After being rocked by a series of tainted food and medicine scandals that has tarnished the image of Chinese products overseas, the Chinese government has since created a body called General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) as the people's custodian of health, safety, environment and quality.
Last week, Guangzhou Toyota (one of the two Toyota JV in China) is the first high profile car maker to experience first-hand of wrath of China's AQSIQ. Beginning last Friday, Guangzhou Toyota was indirectly "forced" by AQSIQ to recall 259,119 Camry models manufactured between March 2006 to March 2008. Read the figures again, that's over quarter of a million cars! More than half of total new vehicle sales in Malaysia in one year! The cost of the recall is estimated to between USD 117 million to USD 190 million.
The related faulty part is the car's brake vacuum pump, which may fail when operated at high temperature.
The drama started back in March 2nd. As a required by the new set of Chinese industrial regulation, manufacturers must report any known product defects. Guangzhou Toyota submitted a "Market-Technology-Service" report to the Defective Products Management Center of AQSIQ on March 2nd, stating that the company will change the defective brake vacuum pump free, for six months. The term "Market Technology Service" sounds very weird but it can be understood in general terms as a technical service bulletin or TSB, an internally circulated technical memo instructing service centers to do specific repairs on any affected models that comes in for their regular servicing.
Apparently AQSIQ is not satisfied with this and rightly so. Quarter of a million cars on the road with defective brakes and all the company is going to do is just to rely on the owners to voluntarily bring their cars back to the service centers at their next service appointment?
On April 21st, after observing the company's response (or a lack of it), AQSIQ went public on the Toyota Camry's defective brakes. Flooded with queries from concerned (and angry) owners, Guangzhou Toyota immediately applied for a product recall to AQSIQ on April 22nd. According to Chinese media circles, the AQSIQ have never gone public on such matters. Thus, it could be intepreted that this is AQSIQ way of saying "you can't just offer a free fix for six months and force the remaining customers to pay for the job. And we gave you one and a half month but nothing was done. We had to go public to get your attention. Obviously that worked well."
Guangzhou Toyota released the press statement below on the same day (please forgive the poor translation) :
Dear Friends from media:
近两天来，我们接到了一些媒体朋友就凯美瑞刹车真空助力泵问题的询问，在此对大家的关心表示衷心的感谢！同 时，也就相关问题和媒体朋友进行沟通。
In the pass 2 days, we received a lot of questions about the Camry's brake vacuum pump problem from the friends in the media field, thanks for all your concerns. We would like to take this opportunity to communicate with you regarding this issue.
凯美瑞刹车真空助力泵存在的问题主要体现在：在高气温或刹车使用频率高的极端使用情况下，真空助力泵内部的 配件可能产生变化，导致刹车踏板变硬、出现漏气异音、发动机故障灯亮等情况。出现这种情况时，要获得充分的 制动力，就需要比以前更大的刹车踏板踩踏力。
The main problem of Camry's brake vacuum pump is, when operated in high temperature or high frequency, some internal parts of the pump may fail, which results in a hard of brake pedal, abnormal noise or leakage, engine fault light to come on, etc. When the problem happens, if the driver needs enough braking force, he / she has to step the brake pedal with greater pressure than normal.
针对以上问题，我们在3月2日向国家质检总局缺陷产品管理中心递交了申请市场技术服务活动的报告。之所以申 请采用市场技术服务活动，而未采用召回的方式，是基于两点依据：
Concerned by this, we applied a Market-Technology-Service to the Defective Products Management Center, AQSIQ on March 2nd. The reason we used Market-Technology-Service instead of a recall is based on:
一是不良发生时有异音产生，可预见到异常并 能做出对策；
1. The driver can predict and properly handle the danger while he / she hears any abnormal noise.
二是最差状态时的制动力满足法定的制动力标准。
2. Even the worst braking power meets minimum braking force requirements
(Autoindustrie editor : that's the most ridiculous statement ever! I want my brakes to work at 100% performance, 100% of the time. Maybe Chinese drivers have different uses for brakes from myself.)
