Recall Recap: Hyundai Piles on Toyota in Superbowl Ads
We’ve been writing about Hyundai Motor Company’s rising fortunes since October, but it just keeps getting better for the Korean automaker.
Hyundai’s recent “best warranty” ad campaign turns out to remarkably prescient in view of Toyota’s recall problems. And Hyundai’s heavy advertising presence in the Superbowl for the third straight year could not have come at a more opportune time.
As Jim Henry notes, It didn’t take much “thinking about it” to realize that intentional or not, the Hyundai Super Bowl ad was a terrific razzing of Toyota.
Meanwhile, things don’t seem to be getting much better for beleaguered Toyota.
Kurt Sanger, an auto analyst with Deutsche Securities in Tokyo was not impressed with Toyota’s plan to set up a special task force on quality and seek outside experts for advice “This begs the question, has Toyota abdicated quality leadership if it has to resort to outside advisers on its core manufacturing business?”
“With the market worried about brand value more than direct cost, this is not reassuring”
JPMorgan auto analyst Kohei Takahashi is more positive:”We think (Toyota’s) start of efforts to resolve quality problems is a step forward in terms of regaining investor confidence.”
As Research Recap wrote last week, Toyota’s quality issues could cast a shadow over other auto makers. “I think we should see this Toyota problem from a broader viewpoint,”Honda’s CFO Yoichi Hojo told the Wall Street Journal.
“If customers start to harbor doubts about [quality and safety], that would be problem for the whole industry.”
As Zacks reports, Kelley Blue Book — the largest automotive vehicle valuation company in the U.S. — which considered Toyota as the best brand for resale value two months ago, has stated that resale value are now worth $200 to $500 less per recalled models (a decline of 1%–3%). The auto research website Edmunds.com estimated resale or trade-in values to fall up to 10% in the short term. Edmunds’ estimate for the trade-in value of a 2009 Toyota Camry has fallen by 4%–6% to $13,967 while the 2009 Toyota Corolla has declined 6% to $11,233.
Click here for previous posts on Toyota’s recall.
See Alacra Pulse for latest analyst comment on Hyundai and Toyota.
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