At least top US Toyota executive James Lentz was not expected to perform seppuku in front of a Congressional hearing on safety issues yesterday. He might have felt tempted though. Although corporations rarely receive sympathy when confronted by flesh and blood victims, spare a thought for a company indicted in the court of public opinion, which faces dozens of private lawsuits, an investigation by securities regulators and, most ominously, a criminal investigation.
Toyota has pledged to fix mechanical problems but continues to insist its electronic throttles are not defective, and there is still no evidence it is wrong. It has now engaged independent testers to satisfy critics. Audi, which faced a similar issue in 1986 took the same track, but it was vindicated too late to avert commercial damage.
Toyota's initially ham-fisted public relations response is largely to blame for its situation. It was late in mounting a vigorous response from the very top and chief executive Akio Toyoda's testimony today is only an exercise in damage limitation. Toyota estimates the cost of recall of 8m vehicles so far at $2bn but the impact of reputational damage and lost sales is likely far higher. The $28bn drop in Toyota's market value in the past month is a good approximation.