Audi 1980s Scare May Mean Lost Generation for Toyota Sales
By Andreas Cremer and Tom Lavell
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG’s Audi luxury brand spent 15 years rebuilding U.S. sales after sudden-acceleration incidents in the 1980s almost wiped out demand, a possible sign of the difficult times Toyota Motor Corp. faces.
Audi’s U.S. deliveries plunged 83 percent by 1991 from their peak in 1985, following recalls of the German automaker’s 5000 sedan. A class-action lawsuit filed in 1987 by Audi owners seeking compensation is still being fought.
Audi was then selling no more than 75,000 cars a year in the U.S. and was chipping away at the market for higher-priced models. Last year, Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, sold 17 percent of all cars in the U.S. The Japanese manufacturer’s recall of almost 8 million vehicles, including 5.6 million in the U.S., to fix defects that cause sudden acceleration has prompted the U.S. government to probe the cause.