What should Toyota do?

They need to stop assuming Americans are just stupid, ignorant third-worlders and actually BELIEVE that there MIGHT POSSIBLY be a problem. Without that step, they will continue to try to give us made-up solutions hoping we are as stupid as they think we are and will believe them ("duh, those idiots in American plants who make throttles are too stupid to build a part, so obviously that's it, right, Bubba?"). If they would even remotely believe there might possibly be a problem and truely investigate it, they might stand a chance of finding a real solution. OTOH, they may have decided it would be cheaper to take the approach they're taking and never mind if the problem is real or not (or if people are dieing or not).

 

They ignore their Japanese customers too?
Toyota Owners Report Problems in Japan to No Avail - NYTimes.com

 

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there," Sikes said at a news conference."

"Mr. Sikes says the accelerator stuck and he couldn't pull it up when he leaned under the steering wheel to do so."

"The driver, James Sikes, didn't follow the recently very publicized directions on how to shut off his car and stop the acceleration."

"He says people were passing him "left and right" while going 90+ MPH, and he was afraid he'd get rear-ended if he turned the car off and suddenly stopped."

What frakking Freeway was he on, and maybe he should switch the speed readout back to MPH instead of kMph....


For the naysayers...

Real Speak, I tromped the gas pedal so hard I broke it, and now so I don't look so frakking stupid, I will just blame Toyota and ignore my own incompetence!!!!

Oh by the way I forgot to RTFM, so I could not make a informed decision about neutral, and or 3 sec on the Power button.

 

Point being, its a problem, whether this guy was faking it or whatever, it doesn't exclude the fact that there is a problem that should be addressed, no matter how small in actual complaints, its a major problem for those that experience it. It even happens in Japan, but in Japan the consumer is not important, the company is, and thats the main reason the problem hasn't been addressed sooner for those with the problem.

 

Agreed. Even if there were never ever even one malfunctioning Toyota, which isn't possible, Toyota still has a huge problem. Public perception is probably a bigger problem than an technical problem. You can find and fix technical problems. Public perception is a much, much squishier issue.

I think this is part of the issue. Toyota has an engineer's view of the world, coupled with Japanese culture. This won't cut it with the American public and American media.

At this point it would be better if Toyota could find a problem to fix. If there really isn't a problem, it will continue to look like a cover-up. I don't see a good way out of this mess.

Tom

 

With people like malorn spreading FUD, no matter what Toyota does, it's going to "look like a cover-up".

There is no winning move once you're on the wrong side of the US media.

 

"Do you deny beating your wife?"

Tom

 

Toyota should lower their prices. There are no real incentives on the Prius right now to balance out the negative publicity. Price should move with demand.

 

Its Toyota's arrogance thats behind the problem, and yes Toyota needs huge incentives right now for all models.

 

Newsvine - Do you think Toyota knows what's causing unintended acceleration?

Some of the comments here demonstrate exactly what I'm talking about. I don't know if right-wing media is fueling this, or if it's just general ignorance/xenophobia, or what.

 

Right wing media is not smart enough to post facts, this is Toyota's fault, there is a problem, it exists however small, it hasn't been addressed in Japan because the company is king, here in America its not yet. The problem is that Toyota ignores customer complaints, its an accepted standard in Japan, consumers and consumer groups are taken to court to stop investigations. The problem would have been fixed long ago, but it was allowed to fester in the American market when Toyota tried to do the same thing here, ignore that there might be a problem in some cars. I believe there is a problem, I believe it is a problem in a very small number of cars, but the problem exists for those drivers, and I also believe there are bad people trying to take advantage of this, but it has no right or left, it has glory and wealth behind it.

 

Toyota should do what it's doing: Fix the defective parts for free. The right-wing xenophobes have definitely won a round in their attempt to keep consumers away from good, reliable, efficient, clean vehicles (one actual defect per 100,000 cars is still better than any domestic auto maker) and push them instead into gas-guzzling monstrosities. Sad, really.

 

Has Hidyho made a post yet that is NOT an attack on Toyota? Just wondering...


(BTW, this is not just Right wing media. It's ALL US media jumping in on the shadenfruede wagon.)

 

I agree that all US media is on the wagon. But most of the US media is not advancing the idea that there is a secret electronic problem that Toyota knows about but won't acknowledge.

 

According to this site, in 2008 there were 34,017 fatal auto accidents in the United States. That averages out to about 93 per day. Some are due to driver error, and some are due to mechanical failure. With 93 accidents a day, it's not news. You will never see on TV any coverage of any of these accidents, unless it was a famous person, or there was some other aspect that made it sensational enough for the predatory media. But now, every time a Toyota is involved in an accident, or some publicity hound claims his car accelerated, it's national news for days. Why? Toyotas are still among the safest cars. This is nothing but politics. The news media should report that there's a recall, as it should for any product recall, and leave it at that. Instead outlets like Fox Nooz report it as though it was a grand Japanese conspiracy to take vengeance on us for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Or as though driving a Toyota were as dangerous as covering yourself in bacon grease and climbing into the tiger cage at the zoo five minutes before feeding time.

 

Well, it's been a good 15 or so years since we had our last wave of "Japanese takeover" hysteria in the media. And what with all the headlines China's been grabbing recently perhaps Fox Nooz felt they needed to be more Fair And Balanced (tm) in their fevered rantings.

 

Toyota will just have to close its American plants, fight the lawsuits to the Supreme Court, and go away for awhile, like Audi and Hyundai did. Painful but... or they could just buy GM...