Numerous Toyota owners agree: changing car brands is not in their future

Anyone that pays attention to the news or listens to the gossip at the water cooler knows Toyota has been the center of a media feeding frenzy recently. Between the carpet entrapment issues, sticky accelerators, and faulty steering, the car manufacturer has had a lot of questions to answer. The media, and now our Congress, have been rather unforgiving. But the real question is where does Toyota stand in the eyes of the consumers? My husband and I, who own a Schaumburg used Toyota Sienna, decided to do a little research to find an answer to this question. What we found might surprise all those Toyota naysayers.

While we don’t claim to have conducted scientific research, we think what we found is rather telling since we went straight from the source of car sales: the everyday consumer. We talked to current, former, and potential Toyota drivers from a variety of demographics, ranging my fellow car pool Moms to my 20-something niece and her friends. My husband focused in on the daily water cooler talk in his office and we both checked out what was being said on Facebook. What we found was that the majority of people have no intention of switching brands!

So while the media and government officials are bashing Toyota, the consumers who do the buying are repeatedly expressing their continued loyalty. In Schaumburg, used Prius drivers agreed they still love their vehicle. Of my car pool crew, no one had experienced any problems or felt any urge to trade in their vehicles. And at my husband’s office, everyone agreed that they will continue driving their Toyotas.

On the web, the sentiment was the same. “Toyota is still #1!” “My Toyota rocks my socks.” “Still the best cars on the market.” “Go Toyota!”  “I Support Toyota Wholeheartedly!!!!!” “Loyal to Toyota for 20 years. Why? Because they deliver QUALITY! The media will not change my opinion about Toyota’s quality.”

So where does this unswerving devotion come from? Toyota has a strong reputation that they’ve worked hard at for years. This reputation is not only based on their vehicles, but also on the company’s community involvement, commitment to the environment, and sense of social responsibility. This has led to a large reservoir of customer good will that isn’t going to go away over night. The fact of the matter is every car company goes through recalls. They are simply part of the process by which automakers address safety or reliability issues.

In the end, Toyota vehicles still outshine the competition and no matter what the media tries to do Toyota isn’t going anywhere. And as for my husband and me, we know that when the time does come to trade in our used Sienna, Schaumburg Toyota is still the place we’ll go for our new vehicle!