Topic: Toyota Recall Update

[MG]

Interesting video from Edmunds Inside Line today. Those guys do a good job at covering news of the auto world. I like the way they present material.

Here's Today's News

[Ultra]

Thanks.  Nice piece.  Climb under your dash all you Toyota owners.

[Paul Jaray]

Good! Now that I know where to look at I just have to find a Toyota...

[Otto Puzzell]

アウトアウトアウトルックルックルック！

[MG]

Climb under your dash all you Toyota owners.

Well, that's what you and I would do, but you and I are not Mr & Mrs. Car Owner, who will, undlubtedly, act like chickens running around with their heads cut off, screaming "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! We must run and sue Toyota1 I don't drive my 10 year old Toyota lest my day end in a gigantic fireball!"   

Congress has now scheduled HEARINGS on this. WTF? What has Congress got to do with it? Why drag people away from trying to solve the problem to go listen to a bunch of preening, bloviating lawmakers in Assington, DC? 

The whole situation is rapidly getting out of hand. I think Toyota has been doing a reasonably good job of responding, although it could have been better. I went to my local Toyota dealer to ask about all this, only to watch the sales managers cheery hellow turn in to a very grim and tight lipped "No Comment." People, at least on the local level, are running scared.

Excellent time to short Toyota stock.   

[Paul Jaray]

To recall a car is not that odd, I wonder why this time is soooo important: thay talk about that even in the news.

[MG]

There's a couple of reasons I can think of, Paul:

1.  The number of cars involved is quite large and spans the world.

2.  The fiery crash of death video found on YouTube is sensational.

3.  Toyota just surpassed GM to become the largest vehicle maker in the world in 2009. People LOVE to take shots at whoever is on top of the heap. I have had some personal experience with this phenomenon myself just this week.

4.  While Toyota has become as American as baseball, hot dogs and apple pie over the past 30 years, there are STILL people who are mad about Pearl Harbor and are not at all upset to see a Japanese company getting kicked in the teeth.

I could probably think of more.......

[Paul Jaray]

1. True, but happened before.
2. I missed that!
3. That was my idea too.
4. Probably #3 is enough!

People LOVE to take shots at whoever is on top of the heap. I have had some personal experience with this phenomenon myself just this week.

something you want to share?

[MG]

No, not really, though I appreciate your asking. More like something I would rather put behind me. 

Sometimes things that seem to occupy an important place in our life turn out to be not so important after all, in the grand scheme of things. More like a pisshole in the snow, if you see what I mean.   

[Ultra]

Congress has nothing to do with it in every sense that should matter and everything to do with it in all the ways it shouldn't.

[MG]

Oh, what a circus this will be.       Who knows better how to deal with manufacturing issues than the US Congress, most of whom have never done an honest days work in their lives!   


Here's today's update on recalls, including the newest one involving the Honda Fit.

[Bezor]

Of the suppliers that make the questionable part, the one in Elkhart, IN seems to be the one that supplied the messed up ones.  One article I read lead me to this conclusion, so I probably don't have all the info.

Poor Elkhart.  Seemingly nothing can save it.  Not MSNBC's "Elkhart Project" and not the POTUS who made a stump speech there during the banking melt down.

I miss my boyhood home, but those were very different times.  I'm glad I don't live there now.  OTOH, where I live now is in many ways just as bad.

I bet you'll be able to pick up a Corolla for a sweet, sweet price!

[MG]

Didn't know you were from West Consin, Beeze. Pretty place.   

Scuttlebutt is that a temporary fix is in the works involving inserting a thin metal shim into the offending unit until enough new units can be manufactured.  I did this with the starter on my 76 Accord and it worked for almost 2 years. Buy I am not the world's largest car maker. I doubt many folks are going to be reassured by the news that the only thing between them and the fiery crash of death is shim.   

[MG]

The hits just keep on coming for Toyota.

Toyota's Troubles Mount

And GM, which just last week offered $1000 rebates to anyone trading a Toyota, is now the subject of its own investigation about electric steering that suddenly cuts out, with predictable effects.   

[Ultra]

And GM, which just last week offered $1000 rebates to anyone trading a Toyota, is now the subject of its own investigation about electric steering that suddenly cuts out, with predictable effects.   

The government always gives itself a pass.

[Dan Speed]

That's Elkhart, Indiana, MG. Bez, I was was born in Goshen and lived in Nappanee until we moved to Ohio when I was 2. Spent a lot of time in the area until my grandparents passed away.

[MG]

Sorry Dan. I read "Elkhart" and immediately jumped to conclusions.   

I regret that I know next to nothing about Indiana except you have to drive through it to get to Chicago from here.

And it USED to have a race track that was the pinnacle of racing in the entire universe.  Thank you, Tony George.....

[Otto Puzzell]

Indiana has at least two great car museums - the Studebaker museum in South Bend, and the Auburn Cord Duesenberg collection a ways south-east of there.

[Otto Puzzell]

This can't help

Toyota Dealers Pull Ads from ABC Stations for 'Excessive Reporting'

ABC News reports that Toyota dealers have decided to remove their television advertisements from ABC affiliates in the Southeast in reaction to recent reporting by the network and Brian Ross on problems with Toyota vehicles:

The ad agency representing the 173 dealers told ABC affiliates last week that the shift was due to "excessive stories on the Toyota issues." The dealers shifted their commercial time buys to non-ABC stations in the same markets, "as punishment for the reporting," according to an ABC station manager.

The decision to shift the commercials was made last week, though it appears it was against the advisement of the ad agency handling the accounts for Southeast Toyota.

ABC News has not been the only news outlet reporting on this story, though Ross' investigative reports have been the most visible and thorough on television. Ross noted it was reporting in the LA Times that first raised questions.

http://www.mediabistro.com/

[MG]

Taking a page from the General Motors "Let's investigate this Nader schmuck" playbook?   

[MG]

Here's the latest on the Prius recall.

Toyota says it only pertains to 2010 models, but I disagree. My 2007 Prius did some things under braking that were down right scary!    In fact, last fall, I toyed with the idea of taking it to a track day event at Watkins Glen, but was so unnerved by what the combination of a hyper-aggressive traction control system, an ultra-sensitive ABS system and an unknown Vehicle Stability Control system might do under track conditions that I decided against it. When on track, you want a car that is going to do what you EXPECT it to do, not what IT thinks is the best thing to do based upon some software engineers instructions.   

[Otto Puzzell]

Toyota just surpassed GM to become the largest vehicle maker in the world in 2009. People LOVE to take shots at whoever is on top of the heap. I have had some personal experience with this phenomenon myself just this week.

GM was at the top of the heap for some decades before they became the scourge of the Earth. Toyota, on the other hand, dropped-kicked their own image in typical Japanese "fast-to-market" fashion.