After owning several Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles over the past 17 years, Randy Sterling traded in his Tacoma pickup this month for Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 truck.
"The recent problems with Toyota caused me to have a closer look at Ford," said Sterling, a contractor in Blenheim, Ontario, referring to record recalls, most for defects tied to unintended acceleration. "The recalls, how they'd treated some of their customers, it just concerned me."
Customers such as Sterling underscore the challenge Toyota President Akio Toyoda, in Detroit this week for the North American International Auto Show, faces as he seeks to put the recall crisis behind him. With its reputation tarnished, the company's 2010 U.S. sales dropped even as industrywide car demand rose. The loss of once tried and true customers marks the beginning of the world's largest automaker's quest to restore its image and win back market share, said analyst Maryann Keller.
"In terms of quality, they were the default brand," said Keller, founder of Maryann Keller & Associates, a consultancy in Stamford, Conn. "Now they're just one of the pack."