Toyota News

In an attempt to keep our Blog readers up-to-date with current news from Toyota, I have reviewed relevant new stories from the past month or so, and aim to summarize them for you.

To start, I'm sure the majority of you have heard about the "recall" Toyota put out in regards to the floormats that came about from the tragic accident that happened not too long ago. Through thorough testing done by Toyota, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it was concluded that the sole reason of the problem came from faulty floormats. Still, there are skeptics, who believe otherwise. However, what Toyota did, apart from issue the floormat "recall"/warning, was announce that they will be shortening over 4 million gas pedals, in order to reduce the problem of unintended acceleration, that was due to faulty floormats.

In other news, in order to reduce financial losses, save on costs, and keep the company thriving, Toyota has announced two different initiatives. The first being to pull out of Formula One racing, something that seems to be a trend for automakers. Toyota's exit could save them up to $550 million per year, which is more than double the figure than the profits they posted for the third quarter of this year.

The second plan to try and gain back some of the dramatic losses Toyota has incurred for the second straight year, is to cut manager bonuses by 20%. Winter bonuses for 8700 mangers in Japan will be cut by 20%, the second of two bonuses the managers receive, which is supposed to be based on the company's performance. Toyota’s top executives and board members have already given up their bonus pay in an effort to ease the losses incurred. The bonus cuts are not the first time Toyota has to do this, as it is the fourth straight decline in bonuses, with the state that the economy and auto sales is in.

In lighter news, cost cuts and incentive programs help Toyota end a string of losses. Toyota returned a profit in the last quarter thanks to cost cuts, incentives, and government aid to consumers, bringing signs of a start to global economic recovery. Hopefully, 2010 will bring much brighter news to our economy and we can begin to to rebuild what has fallen.

(All of these news story topics can be found at http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/toyota_motor_corporation/index.html)