The Lexus sedan driven by Rhonda Smith, who testified in Congress Tuesday about a harrowing incident of sudden acceleration, is still on the road, according to the National Highway traffic Safety Administration.
In fact, the new owners of the luxury ES350 sedan have reported 27,000 miles trouble-free with the vehicle, according to a NHTSA spokeswoman. Mrs. Smith and her husband sold the vehicle after the incident, in which she thought she might die.
JCHRISTLORD, the hearings are not about "defects in Honda cars" in general, nor about "defects in Honda Civic" in particular.
Oh, I hope that the particular model you are driving has no problems with the airbag. (They're now conducting recalls of some models because of a problem with airbags. Never heard of it?)
JCHRISTLORD, did you miss the part about Toyota still insisting that "there is nothing wrong with the electronics nor with the software"?
The software fix they are conducting are still described as "done just to assure the customers, there is nothing wrong to begin with". And everything else--structural flaws, design flaws, etc--are still being denied. How is error rectified when the very existence of the error is denied?
finally toyota gets whats coming to them. The problem will still be there in the electronics no matter what toyota knows it but dosent care about u the customer so go ahead be faithfull to a car company that dosent care about u or ur family saftey ill be reading about u on the front page of the news
What does the bail-out of Car Company A for poor sales have to do with confronting Company B about fatal defects which were left uncorrected for months~years?
Do you seriously see this as a CONTEST between countries, or a CONTEST between companies?
MEGF142857, IN YOUR MIND, evidently it is nothing more than a CONTEST.
What a mentality. The very same mentality which makes companies refuse to promptly correct serious, even potentially-fatal, defects "because they might look bad in this CONTEST".
When you're old enough, you should consider a career with Toyota or any company with a mentality which leads it to precisely this kind of quagmire.
We'll just have to disagree on the perspective of my comment. It was not targeted at Toyota's actions. Yes, companies do compete against each other. Have you not run a business? I disagree that a company hiding mistakes is a long term benefit. I used to own a Toyota and glad they are taking action to correct their mistakes. I now own Fords and glad they didn't run their company into the ground and expect taxpayer bailout.
We can agree that running a business where one does not have a monopoly of the market obviously means competition.
But I do not in any way see competition as an excuse to sacrifice customers--on the contrary, the competition should be based on who can serve customers better.
My "I am glad that Toyota is finally taking action to correct their mistakes" is tempered by the unanswered question of why it took them until 2010 when they have known since 1997 ...
my faith that they will be able to correct existing mistakes lacks foundation when they still insist that "so far they have found nothing wrong with the design or with the technology" ...
my hope that they will be able to prevent serious flaws from recurring, or at least from remaining uncorrected for long, is empty hope when nobody in particular admits that "I knew but did nothing." or "I knew but told nobody".
1 Did Akio Toyoda know of the problems or not? when did he first know? and what did he do once he knew?
And if Akio Toyoda himself was simply not told by those who knew, who were those who knew but did not tell him AND did not solve the problems either--Toyota North America President Inaba? past President Watanabe? PP Cho? PP Okuda?
2 What will they do for those who were victims of crashes and feared for their lives when brakes failed and cars suddenly accelerated?
3 A company executive--any company's executive--can shed tears OF JOY when others whose INCOMES are tied to the company's fortunes express support. That's fine.
But a company's executive and its employees should also shed tears OF SHAME when customer's LIMBS AND LIVES are put at risk or lost.
All these are the reasons why I can only conclude that *so far*, Akio Toyoda and his men are still failures.
@gagothesith Speaking of competition.... GM has been offering incentives including lease pull-aheads, zero-percent financing and $1,000 down payments to get into GM vehicles for Lexus and Toyota owners. - Ford has been offering adding $1,000 on trade-ins of Toyota, Lexus, Scion, Acura and Honda models.
My original point was about Congress interfering with the marketplace and bailing out GM and not about Toyota safety. Still relevant, IMO.
