Quality doesn’t end with the sale

Want to know why Toyota is the #1 selling car in America? I know one reason why. I recently purchased my first foreign car, a 2004 Toyota Sienna, from a third party. After a few months, the driver door started squeaking and popping when opening and closing, and the rear liftgate was starting to hesitate a little on opening. How disappointing to one who had expected the famed Toyota quality!

But wait, there’s more. I took it to my local Toyota dealer, who informed me that Toyota had extended the warranty for this issue to 100k miles, and also informed me of an active recall involving the rear liftgate struts. These were the major things wrong with the car, and both were fixed at no charge, even though I’m the second owner of a car with 89k miles and didn’t buy from the dealership! Until now, I’ve never heard of a manufacturer extending the warranty retroactively for a particular issue! GM and Ford think that TV commercials inspire customer loyalty, but Toyota understands that quality and service inspire loyalty, and neither ends when the car rolls off the line.

Does your software have enduring quality?

/dmc