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Toyota Faces a Cover-Up Scandal
Toyota Faces a Cover-Up Scandal
Posted Wednesday, November 25, 2009 - 6:08pm
In an effort to deal with widespread problems with potential unintended acceleration in millions of its cars, Toyota announced that it’s recalling a huge number of vehicles to fix accelerator pedals. How many? About four million, according to the Wall Street Journal. This follows a massive floor-mat recall earlier this year, which apparently either didn’t solve the problem or brought this new problem to light.
However, it’s not clear that Toyota will solve the unintended-acceleration with either of these mega-recalls, which have dragged down the company’s reliability reputation, on the heels of a change in top management and it’s first corporate loss in 59 years. Time will tell whether the accelerator fix will end the problem, but if it doesn’t, Toyota could be looking an even bigger recall and something of a nightmare scenario: as far back as 2004, reports were circulating that malfunctioning electronic throttle control was leading to abrupt acceleration in Toyotas and other car makes.
The lawyers have jumped on it (and Toyota is dealing with lawsuits related to other safety problems, such as injuries resulting from rollovers, and fighting off allegations that it has destroyed evidence). There’s a whiff of cover-up in the air, and it Toyota wants to avoid a modern-day version of Ford’s experience with the infamous Pinto, it will publicly address some of these concerns and deal with the accusation that it’s issuing blanket recalls to avoid a major problem that could affect most of the cars and trucks it’s built in the past decade.
Comments
RE: Appendices.(lengthy list of car tire manufacturers operating
Yeah nice ride. Hope to see it later.
What cover up?
On Dateline, Brian Williams spoke of this huge "scandal" and as it turns out, the Feds have found no clear cause to the accidents. Problems with the floormats? I've owned three different models of Toyota (Corolla, Camry, and Tacoma) and never had a problem with a floormat, accelerator, or a combination of the two. In one of the reported accidents, the car had reached speeds exceeding 120mph. How does one get to that point without putting the car in neutral, applying the brakes, pulling the E-brake, or just turning the car off? This sounds more like a Darwin award to me more than a faulty floormat. Now, if one were to be suspicious about this whole thing (which I am), one would notice that this recall is for almost every Toyota vehicle made in the last 7 years. Every Toyota made in the last 7 years has an unsubstantied problem? This sounds more like fear mongering. There's nothing like using big generalities and the distinct possibility of malfunction to drum up consumer doubt. Just add up the pieces: an economy in recession, a failing domestic auto manufacturing industry, the success of Toyota, WTO trade agreements, and our own media going crazy over a couple accidents which have no clear cause.
Whoever is behind this is going to have to try a lot harder. You have to prove there's a substantiated reason for this recall. Even so, I still wouldn't buy domestic.