3月3日，我们收到国家质检总局缺陷产品管理中心的邮件答复，“关于此问题我中心需要组织专家进行缺陷调查 和判定，在结果确定之前，我中心不同意你们的技术服务活动”。在我们正在等待国家质检总局缺陷产品管理中心 的最终结果过程中，4月21日，我们突然看到媒体针对此事的报道，也第一次通过报道了解到国家质检总局缺陷 产品管理中心工作人员针对此事的表态，我们认为这应该代表了国家质检总局缺陷产品管理中心的意见。为尽快消 除凯美瑞用户的不安和焦虑情绪，本着对广大消费者高度负责的态度，经丰田汽车公司同意，我们于4月22日向 国家质检总局缺陷产品管理中心提出主动召回申请。
On March, 3rd. we received acknowlegement from AQSIQ, saying that they would do an investigation and judgement on the problem, but before that, they would not agree to our Market-Technology-Service application. While we were waiting for the final decision, on April 21st, we saw the reports on this problem from the media, and this is the first time that we understood AQSIQ's position on this issue. In order to address our customer's concern about this and to assume our responsibility under agreement with Toyota Co. We applied for a recall on these products to the Defective Products Management Center, AQSIQ. on April, 22nd.
目前，我们已经做好了全面的准备，并组织全国所有的广汽丰田销售店竭尽所能，力争用最短的时间为用户免费更 换真空助力泵。
Currently we are properly prepared , and we will organize all the distribution units, to change the brake vacuum pump for the customer free of charge.
广汽丰田汽车有限公司
Toyota (Guangzhou) Auto Co.Ltd.
2009年4月22日2009.4.22
This case highlights the importance of having a strong, independent consumer protection watch group. Many developing countries, including Malaysia, continue to rely on inadequate consumer tribunal court to sort such matters on a case by case basis. One can't rely on the industry to regulate itself and to do good, more so in the case of a powerful multi-national corporation operating in an environment with inadequate law and enforcement.
It is such a shame to see two different set of standards made by Toyota - one for a first world country like USA and another for a developing nation like China. In the late 80s Lexus, Toyota's luxury sub-brand was just launched in the United States, with Toyota's famed quality and reliability as its selling point. In 1990, a little more than a year after the LS400 was launched in USA, Toyota discovered two minor defects with the cars. It was clear that a recall had to be made. United States have very strict consumer protection laws, and there are even so-called "lemon car laws," which required manufacturers to buy back the vehicle from the customers if repeated efforts are not able to solve a reported defect.
Lexus approached the recall slightly differently from BMW or Mercedes-Benz, who will usually contact the owners via mails or press announcements. Instead, Lexus staff personally called up the owners explaining the problem and assured them the problem will be rectified once they send their cars to the service centers. When the cars were ready for collection, they were all washed and filled up with a full tank of fuel. Owners who lived faraway had Lexus technicians sent to them to do the repairs on their driveway.
In Malcolm Gladwell's book the Tipping Point, he points to this story as a pivotal point in turning Lexus into an automotive luxury powerhouse. Because the early group of customers were termed by the author as "mavens" of the automotive world, people whom friends go to for advice on cars. Lexus turned a problem into an opportunity. These people went against the common wisdom of buying a German luxury make. These are people who knows a good car when they see one, took a risk and looked beyond the Japanese badge, at a time when the idea of a Japanese luxury car is more like a joke. The maven's positive experience helped spread the word about Lexus. And within the social circle of these mavens, their opinions on cars carry more weight than any advertorials.
Of course one can argue that the number of vehicles affected were so small, it is easy to deal with them. But it also meant that they were quick to react and quick to decide that a problem should be nipped in the butt. After-all, isn't the Toyota Way about stopping a problem from being passed down to the next guy on the line? So how is this known defect, being allowed to propagate for 3 years is part of Toyota Way? Isn't Toyota known for their famed problem solving methodology and empowering employees to make decisions? But this is clearly not being practised here. I am sure there were many customer complaints prior to this and front line after-sales staff are well aware of these cases.
The Camry models referred here have no relation to the "Global Camry" models sold in USA or Japan or Middle East. This is the "Flagship Camry" sold in ASEAN grouping markets, China, Taiwan and in Australia as the Aurion. The faulty parts installed on the Chinese market cars are most likely to be sourced from a China plant and should not affect the cars sold outside of China.
Toyota Motor Corp has two joint-venture operations in China - Guangzhou Toyota which manufactures the Camry, and FAW-Toyota, which manufactures other remaining Toyota models in China including Reiz (Mark X), Corolla, Vios, Land Cruiser, Land Cruiser Prado and Prius.
Related Link :
Product Recalls
2009 Camry Minor Change (Facelift) Launched in China
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