The USA Today/Gallup poll just released shows 31-percent of Americans think Toyota and Lexus vehicles are not safe. More than half of those polled, 55 percent, say the automaker took too long to respond to safety problems. 

The survey of 2,021 adults does offer a ray of hope for Toyota: only 14 percent of current Toyota owners believe the cars are unsafe.

"The poll shows that 74 percent of Toyota owners have not lost confidence in the cars and that's positive news for the company and a testament to the brand and brand loyalty," says Selig, founder of the crisis PR firm The Publicity Agency (http://www.thepublicityagency.com) based in Tampa, Fla.  "What that means is that Toyota owners want to believe that the cars are okay and are willing to forgive this incredibly big bump in the road for the auto giant. Toyota needs to build on their loyal customer base."

The survey, which has a 3 percent margin of error, shows 53 percent would consider buying a Toyota despite what's happened; 17 percent would not.

The numbers, say some experts, are not dismal considering what has happened and that 31 percent questioning the cars' safety is actually not as bad as it could be.

"I'm a little surprised that the number isn't higher than 31 percent, given that this company has been the subject of global negative publicity for weeks," Lynne Doll, president of The Rogers Group told USA TODAY. "If elected officials had a disapproval rating of 'only' 31 percent they'd be delighted. There's a group who always will dislike you."

The poll comes on the same day as a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing where Toyota Motor Corp's North America president Yoshimi Inaba will discuss new quality changes and on the same day that 1.3 million General Motors (OTC:MTLQQ.PK) announced a recall for a steering problem on some of its compact cars. GM says the problem is linked to 14 accidents and involved 2005-10 Chevrolet Cobalts, 2005-06 Pontiac 4s, 2005-07 Pontiac G5s and 2005-06 Pontiac Pursuits.

Selig says the GM recall also helps Toyota.

"Up until this debacle, Toyota was perceived by many as being a better car than the rest," says Selig. "Now, critics lump Toyota in with everyone else. This GM recall reinforces that all automakers have recalls. It gives consumers a rationale to stay with the Toyota brand that on many levels they still want to love despite what has happened."

Selig says Toyota no doubt did terrible damage to its name and reputation because of the problems and made matters even worse because of how it responded to the PR crisis.  But, he says the damage is not irreparable.

"Doing the right thing moving forward along with a few screw ups from competitors and I believe Toyota will be back in the driver's seat," says Selig.  "But that is based on the assumption that the worst is now behind the company."