Toyota Recalling 51k Tundras To Fix 25 Of Them

In news that is sure to get the ‘haters’ all fired up, today Toyota has announced a recall of almost all 2011 Tundras because of a potential driveshaft casting defect in 0.05% of all trucks sold during the model year.

From Toyota:

[Toyota will conduct] a voluntary safety recall on approximately 51,000, 2011 model year Tundra trucks to inspect the rear drive shaft. The rear drive shaft in an estimated 0.05 percent of the vehicles may include a component (slip yoke) that could break due to improper casting during the foundry process. Toyota is aware of one drive shaft slip yoke failure in a customer-owned vehicle. There are no reports of accidents or injuries associated with this condition. No other Lexus or Toyota vehicles are involved in this recall

Yes, you read that correctly. 0.05% of 51k 2011 Tundras may have a defective driveshaft…if you’re doing the math on that one, the answer is Toyota is worried about 25 trucks.

Toyota is going to recall an entire year’s worth of trucks just to find 25 of them that may have a defect. Crazy, no?

What makes this recall even more amazing is that Ford hesitated to recall 1.5 million F-150’s with malfunctioning airbags not even two months ago, even after NHTSA asked them to do a recall!

How Toyota Handles A Recall Compared to Ford

In February, NHTSA asked Ford to recall 1.5 million F-150’s with an airbag problem. However, Ford responded to this request by ignoring NHTSA’s recommendation and just recalling 150k F-150’s instead. Then, earlier this month, Ford flip-flopped and recalled all 1.5 million trucks after all.

Based on the way Ford handled the spontaneously exploding airbag recall, it seems as if they really don’t care about NHTSA recommendations. In fact, it seems like they’re not too concerned about customer safety either – why else would they have ignored NHTSA, then flip-flopped later? If Ford felt like NHTSA was wrong back in February, why did they crayfish in April? …and why didn’t NHTSA fine Ford for ignoring them?

Unfortunately, there are no answers to these questions that I care to provide. I have my opinion on the matter, and I hope you have one too.

However, when it comes to voluntarily recalling 51k trucks to find two dozen with a potentially defective driveshaft, I’d say Toyota is doing the right thing. In fact, I’d say Toyota is probably going above and beyond here.

So all you haters, stew on that.