Toyota Recall

[marcush.]

honestly speeking I saw that one coming with the advertising hype getting more and more and the cars taking more and more to the usual Car makers policy of cost optimisation (read sell crap for as much money as possible and trick the customer into thinking they have bought value).
I was an outright Toyota supporter for a very long time when it came to road cars ,
driving Corollas ,Lancruisers for a daily transportation with lots of mileage.
But in all honesty the last Corolla ,model designation TS ,showed a lot of niggling
issues ,that were clearly not random but had to do with genereal quality and engineering.It still did 140000km in about 2 and a half years...
the most annoying issue was the seat back lock for access to the rear seta which gave up near 80.000km and was clearly a design and manufacturing issue.Still the new seat would have cost something completely outrageous ,so I fixed the problem at home with my trusty TIG welder..
The older toyotas had a simpler but more robust approach and you just had NO issues with them,bare filling up the tank now and then .Just perfect if you hate cars

[donskar]

Full disclosure: I work for Toyota.

A recent Pew Research Center survey taken mid-February asked respondents if they are following the news about Toyota recalls.

The results:
"Not at all closely": 28%
"Not too closely": 28%
"Very closely": 15%
These results were printed in the March 1, 2010 issue of MediaWeek. As MediaWeek summarized: "The saving grace for a brand in Toyota's situation: Many people pay little attention to the news."

A recent Rice University survey (released just this morning in the Houston Chronicle)shows that on a scale of 10 Toyota owners rate their car's quality at "8."
The average for other brands is "4."

[BreezyRacer]

IMO Toyota have done EVERYTHING wrong in relation to this issue and now that it's gone front page they will be losing a LOT of credibility.

1. This problem has been around since 2004 .. that's 6 years!
2. They continue to vehemently deny that electronic controls are the problem.
3. Fixed Toyotas have already continued to show the same problem.
4. Floor mats .. really????

It seems evident that Toyota ignored all of these reports for many years till now there is a groundswell of serious accidents coming to a head. It was just pure arrogance and stupidity that got this issue where it is. How many people work on researching these reports vs how many lobbyists do Toyota pay in Washington?

Any technically savy person would be a FOOL to discount, let alone rule out, the chances that this can be an electronic problem. Especially since Toyota, almost exclusively, chose not to build a brake override into their fly by wire controls. Due to the way this issue has been (mis)handled, Toyota will be back pedaling on this problem directly for an entire year (I estimate till the end of 2010) and sales wise they will feel it for about 5 years. Existing Toyota owners will also feel it when it comes to resale values.

[donskar]

I hate to be a pain by intruding with facts . . .

Breezyracer wrote:

Due to the way this issue has been (mis)handled, Toyota will be back pedaling on this problem directly for an entire year (I estimate till the end of 2010) and sales wise they will feel it for about 5 years. Existing Toyota owners will also feel it when it comes to resale values.

FACT: Toyota sales for March 1-10 2010 are 30% higher than for the same period last year. And Toyota's sales incentives are lower than most of its competitors.

A Pew Research poll conducted mid-February, 2010 showed that 56% of Americans followed the recall story "Not at all closely," or Not too closely." The number who followed the recall news "very closely" dropped from 21% in the previous survey to only 15% in the recent survey.
We might conclude that the public does see through all the media hype.
Results published in MediaWeek magazine, March 1, 2010, page 21.

[Giblet]

I hope everyone has heard that the guy with the runaway Prius has a shady history with insurance claims, a large personal debt, and the investigation into his car has yielded some questionable things.


American cars unfortunately are still, on average, 20-30 points lower on the scale to 100 with everything taken into account, vs Japanese, and to a greater extent each year, Korean cars.

[flynfrog]

First we had FOTA and now we have the yankee doodle car industry.
I do not understand why the public cannot see through all this corruption.
All they wish to do is sell rubbish American vehicles and waste more oil.
Pathetic.

please explain how you link the FOTA and the American car industry?

[BreezyRacer]

I hate to be a pain by intruding with facts . . .

Breezyracer wrote:

Due to the way this issue has been (mis)handled, Toyota will be back pedaling on this problem directly for an entire year (I estimate till the end of 2010) and sales wise they will feel it for about 5 years. Existing Toyota owners will also feel it when it comes to resale values.

FACT: Toyota sales for March 1-10 2010 are 30% higher than for the same period last year. And Toyota's sales incentives are lower than most of its competitors.

Yes sales are back .. problem solved! Ha Ha ha, I guess you REALLY do work for Toyota.

[West]

http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota ... mento.html

Right here in San Diego.

[Jersey Tom]

My statement 'rubbish American vehicles', was directed primarily on the huge amount of fuel these ancient concept devices use compared to other countries vehicles and the obvious inability of American auto manufactures to built effective hybrid or electric vehicles.
They find themselves in an unusual position today because of their greed from years of foreign import rake offs.
They find it almost impossible to steal foreign technology like they have in all cases in the past. It is now to obvios so they have to revert to covert protectionism.
Sad.

Well everyone knows if you plugged your God-send magical gearbox, maybe even with integrated KERS, and well-lubricated with unicorn blood... even an Escalade would get 42mpg.

[autogyro]

Everyone does not know but thanks anyway.

[Ciro Pabón]

I erased some posts and its reverberations, related to attacks to a particular country. The subject is Toyota recall. If you want to denounce corruption in the car industry of a country, please, help us: open a new thread.

Even in Encyclopedia Dramatica, a completely free speech forum, there is an article for, I don't know, Colombian Corruption. You don't talk about it in the article on Lollipops.

Furthermore, please, guys, reformulate "the thing": every time somebody says "martian industry is rubbish", martians write to me. Couldn't you be more specific? What about some facts, well documented, so people can conclude if there is corruption or whatever you think the problem is? General attacks against a particular country has been the source of many useless fights. And, again, if you're going to post this kind of things (sigh) do it IN A NEW THREAD.

[Giblet]

Corporations, for the most part, are inherently evil, country of origin aside.

[flynfrog]

http://article.nationalreview.com/42787 ... son?page=1

Hmm the accelerations are targeting the elderly?

[RacingManiac]

Not surprising for many reasons...not the least of which is the years of effort by Toyota trying(and failing) to attract younger buyer....

[flynfrog]

Not surprising for many reasons...not the least of which is the years of effort by Toyota trying(and failing) to attract younger buyer....

that and the +60 crowd is much more likely to have a "stuck throttle" event no matter what car they are in.