Toyota is in a huge amount of trouble with the government for its cover-up of safety issues. But based on a dozen recent conversations with friends and family members, Toyota appears to be rapidly losing credibility with the public just as quickly. That will not be helped when, according to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota plans to attack an ex-employee that was handing over documents to the government and claim he had mental problems.
One friend, an engineer who has owned Toyotas since they were first sold in the United States, said he would never purchase another because of the company's behavior. He cited Toyota's refusal to share black box data that's recorded in each car during an accident, saying, "As an engineer, they must think they have something to hide."
Public opinion among my friends is going from "Toyota makes the best cars and these problems happen with all makes" to "What is Toyota afraid of?" My wife, who loves her one-year old Toyota Highlander Hybrid, surprised me and reversed her opinion about buying one again, and now says she probably would not buy a Toyota if she had to do it all over again.
One marketing professor friend thought Toyota's performance will make it the subject of one of the biggest business school cases of all time, about how Toyota fell so far so fast. He says he's never seen such inept crises management and "Everything they do seems to makes matters worse." He thinks once owners start losing their lives in cars that have been recalled and repaired, NHTSA may actually ban some models from being sold.
All of my anecdotal experience indicates Toyota is rapidly losing the confidence of the public, and its president's testimony before Congress did nothing to slow that down.
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All the media has to do is look at the NHSTA reports to see how overhyped the sudden acceleration problem is.
Their negligence to take this recall seriously diminishes our confidence in Toyota and its ability to deliver quality. It's even more serious since human lives were at stake. We expect this poor behavior from the Big 3 because we don't have high expectations from them to begin with. So they have nothing to lose. Now Toyota is back at square 1 and will have to rebuild their quality reputation all over again. What a waste.
So far, from what I heard on TV it was not Toyota's fault though the lady did lie and it has been established that the policeman in California had 2 mats in the car which caused the problem.
I just wonder where are all those cars located that had this problem with acceleration. Lots of them are sold in the Dallas area and not one dealership had such a complaint on record. Survey was done
by a reliable source. I read an article which stated the witch hunt for Toyota is on. After our government invested our money in GM it is highly suspicious. Last week I read where 1.5 million
Ford Cars are getting recalled and then nothing, then some Honda's. Just what is going on?
the CHP officer who died with his family in a loaner Lexus was A CERTIFIED HIGH SPEED PURSUIT INSTRUCTOR. don't you think he would have checked the mats if the car was accelerating uncontrollably?
the following items are ALL controlled by the haywire ECU:
-acceleration
-pushbutton start AND stop. no key.
-gear shift position. no cable connection to the transmission; all "drive by wire".
...and Toyota has not recalled a single Lexus model for this.
The car was a rental, and rental sometimes put another floor mat in it and it was turned upside down. It had shifted to under the brakes and over the gas pedal, the more he pushed on the brakes the faster the car went pushed down by the floor mat, then he pumped the brakes ultimately bleeding them. He panicked! Had nothing to do with the make of the car.
This has been reported in the LA Times.
I would say that this begins to suggest that the electronic processor in the throttle is probably at the root of this problem. With each passing day, Toyota continues to bleed credibility at an ever increasing rate. They need to get control of the situation....ASAP, like 'today'...
That, and the boneheadedness that ever allowed the possibility, under any circumstances, of overriding the driver's decision to push down on the brake pedal.