NHTSA fines Toyota $16.4 M.

Pulling the Pearl Harbor attack into this discussion is ethnic bigotry. Pure and simple.

 

Is above statement necessary for this debate?

 

This is getting worse inside toyota and outside toyota.

Toyota Crisis Aggravates Internal Management Feud - WSJ.com

Toyota drivers report issues after repair of gas pedal - USATODAY.com

Maybe Akio is the problem. Do you really think he is the most qualified man in Japan to lead toyota? would it not be akin to having William Durant's great-grandson or daughter come in and lead GM? Bill ford had the nuts and foresight to step aside at Ford.

 

The analogy had nothing to do with bigotry. If you don't think the United States is in an economic war with China and Japan and has been for years, your head is buried in the sand. Trillions of dollars of deficits over the last three decades. Were those deficits a result of 'free trade' were they just chance? Any wonder the US standard of living is falling in real terms? It is being exported to China and Japan.

The Chinese have just copied the Japanese brand of mercantilism but the effects are so much greater because of the size of China. Are stating the facts bigotry?

 

The WSJ must be running out of news. The Toyoda family were blaming Watanabe for Toyota's problems before they kicked him out. And most of the press agreed.

I think the USA Today article was kind of amusing. The Massachusetts Toyota complaint sounds like a Sikes story to me. Not that I want to defend a monstrosity like the Tundra, but it would make it look less like a Kane press release story if the reporters new that a Tundra was a truck not a car. And I'm really kind of wondering how working on/replacing an accelerator pedal would cause the brakes to fade? I do understand the idea that the racing in neutral is supposed to happen all on its own due to software.

The good news is that the article mentioned that Toyota isn't the only auto maker using those nasty computers. Nader is out to get rid of them.

 

If we've lost the economic war, we should blame the other guys? Who decided to put plastic wood in Cadillacs and Lincolns? Who decided to make its American customers talk with Indians and Bangladeshis trying to hide their nationality about their bank statement or their cell phone service? Who decided to abandon Sam's commitment to buying and selling US products when available? Who decided that the way to make us competitive with the Japanese and Chinese was to make American workers work for those wages? Who decided that they would just count on other companies to hire people to be their customers (since their own employees couldn't buy their products on their wages)? Who decided to invest 80% of the Bush tax cuts in foreign real estate and stocks? And why do we waste 30% of the money we do spend on our meager social welfare net on administration? Why did we allow our schools to only teach the "easy stuff?" Why do our politicians tell us we can have a balanced budget without pain except to those nasty bureaucrats? Or without reducing our role as world policeman?

We need to stop blaming everyone else in the world, and each other, and just start finding answers. Pragmatism used to be considered the best political philosophy. Maybe it should be revisited.

 

There has been much misinformation over the last 30-40 years. Education, free trade, wages, jobs, government, taxes, the amount of misinformation is staggering. The US is rapidly turning into a nanny state controlled by the government and fueled by hyper-consumerism where personal responsibility is becoming a thing of the past.

As a nation we purchase foreign-made products, bitch about our lack of job or poor wages, look to the government for protection when we can no longer make our payments. The government in turns tricks us into thinking it can give us something for nothing.

 

As for the "nanny state" we have a very long ways to go. The US used to look beyond its borders for ideas that might work better than what we'd been doing. Patriotism now requires that we reject every idea that comes from overseas.

Americans buy foreign-made goods because American businesses prefer it that way. Even when we do start making things like Vizio TVs, we get it wrong. The way you justify higher prices is by higher levels of quality. That's what Germany does(who just got beat out last year for the first time by the Chinese as the number one exporter).

As for personal responsibility, maybe this is where we're going: The Associated Press: Audi to climb Pikes Peak without a driver
Of course, not if Ralph Nader has anything to say about it! And I'm not wholly happy with it.

Did you read about Volvo's new system? New Volvo S60 brakes automatically if it detects pedestrians - Drive On: A conversation about the cars and trucks we drive - USATODAY.com

Between this, lane assist, automatic parallel parking, VSC, and adaptive cruise control, people better get used to their car thinking for itself. More like Hal rather Christine, probably.

 

Just a side note, Bob. Do you think the Volvo system might be an answer to the "bell the hybrid" efforts of NHTSA?

 

I'll wait for the proof that Inaba and Lentz were personally aware of that European dealers had been told about the accelerator issue. The press was just telling us that Toyota City didn't share information with Toyota in the US.

If proven in the 70000 pages of documents Toyota turned over, that would have been the "smoking gun" that Congressman Issa said they didn't contain. You know, the documents that Congressman Towns and his staff read through in a couple of days and said proved Toyota was lying.

Of course as the "bell the hybrid" leader, Strickland's not my favorite Harvard lawyer. He says the studies show that hybrids have been proven to be dangerous to visually-impaired pedestrians. The only study published by NHTSA says no such thing, quite clearly saying there is insufficient evidence to come that conclusion. Or at least it was there a couple of months ago. So we know he doesn't tell the truth. He is planning to do away with proven hazardous things like GPS systems and Onstar. His close relations with Consumer Reports and the Center for Auto Safety during his years working on their issues with the Senate just tells me he is just as likely to be untruthful as Toyota's executives. And we know how seriously to take him when he says that zero vehicle-related deaths is the only acceptable goal...

Just so its clear: This is my first Toyota. It may or may not be last. As with most Americans, eventually, we start rooting for the underdog. When you combine that with my attitude toward glory-seeking journalists, dishonest "neutral" consumer advocates, money-grubbing lawyers and dim-witted politicians and political appointees... my next vehicle may be a Toyota just to spite them all.

 

This thread . . . man, it never dies:





iduno . . . maybe it's just my imagination.

.

 

From your posts ..I thought you were already working for them !

 

BRAVO !!!...Mr. Strickland !!!!


Hopefully , Toyota can start giving partial refunds to Toyota buyers, who bought between Sept. 29 and late Jan.(Since they were discounted once sales fell on its face in FEB. due to bad reports and recalls in Jan.) . Its obvious Toyota stood to lose allot of major YEN if they started recalls around holiday season in the U.S, being what our market means to them over Europe and how important the "GIFT OF GIVING" means to us.

 

Toyota has evidently decided not to contest the fine. Smart move given the current climate.

Washington (CNN) -- The Toyota Motor Corp has indicated to the U.S. government it will pay a $16.4 million fine sought by the Department of Transportation for failing to notify the agency of a "sticky pedal" defect in its cars for at least four months, according to a senior Transportation Department official.