Filed under: Government/Legal, Marketing/Advertising, Recalls, Safety, Toyota
Don’t look now, but we’re firmly entrenched in the final week of 2010. Which means, besides figuring out a way to return a few gifts, it’s time to take a look back at the year that was. Here’s one to get us started: What companies made the biggest blunders of 2010?
In retrospect, number one seems almost comically easy. Clearly, British Petroleum and its merry band of PR professionals and executives deserve their very well-earned place at the top of the list of blundering companies of 2010. No arguments there. But it’s number two on the list, which just so happens to be Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, that we remember most vividly.
Recalls and safety probes are a natural part of building automobiles, but as Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University told MSNBC, “If you look at what they did it was clear that they didn’t really understand the magnitude of the issue and the potential PR risk.” Truer words have never been spoken. Click on past the break for the rest of 2010’s biggest corporate blunderers.
[Source: Fineman PR | Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]
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Toyota, BP top list of biggest blunders in 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading “Toyota, BP top list of biggest blunders in 2010”
According to Automotive News, new car shoppers are beginning to shy away from Toyota thanks to the company’s less-than spotless quality and safety reputation as of late. A new study by J.D. Power and Associates has revealed that around 19 percent of new car buyers surveyed said that they had steered clear of Toyota because of the company’s sullied reputation. Last year, that number was a mere 3 percent. Even worse for the Japanese manufacturer, around 15 percent of those in the study said that they’d personally had a bad experience with the automaker and another 15 percent said that they were concerned about the future of Toyota. Those numbers mark a 12 and an 11 percent increase over last year’s figures, respectively.
The crew from Top Gear US are jumping over to the set of another certified car nut’s show. Jay Leno will play host to Tanner Foust, Rutledge Wood and Adam Ferrara tonight at 11:35 pm on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. While cars will no doubt be a central point of the discussion, we’re curious to see what Jay has to say about the show. Last time he spoke about it, Leno predicted it would suck.
The Smart 454 took a different approach to this contest, compared to the dark and dramatic Aera. The 454 refers to the weight of the vehicle in kilograms, and it is described as being constructed, or rather knitted out of carbon fiber, by “Smart Granny Robots.” Those robots, or SGRs, can turn the carbon fiber into complex shapes, which allows for the varied forms created to be super strong. Even the wheels are carbon fiber, which would allow for less unsprung weight and a strong rolling platform for the 454 WWT to roll on.
