Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Toyota Recall

Toyota's recall of several of its models is in my opinion good for the company. I am sure they'll come out well after this major issue and will never land in this mess again.

I have owned a Toyota, Honda and Nissan and I have to say that my vote for quality goes for Toyota.

That said.....

Have any cars/vehicles/anything ever been recalled in India? I never liked the Ambassadors, Fiats and the Standard cars and vans when I was growing up.

The awkward seats, the shape, those windows that were hard to roll, the noise inside, the stupid trunk, wiper blades like toys .etc..I can name a lot of things.

I would say that the Fiat was slightly better when compared to the other two junk cars ( Ambassador / Standard ).

Have you seen the finish in a brand new Ambassador/Fiat/Standard car or van? It sucked big time didn't it? I remember being able to see the road under my feet from new cars/vans !! Those bumpers were the biggest joke !

So much for quality.

I was very happy when the Maruti-800 was rolled out in the 80's !

I am glad the junk Ambassadors, Fiats and Standards have gone for good.

8 comments:

Karthik Rajamani said...

Narayan - I completely agree with you! Infact I was thinking thru it this morning. Happy to see Toyota and Honda doing it and the possible reasons cud be the potential market and the brand! I own a Hyundai i20 (recently launched vehicle in India). How many here know that when they press more than two buttons (cud be CD and FM) by mistake in the audio player... it will fail. The solution is to stop the car > open up the electrical circuit board > remove the fuse and place it back. I have brought this up with Hyundai motors couple of times and I haven't heard from them still. I wish Hyundai learns it the right way. Btw, ur blog is in my favorites. Good work!

Siva Anandhi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Siva Anandhi said...

Pls don't compare Toyota with Ambassador. Ambassador was a very gud attempt for the state India was in 50s. TATAs stand as a eg today for the automobile world. Indian workmanship is never lesser/behind anyothers in the world.
Lets not always see the faults in us while appreciating others.

Ganesh Venkittu said...

ramesh - the biggest joke is the maruti 800 per se....that car will get dented when a bicycle hits it....no jokes on that....

maruti or for that matter many such cars have nothing but a sheet protecting you in front and rear....they have absolute disregard to human life....take the omni for example...does it even resemble a passenger vehicle.....

thats not the case with ambassador...

I absolutely love ambassador...if you want a fashion statement, go buy a honda/camry in india...and pay 2-3 times what you pay for similar/same car in the US.....or for that matter any of the japanese/korean offshoots who compete only on style and not on substance as far as indian economy is concerned....

for the indian economy, when it comes to absolute worry free maintenance, and a trusted dealership, you cannot beat hindustan motors..

granted, its clunky...granted, its mileage is questionable..

granted, the old looks....but safety my friend, is not a word in the dictionary of the so called marutis/hyundai/etc...

ask any ambassador owner of their opinion of their car.....you wont find any regrets from them...

ganesh

Shankar said...

How can you say that the current crisis is good for Toyota. They should have never compromised on quality that had put them and their customers in this mess. I think too much success too soon showed up on their quality. So much said and written on American cars, but the fact is none of them had a historic recalls like the Toyotas.

I was on a trip to India last month, I had to tell you Ambassadors were running just fine and they were way more comfortable than Marutis.

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Karthik - Honestly nobody cares..I feel. That's customer service. I had a similar incident in 1997 when I had a Maruti Zen. Maruti didn't care..! ( It was about to the ignition fuse that blew up often ).

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Anandhi - You say 'India was in 50'. That's right, and then they didn't do anything about quality !! I know TATAs are doing well. my grudge is against the old Ambassadors, Standards and Fiats.

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Ganesh - I don't think you had any personal experience with Ambassadors. I never wrote anything about safety here. And believe me, I don't think Ambassadors had any special safety features. It's made of some inferior quality metal and we rusty Ambassadors all around..( Just like the quality of Maruti you mentioned )

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Shankar - Are ambassadors being sold? Are there newer versions now?

Anonymous said...

When have you ever or when will you ever take feedback on your opinion...beats me!

You are always right, Everything india sucks! get some sleep now!

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Hi Anon,

If you think so, it's ok with me. Thanks for being anonymous.