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「丰田」汽车因油门踏板事件最近大规模召回汽车，并由此引发了业内对其近年来持续上升的产品质量投诉和频繁召回事件的空前关注，丰田汽车的产品品质也遭到严重质疑，并累及其他日系汽车品牌。而此次事件最大的受益者则可能是美国三大汽车公司和韩国现代等丰田长期以来的竞争对手。
Toyota"s recall problems accelerated on Thursday after the automaker announced it was expanding it to Europe and China.
Millions of vehicles have been recalled because a problem with the accelerator pedals and a separate problem with the floor mats.
Toyota has recalled close to 8 million vehicles and shut down sales and production of eight models while it works on a fix.
Consumer Reports" Rick Paul.
"I think they need to get their cars fixed as quickly as possible. They need to communicate to their owners, and to buyers what is going on, when to expect, what to happen, and clear away the confusion"
The parts supplier that makes the accelerator pedals, Indiana based CTS says it has fixed the problem and is already producing new redesigned parts.
But a lot of the damage has already been done to Toyota"s reputation for quality- one that at least one expert says is not fully warranted" class="hjdict" word="warranted" target="_blank">warranted" class="hjdict" word="warranted" target="_blank">warranted.
Mike Allen is the senior automotive editor at Popular Mechanics:
"It"s always been my opinion that Toyota"s very high quality ranking hasn"t been as well deserved as it might have been . A lot of people particularly in North America perceive Toyota as a very very high quality brand. But the numbers, the warranty rates, the repair rates, the long term longevity of those cars isn’t as good as people perceive."
The recall also could create an opportunity for US automakers:
"It"s an opportunity for the US car manufacturers to regain some of their lost market share. How much remains to be seen it depends how heavily they incentivize the vehicles that are competitive with the Toyota product that is being recalled."
Toyota says it has not yet determined how quickly it could restart sales with the redesigned parts from CTS.
U.S. lawmakers will hold a hearing on the recall in February.
Bobbi Rebell, Reuters, New York
【财经知识补充】:
1. Recall 召回，汽车召回制度始于20世纪60年代的美国，目前，实行汽车召回制度的有英国、德国、法国、日本、韩国、加拿大、澳大利亚等国。所谓汽车召回，就是投 放市场的汽车，发现由于设计或制造方面的原因存在缺陷，尽管符合有关的法规、标准，但有可能导致安全及环保问题，则厂家必须及时向国家有关部门报告，提出 召回申请，经批准后对在用车辆进行改造，以消除相关隐患。召回车辆所涉及费用一律由厂家负责，消费者不必承担。
2.Toyota 日本丰田汽车公司Toyota Motor Corporation，简称TMC，属于三井财阀，2008年首次在汽车销售量超越通用汽车，成为全世界第一位的汽车生产厂商。在国内销售的汽车品牌有：威驰、科鲁兹、卡罗拉（花冠）、皇冠、普锐斯、雷克萨斯、锐志、凯美瑞。
3.修复率：产品维修性的一种基本参数。其度量方法为：在规定的条件下和规定的时间内，产品在任一规定的维修级别上被修复的故障总数与在此级别上修复性维修总时间之比。
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