Top 10 Toyota Stories of 2010

Has there been a more important year in Toyota’s U.S. history than 2010? Toyota experienced a once-in-a-lifetime scandal, took an unprecedented action and stopped building or selling key models for 10 days, became the target of a $10 billion dollar lawsuit, and yet somehow managed to increase truck sales 15% in 2010 compared to 2009.

Has 2010 been a good year for Toyota? No. But it hasn’t been bad…at least not as bad as some people projected. Toyota’s culture seems to be undergoing a change, and consumers are slowly but surely warming back up to Toyota.

Here are the top 10 Toyota stories of the past year:

1. Toyota announces a “sticky accelerator pedal” recall on January 21st, effecting more than 2.3 million Toyotas – including the 2007-2010 Tundra. Days later, Car and Driver explains that concerns about sticking accelerators are incredibly overblown.

2. The January 26th, 2010 Stop Sale and Recall announcement. Toyota stopped selling and building 8 key models after announcing an accelerator pedal recall 5 days earlier. This is the biggest news Toyota has all year.

3. Toyota owners are told to “stop driving” by Ray LaHood, head of the Department of Transportation, on the morning February 3rd, 2010. Hours later, LaHood recants his thoughtless comment, but the damage has been done. The Wall Street Journal estimates that LaHood’s comment single-handedly reduced the value of all Toyota stock by $4 billion dolllars…and I call Ray LaHood an idiot.

4. On February 9th, 2010, Toyota announces a small brake recall for Prius, but the timing is awful. The unintended acceleration panic continues.

5. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda apologizes to congress on February 24th, 2010.

6. California resident James Sikes claims his Prius “ran away” from him on a California highway on March 8th, 2010. The investigation that follows learns Sikes was months behind on his car payment, had a history of fraud, and owned a seedy adult website…and no one believed Sikes after that.

7. An Orange County, California District Attorney announces his intent to sue Toyota on March 12th, 2010, signaling the beginning of a massive $10 billion class-action Toyota lawsuit over unintended acceleration issues.

8. NHTSA assesses Toyota with a $16 million dollar fine on April 4th for failing to notify the agency quickly enough about the sticking pedal issue. We question the amount because Toyota’s fine was 16 times larger than a fine given to GM in 2005 for very similar behavior.

9. Toyota recalls 600k Siennas for rusty spare tire holders on April 17th, 2010 – Toyota’s recall woes continue.

10. Tesla Motors and Toyota announce a new electric vehicle partnership on May 20th, 2010. This may have been the moment that Toyota’s fortunes began to turn positive again.

Unfortunately, the most important Toyota acceleration story of the year – the one where NHTSA states they’ve found no fault with Toyota throttles – barely registers a “blip” in the mainstream media and doesn’t make our list.