Can Toyota restore that new car smell?

When a friend came to visit from Australia for six weeks, we drove over 3,000 miles throughout the state of California. From San Diego to Yosemite and everywhere else, we showed him all we could of our home state and never worried once about the reliability of our van. The odometer currently displays over 131,000 miles and it appears unstoppable.

Our mechanic inspected our van before we bought it, used, with only 14,000 miles on it. He said, “Buy it. You’ll probably never need to see me again.” He was right. We perform minimum maintenance on the van and it has never had a problem. And it is a Toyota.

Pause.

That’s right. My 2001 Toyota Sienna has not given me any serious trouble since the day I purchased it. Other Toyota customers are not able to make this same statement. Toyota has had major recall problems recently and their brand loyalty and track record has suffered from it. I remain loyal to Toyota due to my personal experience, but my loyalty might be different if I got behind the wheel of a Prius every day to get my kids from start to finish. Toyota needs to clean up their reputation and rebuild trust in their products. They need to restore that new car smell.

When a customer base loses confidence in a brand, what steps can a company take to rebuild trust? I am about to find out. On behalf of Mom Central, I have the unique opportunity to attend Toyota’s Sienna Design & Drive Event. I will drive their new Toyota Sienna 2011 van. I get to experience my own van with 10 years of design and technological improvements. That will be fabulous, but what will be interesting is witnessing how Toyota approaches the topic of their recent problems. I will be driving, but more importantly, I will be listening.

I wonder if they would notice if I just discreetly left my 2001 van behind and cruised away in the new 2011 edition. You’re right. They would notice. It would be my screaming of “YIPPEE!” that would give it away.

When Eileen Calandro isn’t playing taxi van to her three boys, she is Mom Central’s Chief Mom Connector on our Mom Central Spark community. Read more about her adventures on her personal blog, Calandroclan.com.