What do you think, will it backfire?

They ARE a corporation... the entire reason for their existence is coins... not some foreign country's image... and we are not their country, we are their market.


That being said... I'd still buy another Toyota... but, I'm a guy that bought Corvairs, Vegas and T-buckets and played in em and raced em...

 

Like everything else, it will blow over when people finally realize that the so-called "issue" is no issue at all, that the cars are still among the safest and most reliable on the road, and it was never anything more than when the car hits a pothole on an icy road the brake pedal feels different than some people expect. Just as ABS feels odd the first time you experience it.

 

Perspective, TYVM.

Again outside of the mass hysteria and the active efforts to damage Toyota even more then it has done to itself the one overriding concept is that people are self-centered. They do what is best for themselves first and foremost.

• If some like the very vocal ones herein have been incovenienced or made to feel insecure then these may or may not leave and move on to other vehicles.
• If some like many herein have noticed nothing, have been completely satisfied by their experiences and are secure in their own judgements then they will re-up when the time comes.
• However the vast vast majority of the US population has no idea that sites like this exist. They ocassionally get their news in sound bites just before bed. They might read a newspaper. These owners will look at their perfectly good vehicles and say..'Wth, I don't have any of these issues. Oh well someone else's bad luck.' They will continue on as they were.
• Those that hate Toyota will go ballistic that it's representing itself as an American company. The UAW especially will go nutz. But then the GM-lifers and UAW members never would be Toyota customers anyway so their viewpoints don't matter. Cross them off the list.

All that matters is 'How is my own vehicle treating me'.

 

I suspect some very talented and expensive marketing & PR firms are advising them, and that it will work overall. Also think the whole thing is overblown overall, deliberately by some.

CEO of AutoNation on CNBC this morning (they own Toyota dealerships among many other brands) said they are finding much less than 1% of Toyota owners are really concerned, FWIW. He also said the automakers that are benefitting are Honda, Ford & Hyundai, I can believe it - thought it interesting he did not include GM.

Time will tell...

 

There is a deep, deep, deep hatred for GM in the country right now. It's far worse in the real population than the people's views of Toyota. Right now Toyota is the media target but huge sections of the populace that listen to Rush, FOX, Palin and the Tea Party crowd hate GM's very existence. To them it's an afront to everything that's American.

GM should be dead and buried right next to the UAW at this moment. That it's still alive is reason enough never to buy a GM product.

 

I doubt I will ever buy a GM product and have felt that way for 30 years, but I thought most people still wanted to support GM. We'll see...

 

I had no idea that was the conservative sentiment.
Downright un-American of the right wingers.

 

If I had the coins...

I'd buy a ZR-1...

 

The LS9 engine in that thing is available for $21,000....in case anyone wants to do an engine swap. I'm not sure if it comes with the harnesses though, and I'm guessing you need a different ECU....

 

Admitting in a public forum to being a criminal, Malorn? It's interesting how most of the people outside of prison have committed worse crimes than 85% of the people I met in prison, and yet they justify their crimes as somehow "not really wrong."

Driving 120 mph is dangerous, reckless, irresponsible, and can very likely get innocent people killed.

We spend billions of dollars a year to imprison the wrong people.

 

Be careful about what you say daniel. I drive 120 all the time.








































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Driving 120 at a track is a far cry from driving 120 on the access ramp to the interstate.

You said:

"What a rush every time I accelerate onto the interstate, 120+ by the end of the ramp."

which seems to be saying that you frequently drive 120 mph on the interstate access ramp. I'm glad to hear you were kidding. On the other hand, we all frequently see people driving unsafe speeds on the public roads, and few of us obey the speed limits or declare cash income on our taxes, and I could go on. I stand by my statement that 85% of the people I met in prison are in no way more criminal than 85% of the people not in prison. And driving in a variety of unsafe ways is one of the worst.

If everyone who broke the law was arrested, there would not be enough cops or courts to process us all. And if everyone whose crime endangered human life was put in prison, there would not be enough room for them all, even if we released the 85% of present prison inmates whose "crimes" had no victim.

 

It's a demonstrated fact that 95% of all drivers believe they are better than 95% of all other drivers.

 

Everyone is certain that their unsafe driving habits are really not unsafe because they are such a good driver. Therein lies our disastrous highway mortality numbers.

I've described my crime at length elsewhere on Prius Chat, but the short version is that I tried to dig a nuclear missile silo out of the ground with a pick and shovel. I got 3 1/2 feet down before I was arrested after 2 hours of digging. (Very hard-packed sand and gravel.) I spent time at a no-security prison camp and at a level 1 - 2 prison, but I also spent a week during transfer at an all-levels prison (housing everyone from prisoners with "out" status --meaning the Bureau of Prisons itself considers them safe to allow out of the prison-- to level 9, and perhaps 10, though I think the level 10s were in lockdown. This last was El Reno, Oklahoma. It had the 4-story cell block with bars across the front of the cells that clanged open and shut; two chain link fences around the perimeter with coiled razor wire between the two, and the guard towers with machine guns. This was the place where 15% of the prisoners might have actually belonged in prison. At the other prisons the percentage was much lower.)

Prison guards typically regard their charges as all garbage, so that they and anyone who gets their views of prisoners from them gets a distorted view of our prison population. I probably cannot convince you that your cousin gave you a completely misinformed point of view. But I've been there, on the inside, and I have a first-hand experience that few middle-class white guys have had the privilege of experiencing. I will also say that most prison guards are under-educated, below-average intelligence, and generally angry at the people it is their job to watch over.

As a peace activist trained in non-violence before getting involved in civil disobedience, I was always scrupulously respectful of everyone I encountered during my protests, during my court appearances, and during my jail and prison time. I never addressed a guard in anything other than a friendly and respectful manner, yet many of the guards were constantly verbally abusive of me, as they were of all the prisoners. They regularly swore at me and made obscene and insulting comments and suggestions without provocation.

Interestingly, it was the opposite at most of the jails I was in. Jails are run by cops, with a law-enforcement background, whereas prison guards typically have no useful background, and are trained by the prison system to be guards. Jail guards I met were almost all polite and decent people, seldom if ever rude to their charges.

So I say and affirm and assert that any characterization of prisoners by prison guards is distorted and unreliable.

Of course Hollywood likes to portray prison as dangerous and violent, and prisoners as bloodthirsty. It makes for exciting movies. My prison experience (including at El Reno) would make for a very dull movie. Though there was that Albanian, who did not speak enough English for even a rudimentary conversation, against whom I could not play more than 7 or 8 moves of a chess game without finding myself in such a hopeless position that there was nothing for it but to resign.

Bingo!

 

General Motors and Ford in Australia repesent themselves to Australians as Australian, is that a mistake? What ever sells the product I guess. If I buy a small GM car will it be made in USA, Australia or South Korea?