Toyota: The Company Everyone Wants to Sue

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]zoemayne[/nom]no fanboy here its objective i own a chevy. i dont like toyotas.... i like their better quality.[/citation]

man thats the first time a heard the words chevy and better quality in the same sentence you must really be a US patriot supporting GM like that

 

[buckinbottoms]

its all rather odd. news today says they are recalling Prius in Japan for faulty breaks. They have recalled multiple brands in US and EU for floor mats and stuck accelerators. What the hell is actually going on with these cars????

 

[zehpavora]

[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]lol i'd bet ford gets there crappy parts from the same place toyota does. you want a money pit for a car go American[/citation]

And you may also put all your trust in a foreign government (my case, at least) when the manufacturer you've chosen is part of owned by it. Also, the fact that that same government, who wants me to strip naked to get a plane, faced a giant money crisis makes everything better.

Get me Ford, GM, and Chrysler's portfolios 'cause I'm buying one!

Next time, try going for German cars. Germany may be a little screwed up, too, but at least they manage to be alive without government help. And they have kick-ass records in Brasil.

 

[bison88]

American vs Asian auto markets lets get ready to rumble! Whats the new joke?

"I'd rather push a Chevy up a hill than a Toyota's breaks fail going down one"

Lets begin everyone! 😀

 

[jitpublisher]

Even it they shut Toyota down, they had a good run. All of us Americans who have bought Toyota's over the years can rejoice knowing we have made many, many foreign people filthy rich. Don't worry, there are many other foreign brands left for you to spend your money on.

 

[falchard]

Just for people who think going American is a good idea. This acceleration problem has a limited amount of cars it affects. It also occurs in nearly all car manufacturers including all the big American ones. Pretty much the only ones unaffected by the problem are small custom manufacturers like Caterham and Ferrari.

This is making news predominantly because Toyota was strong armed into doing it by the US administration. If you don't know the reason why its simple. Its the reason why GM got a bailout. Our politicians are bought by the United Autoworkers Union and Toyota's US plants don't utilize this union. I don't support communist unions who are too lazy to make a good quality car and too greedy to sell the cars they make in the green.

 

[falchard]

The cause of the issue is faulty software in the accelerator of 2007~2008 cars. Toyota buys the accelerator from another company that many car companies utilize.

 

[lilwillis]

Toyota's President gave a heartfelt apology to car owners around the world. Poor guy...
After all the criticism by the media and government, I think its time for all of us to--"Give him a Brake"... ba dum dum

 

[Guest]

Actually, the situation for Toyota is quite a bit worse than this article would lead you to believe.

I read an article online a couple of days ago that was skeptical of Toyota's accelerator pedal fix. In the article, a group of safety engineers who analyzed the data found that only 5% of the reports of unintended acceleration mentioned sticky gas pedals. That's only one in 20. What caused the acceleration in the other 95%? Furthermore, many of the reports were related to Toyota vehicles that did not use the accelerator pedal type or manufacturer noted in the recall.

This group of engineers was certain that would be an additional recall after this one... a recall that fixed problems with Toyota's drive-by-wire system.

Then, last week Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak reported that his Prius unintentionally accelerated to 97 mph while he was using his cruise control. He publically stated that he believes that Toyota has software problems in their vehicles.

Finally, the local CBS news radio station reported this morning that Toyota vehicles have software that is missing a fundamental safety feature that is present in the vehicles produced by nearly all other manufacturers. According to the news report, vehicles with Toyota's drive-by-wire systems do NOT ignore the accelerator input when the driver is applying the brake. As an engineer, I was personally shocked when I heard this! When someone is literally standing on the brake pedal, there is no reason why the throttle shouldn't be at idle, regardless of the accelerator pedal input. This is a HUGE safety blunder by Toyota. Anyone with any experience in safety or engineering will tell you that this is more than a simple mistake... it is pure negligence. I'm sure that the lawyers will have a field day with this.

And that's not to mention the loss of consumer confidence caused by Toyota's failure to identify the root cause without going through multiple false starts:

1. Blame operator error - even though statistics show that there are FAR more operator errors on Toyota vehicles vs. other manufacturers.

