Toyota Motor Corp.'s President Akio Toyoda bows during a news conference at the Toyota headquarters.
A few years ago, it would have been considered lunacy to predict that Toyota, long the icon of quality among global automakers, would find itself in a reputational freefall.
In most of the 15 years I have worked on public relations and marketing programs with various automakers, including Toyota, one thing had always seemed clear: Toyota was an unstoppable manufacturing leader against which all other carmakers would be judged.
