The Toyota Witch Hunt

Maybe the silver lining in this cloud of mist, mistatement and misunderstanding called the Senate hearings will be that this clown of a woman and Sean Kane and his ilk will prove to be shown that the adjective 'bogus' must be appended to their names whenenver referenced.

This guy Kane and his alleged 'safety experts' are the new CNW Marketing of this decade.

Thanks Tideland, for the link to a solid fact-based article. Oh, btw, did they play the gold medal game yet in Vancouver? I was away yesterday? [Canadian friends...it's Monday already? What happened to the rest of Sunday ]

 

Welcome to 2007. They did go public. There was a safety recall in 2007 on some 55000 vehicle requiring the dealers and owners NOT to stack All Weather Mats on top of the OEM carpetted mats. In addition a label was affixed to the mats on the subject vehicles and all subsequent production thereafter in those models. In addition the owners that did purchase the All Weather mats were instructed to make certain that they were secured by the hooks, not set loosely on top of the OEM mats.

Oh, the Lexus dealer in San Diego did none of these things correctly. He ignored all the warnings despite the recall in 2007, tragically.

 

I have a set of Toyota all weather mats. In addition to the instructions and the hooks that came with them, the mats actually have a warning not to be used with other mats molded into the surface of the mat.

 

Sure, but you can't read that warning when it's under another mat.

Tom

 

Thankyou deadphish,

Do you know you made my point?

Toyota while sweeping safety issues under the rug (note on the same issue its a "WIN" to kill additional investigations), they had their dealer network have years of doing unsafe practices. They could see this if they looked at compaints to dealerships or incidents reported to NHTSA. Since they let the practice go on for years they obviously were not very emphatic in their own training of employees.


Now do we trust the same dealer network that for years has installed these mats, to honestly diagnose the problem. Did they read the ERD? Did they investigate anything other than the mat? It leaves a gaping hole of doubt in my mind. Actually informing owners with a phone call of the recall would ease my mind a little bit. Do you think they did that? How public do you need to be when drivers are dieing?

 

Oh, I see your confusion. You have the misconception that Toyota Motors ( TMS here ) and the dealers are the same company. That's incorrect. They are independent of one another.

Toyota has very little say in how dealerships are run; this is true for every maker. The dealerships have very little say in what Toyota makes/ships. Separate entities.

Dealership employees ( all makes ) work for the local store not the maker. The T/L dearlership employees have nothing to do with TMS here in the US. Nada. If the local stores ignore the Federal Recall instructions and ignore the warnings put right on the mats...well then those like Bob Baker in San Diego will go out of business because they can't follow instructions.

 

So you know something that the public don't! You must be an insider from Toyota. The information available to the public said the brakes were burnt!

 

I may still not understand. I thought that TMS was responsible to make sure that the dealerships were doing their work properly. This would mean getting them adequate training and making sure they are following all applicable laws. This would include following recalls. Doing warranty work properly. Not charging for work not completed. Not telling customers parts are broken when they aren't etc. Not refusing warranty work when it is required.

That makes sense if you are saying TMS isn't watching what is happening on a day to day basis. But are you saying that TMS doesn't make sure installation and repairs are being done properly at their authorized dealers. How does toyota collect information about customer repairs and complaints from their dealer network? What makes a dealer authorized?

 

I thought it was ridiculous when I first saw it - why on earth would they need to warn people about this - are there really people who stack mats under their feet without regard to the possibility of jamming the pedals? - apparently there are.

 

I've said all along that Toyota was being targeted, and the accusations looked fabricated. Their "apologies" were taken by the American media as an admission of guilt.
I felt they were just being polite. The American way is to just stonewall, and not admit any responsibility. That way, the media just goes away and finds something else to bite on.

You know that Toyota isn't going to be affected by this long term . Short term, if it helps GM and Ford to get back on their feet with a good product, then it will be worth it--because a lot of jobs are at stake. In the meantime, buy a Toyota--the opportunity has never been better. Honda, too. They are still the best value cars.

 

My comment was meant to be funny.

Tom

 

I got it. I initially thought it was funny that Toyota would go the the lengths of molding the warning into the mat, but apparently it was not enough. I suggest that next time they must make the mat too large to fit into the vehicle - that will prevent it from being used improperly. :madgrin:

 

In the Corolla I just bought for my son the mats are on pins through the carpeting, the one on the driver's side has a warning label sewed to it saying "to be removed only by the consumer," and it is zip-tied to the seat track. Talk about overkill. I'm not real sure what good mats are if you can't take them out, but it'll never slip under the accelerator pedal!

 

The dealers have been installing them in an unsafe manner. Instead of properly training the employees at the dealers the lawyers have decided to use zip ties.

Note, it was 4 years before I spilled anything on my floor mat on my lexus that required removal. Warnings don't remove legal obligations if employees that should know better violate them.

 

I'm glad the smiths don't own a prius