There is no recall of any of its models sold in India, not even

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of the Prius, which has been booked by only a handful of customers in this country. But the mammoth recall of the model elsewhere around the globe may hurt Toyota’s brand image in India.

In the backdrop of lacklustre sales in January, dealers report that Indian customers have begun to ask them questions about the quality of the company’s cars. The company’s promotional tagline, ‘Quality Revolution’, is suddenly suspect.

“We have received a lot of enquiries regarding the safety of the Corolla and the Camry in India,” an official at Toyota’s biggest dealer in Delhi, Galaxy Toyota, said, hastening to add that there was no impact on monthly sales, though. “We are on track for all designated deliveries in February,” he added.

But the numbers on the ground tell a different story. Toyota reported a marginal 1 per cent drop in month-on-month sales in January, when four of India’s top five carmakers reported their highest monthly domestic sales. In December Toyota Kirloskar sold 6,029 cars, and in January 5,989 cars. Toyota began to have problems with Prius and some other models in November.

The company not particularly following the industry growth curve has the market abuzz over whether or not its brand reputation has taken a hit, courtesy the recall.

Said Santosh Desai, Future Brands chief executive officer, “Toyota has built its brand over the years. The crisis is short term. But if there is any other immediate problem, it will definitely harm its image.”

A top auto industry executive who did not wish to be named said, “Toyota is a huge company globally. Its ambitions in India are not very high in terms of volumes. But it is getting serious about its prospects in India and into the very competitive small car market. Whether the global recall affects the brand’s image in India will have to be seen watched over the next couple of months.”

Toyota, which does not have a small car in India yet, sold 55,497 cars in 2009, up 7 per cent from 2008. But it plans to market a small car called the Etios, by the year-end.

Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director of marketing at Toyota Kirloskar, did not see any pattern in the January sales. He was confident that the brand was intact, despite the global recall. He explained that the reason for the small drop in sales was the one-month waiting period for the Corolla, Innova and the Fortuner. “If you look at Toyota’s pro-activeness in recalls, it is doing great,” Singh said, reiterating that the recalls had no impact on its India operations.

Financial Chronicle, quoting Singh, had reported on Tuesday that the first of the hybrid cars will be delivered to Indian customers only in March. Toyota has rectified the anti-braking system in all Prius cars produced since January.

saahilanant@mydigitalfc.com