International Law

Toyota Chief Compares His Cars to Limp Bean Curd

By Stan

I’m not sure this was such a good analogy for Akio Toyoda to use while on his apology tour to Beijing:

CCTV reporter Rui Chenggang asked him during the one-on-one, ?There is a saying the best cars made by Japanese companies are sold in Japan, the second-rate ones are sold to the U.S. and Europe, and the cars that are in an even lower tier are exported to China. Of course this saying may be unfounded, but can you guarantee that Chinese consumers will receive completely the same service during the recall process??

Reiterating the response he gave during the briefing, Toyoda tried a gustatory appeal with a reference to a well-known spicy bean curd dish.

?Mapo tofu in China, Japan and the U.S. is still called mapo tofu, though the taste is somewhat different,? he said. ?To compare cars to food is probably not the best example, but we hope everyone can understand that when we make cars, we factor in regional differences in road conditions, consumer habits and usage criteria.? (WSJ)

Note to Toyoda: the next time someone asks you this question, you first say that it isn’t true. Second, you reiterate that all Toyotas are built to the same high quality standards. Third, at a time when consumers are worried about your cars going out of control and crashing, you should not use an example that compares said cars to limp bean curds with the consistency of weak Jell-O.

Now I’m hungry, and the leftover mapo doufu in my frig is calling to me.

© Stan for China Hearsay, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: product liability, product recall, tofu, toyota

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).