Will/should Akio Toyoda testify before Congress on Toyota's behalf?

Of course they are not doomed, but a month ago even my wild imagination could not have dreamed of such a debacle developing for toyota.
job one is they have to make sure it is really fixed. If the pedal was not really the fix(it is ceratinly rumored not to be in the automotive world) then I think toyota could be in some sort of real trouble. The kind where they don't recover in the US for decades.
They also need to lay all the cards out at the congressional hearings and Mr toyoda needs to be there in person. If some congressman gets a chance to make a name for himself by bringing out the 'smoking gun' in a cover up....look out.
What do you remember from the Detroit three hearings? multiple days in front of congress and all anybody remembers is that they flew to Washington in private jets.

 

exactly correct ... a dog & pony show of sorts. congress LOVES to have these D&P shows, because it gives them a chance to look like they're "taking care of business" ... when in fact they're NOT taking care of the REAL business of: health care, trillions of dollars wasted in wars protecting fossil fuel interests and other military wastes, developing a real live honest to goodness national public transportation system like other countries have, funding education (why is it Isreal, for example has more PHD's per capita than any other nation), fixing social security, ad nausium. No no no ... let's have 'hearings' ... that'll fix things.

:lol:

btw ... what ever happen to YOUR political aspirations ... didn't you mention you wanted to become a part of this wonderful bunch of problem solvers?

.

 

The cases are so minuscule compared to the amount of vehicles, there is no smoking gun that would make sense, the only difference will be that Toyota will start paying more attention to customer complaints and do more investigating. And, electronics are totally different from mechanical, you can't pinpoint the exact cause all the time, sometimes it takes a lot of investigating when the problem is not widespread..

 

It is a sore subject with me. I was ready to launch last fall and my wife nixed it. She said she was not ready for the attention yet, so I bought a small ford store instead. It keeps me awake at night, if you knew the particulars, I could win this fall. I am ready about 2012, if my wife can suck it up.
When it happens and if I win, I wll email you just to get a differing viewpoint on things.

 

There is a language difference. Having a native English speaker will be more effective and lead to fewer misunderstandings. Consider Ray LaHood's miss-statement as exhibit A and he is a native English speaker.

Bob Wilson

 

Stunning is all I can say. I am no longer sure that this problem wi going to be contained by toyota. Will he be subpeonaed? Will he come and testify then? Is he not coming because toyota is not sure the problem is fixed?

 

Inaba-san will be representing Toyota at the hearings. He is not a native English speaker according to this recap of his background:
Japan America Society to Honor Yoshi Inaba, President and CEO, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. and Kitaro, Grammy and Golden Globe Award Winning Artist | Business Wire | Find Articles at BNET

Nevertheless I think that it is reasonable for Toyota to start by having their US-based management involved with the hearings first.

 

Are we sure LaHood mispoke? Maybe he would have parked his Toyota. It just isn't something someone in his job should not say. Not nearly as some of the other government gaffes.

I don't think that the tobacco industry testifying to congress that tobacco is safe really did the country much good.

IMHO, Toyoda can either apologize to congress, which won't do much good. Tell the truth, which is not pretty and won't do much good (it may sound like the gm executive answering why he flew a private jet to ask for money). Or can do some bold face lying like the tobacco industry did. Best way to win is to quietly fix the cars as fast as possible, cooperate with investigators, treat the customers with respect.

Is a losing proposition either way. But I don't see how not testifying will look worse in 9 months than repeated sound bites of Mr. Toyoda looking foolish or lying in hearings. I can understand why those in the government would be upset that they can't score points with their constituents, and the media might be upset that it can't fill time with scenes of toyoda instead of the story of him not testifying.

 

Does make more sense to have the US management team answer questions, they are the ones directly responsible to the US market.

 

I noticed toyoda waited to make the announcement that he won't be making the trip until the NADA convention was over and toytoa won't be in a position to take direct heat from the dealers. I imagine I will have some inersting phone conversations today.

Someone pinch me I must be dreaming.

 

For all intents and puropses, the question posed in the OP has been
answered; No, Toyoda will not be attending the congressional media
circus/hearing.

On Feb 15, two days ago, I said:

And, so it has come to pass. We now know, the head of TMC,
Toyota USA, will be attending. This should be no great surprise, it is
for reasons like this that he "makes the big bucks."

Which reminds me, our sometimes poster, Team Prius, has reminded
us more than once that they are not technical types, just PR folks. I
suspect that their plate is now more than overflowing. As much as
I'd like to hear their take on all this, I think we won't be hearing from
them for a good long while --

Hang in there guys and gal, there is light at the end of this tunnnel.

I suppose that today's questions are;

* Will Toyota International send anyone at all?
* Why?
* If yes, can we anticipate who it would be; either by name or position?

 

No doubt some want him to drive to Washington DC from Tokyo without using either a plane or boat.

Bob Wilson

 

I hear that Toyota and toyoda still do not understand exactly what kind of 'fire' they are playing with in all of this.

House Rivalry: Who Grills Toyota First? - Washington Wire - WSJ

 

Not sure what he is supposed to learn, the CEO of Toyota USA is going to the hearings, he is in direct contact with Toyota's CEO, what new knowledge would CEO Toyota have that CEO Toyota USA wouldn't have, especially considering the language barrier that would happen in congress.