More bad news for Toyota. In the midst of all their problems latetly Toyota has been forced to recall another 470,000 cars in it’s home market of Japan. This could not come at a worst time for the fledging Japanese auto giant whose quality has been slipping as of late in some very public ways. First there was the Consumer Reports announcement that it was no longer recomending Toyota’a cars blindly and based on their reputation for reliability. When the magazine concluded it’s long term reliability test it found a couple of models that scored way below average. These include the legendarily reliable Toyota Camry V6 and their Tundra V8 4×4. Also they had to call in more than half a million Sienna mini-van owners for some “warranty enhancement work” involving re-welding parts of the door structures. Now with this recall in Japan Toyota is facing public proof (and humiliation) that their quality of manufacturing is slipping. The recall covers several models in relation to fuel leaks(!) and steering component failures. What’s most shocking is how the company was kind of caught sleeping with this whole series of ordeals. Upper manegment is now scrambling to get everything in order and save face a bit. No doubt that heads will roll inside the company because of this. Slip-ups like this are unexcusable within such a large company with such a good reputation for quality. Even though this new problem does not directly affect us, it does have an impact on all of Toyota’s world-wide markets in the long run. You can bet that many people will be replaced as far up as management. This could mean lot’s of new surprises for Toyota consumers. I would hold off on that next Toyota purchase until things up in their headquarters of Aichi, Japan get sorted out.