Toyota recalls dominate April’s car news and social media
Despite a busy period of financial reporting, Toyota recalls continued to dominate the headlines during the month of April, according to the latest Alva Automotive In Sight Analysis. Each month, corporate reputation analysis company Alva reports on the biggest issues in the Automotive industry in terms of traditional media coverage and social media chatter using information collected from its daily Alva Automotive In Sight service.
Toyota’s Sequoia and Lexus GX460 recalls were the single biggest stories of the month, with more than double the impact of hydrogen fuel’s fightback in the green car race (in second place) and the sales and financial reporting of Toyota and Ford (third and fourth respectively).
Overall, Toyota also topped the league table of car manufacturers dominating the news and online discussion with a 15% share of overall coverage, followed by Ford with 6% and General Motors with 5%.
The biggest industry issues in the automotive sector were slightly more evenly spread with sales taking 17% of all coverage, while safety and corporate issues each took 16% of the conversation.
“In what is typically a massively important month for sales and financial reporting in the automotive industry, Toyota still managed to dominate the headlines and online discussions. Despite its textbook handling of what were fairly routine recalls this time, the media scrutiny of Toyota means that it continues to be associated with negative product recalls.” said Alberto Lopez, CEO of Alva. “These results demonstrate the media and wider industry’s continued hunger for this safety story. The implication for Toyota’s corporate reputation looks to be severe and long-term and the potential for this negative coverage to contaminate other automotive brands is quite clearly present in the market.”
Top 10 Manufacturers by Media and Social Media Chatter in April 2010
Company % Coverage
Toyota 15.12%
Ford 6.64%
General Motors 5.05%
Nissan 2.90%
BMW 2.55%
Volkswagen 1.66%
Lexus 1.45%
Volkswagen 1.45%
Honda 1.33%
Chevrolet 1.21%