Vehicle recalls are something every car company has to deal with at some point, and they can have a major impact on brand reputation. Especially if you're talking about a new brand that's just come to market. What if that brand is a bold upstart attempting to take on the top dogs of the luxury car market with new levels of reliability? That could be a potential nightmare scenario.

Indeed, in most cases, you'd expect a significant recall to have only a negative impact on a brand's reputation. But as we're about to see, that doesn't always have to be the case. Back in the earliest days of Lexus, the Japanese luxury brand issued a bold recall that, in the end, actually improved its reputation in 1989 and helped cement its a name as a luxury powerhouse during its pivotal infant years. Let's take a quick trip back to 1989 to see how this all unfolded.