For Hot Wheels, strong sales during the festive season should have marked an end to the bleak outlook for investors during the downturn. However, there were rumours at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show earlier this month that disgruntled employees were set to lift the lid on some dark secrets that had been brewing behind closed doors.
Then, yesterday afternoon, a whistle blowing employee dropped the bombshell that there are allegedly steering defects in nine out of ten models to leave the production line. This has still to be confirmed, but the saftety implications have already rocked consumer confidence, with those who acquired a Hot Wheels auto-mobile within the last few months demanding answers from the embattled Mattel subsidiary.