2. Blame the floor mats.

3. Blame the accelerator pedals produced in a non-Japanese factory.

4. Oops! Sorry... It was a Japanese software problem.

 

[ikefu]

Anyone who says that GM and Ford quality is lagging Toyota hasn't driven any of their cars from the last 3 years and hasn't done any serious research. The last 3 to 5 years has been a huge shift in manufacturing quality among the Brands towards GM, Ford, and even former "value" brands like Hyundai. Toyota has been plummeting in quality and longevity for their recent models and is becoming what GM was at the turn of the Millennium.

Also, 2010 Ford Fusion is Motor Trend Car of the Year and GM now has a more fuel efficient fleet than Toyota.

Perception lags reality, and Toyota has been riding the lag for to long now.

 

[matt87_50]

[citation][nom]jitpublisher[/nom]Even it they shut Toyota down, they had a good run. All of us Americans who have bought Toyota's over the years can rejoice knowing we have made many, many foreign people filthy rich. Don't worry, there are many other foreign brands left for you to spend your money on.[/citation]

this is as bad as "brand loyalty"
buy the product that suits you, that is the best.

there are principles like not buying if its made by slaves, or bad for the planet, but this is just stupid.

I suppose you think toyota is the reason Ford, GM ect were on the brink during the GFC?
maybe it was people that would blindly buy their cars with reasoning like this, despite them not perhaps being the best, causing them to get big headed and not see a reason to compete on the points that mattered?

and do you think that Ford or GM would be as big if there weren't people all around the world buying cars from them "Foreign" brands?

 

[matt87_50]

also, ford recently announced that they were recalling a bunch of their hybrids because they had break problems. they weren't actually problems as such, it just seemed like it was a problem to the people using them, so they are changing them any way. WOW what ya know! American car companies ARE like the rest of the world. WOW!!!

 

[matt87_50]

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]The cause of the issue is faulty software in the accelerator of 2007~2008 cars. Toyota buys the accelerator from another company that many car companies utilize.[/citation]

the last part at least is true. Australian Toyotas aren't effected because they use a different part for some reason. you would be surprised how many of the important parts are mixed and matched with a different badge shoved on them to fool people like these "American cars FTW!!1! down with Evil Foreigners!!1!!" type of people.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Does anyone know of a vehicle recall database that lists all of them?

 

[sandmanwn]

[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]Does anyone know of a vehicle recall database that lists all of them?[/citation]
http://www.toyota.com/recall/

 

[sandmanwn]

link didn't work
its http://www.toyota.com/recall/

 

[warmon6]

My dad had a Toyota celica fith greneration car that looked really close to this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:5th-Toyota-Celica-coupe.jpg

One of the best cars he ever drove. finally died in like 2003 due to transition if i remembered right. (repairing it was very expensive. so he bought a use car that cheaper than repairing it.)

Overall, all companies will have there bad times. Like back in 2004 with the Electrolytic capacitor plage. A lot of MB manufactures used these 1/2 complete caps. After the MB manufactures found the reason why the caps were failing so much, they pulled them out.

Although the one thing that is unexpectable is that if they were covering this problem from the public, then let toyota feel the peoples anger.

 

[bambibuster21]

I know most people would panic if there gas pedal stuck and it is a serious problem, but all you have to do is shift into neutral, it would be hell on your motor but you would stop just fine

As for buying American cars they are assembled in the US from mostly foreign parts just like most Toyotas

 

[buckinbottoms]

[citation][nom]bambibuster21[/nom]I know most people would panic if there gas pedal stuck and it is a serious problem, but all you have to do is shift into neutral[/citation]
you need to stop telling people what to do if you don't have a clue. do everyone a favor and just stop.

not all cars will shift into neutral when the engine is at speed. the computer controls the transmission, not the shifter on these cars. go to http://www.toyota.com/recall/videos/stoppingprocedure.html and it will show you what to do for each car including ones that will not shift into neutral in this situation.

 

[omnicron]

Umm I do beleive that most Toyota's sold in the US is made here by American staffed, Japanese owned companies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35293626/ns/business-autos/