2002 related to unintended acceleration in Toyotas, compared with 11 deaths connected to all other
automakers combined. The story also notes Toyota has been investigated for unintended acceleration
more times than any other automaker, and that 74 of 132 complaints lodged against the 2007 Lexus ES
350 were for cases of unintended acceleration. Toyota has no explanation, but says its drive-by-wire
system is not to blame, again citing the November 2 NHTSA report.
Code and Notes: ethos- The statement that Toyota released is an example of evasion of responsibility.
There is too much evidence that points to it being something other than the floor mats for them to
believe what they were saying. They should have drafted a well written apology stating that they are
looking into the problem even further because there had been so many complaints. Their PR did not
seem ready to respond to this big of a crisis.
Update: 12/2: Toyota denies that any problems exist with the on board computer or brake override
system, stay strong to the problem being nothing but a floor mat issue

Codes with Analysis Notes on Comments during Phase 1

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There were 101 comments below the motor trend article. I couldnt code these because the article
would load, so I have accumulated a variety of samples from different social media sites.
The biggest issue people seemed to have was not about the problem itself, but more so about how
Toyota was handling the issue. It seemed to Toyota owners that the company was holding something
from them.
Here is a coded sample of some of the comments, the negative outweighed the positive by a large
amount.
Comments
Perceptions
Appeals To
1 Will never own a Toyota, Deems Toyota
Ethos Id rather walk and bike
unsafe
than own a Toyota
2 Where were Consumers
Toyota should
LogosReport, Consumers
have taken more
Digest, MT, and C&D? If
action to keep
they weren't so focused
customers safe
on naming Toyota
vehicles the best in 8 out
of 10 categories, and
took a little time to look
at the consumer
complaint data reported
to NHTSA they could
have alerted customers.
3 SO, what do you do if you Hasnt
Pathos +
have a new 2009 Camry
experienced any
that you love and that
problems with
has given no problems
her car
since purchase in
April????
4 I just read they are
Sales are
Ethos expecting a larger than
dropping
20% drop in sales
because
because of this. That's
customers feel
huge and does happen
betrayed and
when you put peoples
unsafe
lives in danger
5 I Honestly DO NOT feel
Toyota has
Pathos the Least Bit Sorry for
gotten too big
Toyota. They and Honda
and forgotten
have Monopolized the
about what is
market and brainwashed important, the
people's minds enough
customer
already. Especially
Toyota. They've been
building alot of crap in

the last 12+ years. People

still think they've buying
they're OL'Reliable
Toyota when nowadays
they're just getting a
NAME. This will benefit
Ford, GM, and Chrysler.
Mostly to Ford as they've
been on a roll lately plus
all the new cars they're
bringing.
I think, there is
absolutely nothing wrong
with Toyota. Somebody
is just trying to create
shortage like in the
summer after the Cash
for Clunkers program.
toyota...simply
unstoppable

Denies claims
about Toyota

Pathos +

Uses a pun to
refer to the
brakes not
working

Logos -

Summary: 5 Negative, 2 Positive

2 Logos
3 Pathos (2 + and 1-)
2 Ethos -

Phase 2: Attempts to minimize the problem

(Update Dec 5, 2009)
Following an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, Toyota writes a letter to the paper reiterating its
stance that the floor mats were the root cause of the unintended acceleration claims. The company
defends NHTSA and its methodology.

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Update: Toyotas new CEO issues an apology for causing many of their customers concern after the
recalls across several models in several regions.
I thought this video would address that there was an even bigger issue than the one that Toyota had
portrayed throughout the whole situation, but the apology was sincere and I think this gave their PR a
better look than before; granted that wasnt very hard to do. They instructed Toyota drivers to put the
car into neutral, hit brake, and steer off the road if they experienced any problems.

I looked on Facebook and looked at the comments pertaining to the apology video released, people
were still upset that there wasnt a clear resolution yet. About 10 of the 40 people thought the apology
statement was enough.
Comments
Perceptions
Appeals To
1
Until Toyota does a total recall then they Apology rejected
Ethos will not have my business
2
These issues were an accident, and the
Apology Accepted
Ethos +
fact that they publicly apologized and are
working to fix the problem is enough
Update: Toyota is eager to put the recall scandal behind them, and their latest ads focus on how safe
their vehicles are, claims that their safety overrides the actual issue
Phase 3: Resolution through a worldwide recall, acceptance of blame
December 26, 2009:
A Toyota Avalon crashes into a lake in Texas after accelerating out of control. All four occupants die.
Floor mats are ruled out as a cause because they are found in the trunk of the car.
Update: Following this incident, a few weeks later Toyota realizes that they are not going to get away
with blaming the issue strictly on the floor mats. Publicly announces that its brake override software fix
will be made global by 2011 with a total recall of certain makes and models
KOLO 8 News Now
June 29, 2012

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Toyota now adds the 2010 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450H to a string of
embarrassing safety recalls that began three years ago. The Japanese automaker has recalled more than
14 million vehicles globally to fix problems including sticky gas pedals and floor mats. The
recalls tarnished the company's sterling reputation for reliability and cut into sales.
kolotv.com/home/headlines/Toyota_to_Recall_Lexus_SUVs_to_Fix...

The comments were not good, out of a total of 45 comments; 40 of them were saying that Toyota
should have looked further into the problem instead of mitigating it by finding an easy fix to the issue to
try and save their reputation

(Jan 21, 2010) recalls 2.3 million Toyota brand vehicles due to a gas pedal problem.
Toyota recalls another 2.3 million Toyota-brand vehicles because of a problem with the gas pedal.
Toyota says a rare set of conditions which may cause the accelerator pedal to become harder to
depress, slower to return or, in the worst case, stuck in a partially depressed position. The company
says the new recall is unrelated to the floor mat recall, but also announces 1.7 million Toyota vehicles
would be affected by both recalls. No Scion or Lexus models were included in this recall, though the
company doesnt say why, nor does it announce any kind of repair for the problem. Meanwhile, ABC
News reports a fresh unintended acceleration incident involving a 2007 Toyota Avalon in New Jersey.
Although the engine was racing without any pressure on the gas pedal, owner Kevin Haggerty of New
Jersey gets the vehicle to a local Toyota dealer, where it is confirmed the floor mats were properly
installed. http://www.motortrend.com/news/toyota-recall-crisis/

(January 26, 2010) halts sale of all models affected by the January 21 recall
Toyota announces it is immediately halting the sale of all models affected by the January 21 pedal recall,
and that it will shut down assembly lines for those models at five North American plants for one week
beginning February 1 to assess and coordinate activities. Toyota does not say why it has waited five
days to stop sales after announcing the recall. http://business-ethics.com/2010/01/31/2123-toyotarecall-five-critical-lessons/
From a crisis communication perspective, Toyota finally did the right things to address the issues.
1. In the customers best interest they recalled over 5 million vehicles
2. Took responsibility for not looking into the problem as deep as they should have
3. Ignored what this would do to their reputation, in order to keep customers safe

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4. Took a huge money loss to try and make up for their past wrong doings
Analysis Conclusions:
I did a search for Toyota 2015 and found that the company not only survived the crisis, but is
thriving at this point in time. Their PR did a good job of making sure the company kept moving
forward with customer satisfaction. Although people will never forget this crisis, the company will
continue to be a powerhouse in the automotive industry.