Japan's PM meets Toyota chief on restoration of eroded customer trust

A pedestrian passes by a Toyota showroom in New York, March 2, 2010. It was announcedon  Monday that Toyota has informed more than 1 million American and Japanese customers  of a fault that leads to an oil leak in Toyota vehicles. (Xinhua/Wu Kaixiang)

TOKYO, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda met with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Monday and vowed to improve the company's standards and restore the public's faith in the world's largest automaker stricken by recent global recalls.

"I told the Prime Minister that we are going to strive to build better cars so people will say Toyota is once again a more transparent and customer-focused company," Toyoda told reporters following his talks with the Japanese premier.

"We are pushing forward measures for recalls and sales recovery at the same time," he added, referring to Toyota's bid to recover lost sales in March by incentives introduced at the beginning of the month to attract new customers with a renewed sense of trust and confidence in Toyota vehicles.

Hatoyama for his part during their meeting implored Toyoda to do his utmost to regain the trust of customers, stressing the immeasurable importance of customer confidence.

He told Toyoda to make further improvements to regain the eroded trust in Toyota vehicles.

Toyota is Japan's flagship automaker and its worldwide recall crisis, according to some analysts, has severely tainted not just Toyota's but all Japanese automakers' time-honored image of "high technology, high reliability," which has severe economic implications for a nation so reliant on its exports.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker and top-seller in North America, has recalled more than 8 million vehicles globally and lawmakers have recently called into question Toyota executives' response to reports of sudden unintended acceleration that led to the recalls, insinuating a possible corporate coverup.

On Friday, two U.S. congressman said Toyota has yet to show it has fully investigated its electronic systems and called for more company officials be made available for interviews.

Toyota responded in a statement that it would cooperate with the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the oldest standing committees of the United States House of Representatives, and the committee's investigative panel, including providing an outside firm's study on Toyota's electronic systems.

Editor: Du Xiaodan | Source: Xinhbua