MEGF142857, with all due respect, allow me to point out
1 that the bail-out of manufacturers and financial institutions came way before serious product flaws of a particular foreign manufacturer came to light;
2A: financial institutions are bailed out because of fears that their bankruptcy will have a domino effect on much of the rest of the economy;
2B-1: manufacturers in general are bailed out for the purpose of saving jobs;
2B-2: certain types of manufacturers in particular are bailed out also for the purpose of retaining a heavy-industry manufacturing base for the country--indispensable in times of war, etc.
3 Yes, car manufacturers other than the one in trouble would take advantage by offering incentives for consumers to switch.
(i) Competitors seeking to benefit is an *after-the-fact* matter--nothing to do with what caused the serious flaws in the products of the company in trouble.
(ii) Other Japanese car manufacturers or non-Japanese car manufacturers (whether American, Korean or European) benefitting from Toyota's hopefully-temporary problems are no different than Japanese and Korean manufacturers having benefitted from the years when The Big Three produced poorly-performing products.
(iii) Also, the government--whether regulatory bodies or the legislature, of any country--going after a company which is (1) PROMPTLY correcting (2) NON-FATAL flaws in its products would indeed be a problem.
(iv) But if (1) the flaws are FATAL and (2) the action is DELAYED BY YEARS, then it is right for regulatory bodies and the legislature, whichever the country the market is and in whichever country the company's head office is, to step in.
4A: Believe it or not, Japanese car giants have been recipients of subsidies and incentives both from the federal and the state governments which want them to build factories domestically/locally.
Evidence of which is the support expressed for Toyota by the Governors of the states in which their factories and the factories of their parts suppliers are located.
4B: Speaking of "government giving domestic companies an advantage", there is a system in Japan which grants subsidies and reduced taxes for purchasers of cars which satisfy certain levels of fuel efficiency, certain size, etc.
The total amount of deductions and savings is from a few hundred thousand yen to several hundred thousand yen. (Divide by 90 to convert to US Dollar)
The subsidies and deductions were applied only to Japanese cars--European, Korean and American cars were excluded. Until recently when six models of American cars were added to the list, after intense lobbying by the US Government.
5 So yes, the US government has bailed out US companies and has multiple times intervened to save companies which lose the competition.
But they have nothing to do with (1) the serious-to-fatal flaws in the products of Y-Company, and have nothing to do with (2) the DUTY of regulatory authorities, of legal authorities and of the legislature to step in when laws are broken and consumers are hurt or die, regardless of which company from which country is at fault.
Toyota is to blame. that made a shitty product and should be held accountable for their crappy work.
Working conditions are different and laws to protect the public purchasing these products are different. We are importing junk. Buy American and German cars. They are truly the best.
i actually watched hours of the hearing...and every democrat blamed toyota and every republican said...how about we actually do some research and see if it was the vehicle or the user error. try doing your homework...
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The Wall Street Journal
The Lexus sedan driven by Rhonda Smith, who testified in Congress Tuesday about a harrowing incident of sudden acceleration, is still on the road, according to the National Highway traffic Safety Administration.
In fact, the new owners of the luxury ES350 sedan have reported 27,000 miles trouble-free with the vehicle, according to a NHTSA spokeswoman. Mrs. Smith and her husband sold the vehicle after the incident, in which she thought she might die.
tenacioustaut 2 years ago
JCHRISTLORD, the hearings are not about "defects in Honda cars" in general, nor about "defects in Honda Civic" in particular.
Oh, I hope that the particular model you are driving has no problems with the airbag. (They're now conducting recalls of some models because of a problem with airbags. Never heard of it?)
gagothesith 2 years ago
JCHRISTLORD, did you miss the part about Toyota still insisting that "there is nothing wrong with the electronics nor with the software"?
The software fix they are conducting are still described as "done just to assure the customers, there is nothing wrong to begin with". And everything else--structural flaws, design flaws, etc--are still being denied. How is error rectified when the very existence of the error is denied?
gagothesith 2 years ago
finally toyota gets whats coming to them. The problem will still be there in the electronics no matter what toyota knows it but dosent care about u the customer so go ahead be faithfull to a car company that dosent care about u or ur family saftey ill be reading about u on the front page of the news
Thegreatjoker13 2 years ago
but yet honda should recall the accords cause the front wheels fall off the cars hmmmmm
Thegreatjoker13 2 years ago
Hmmm... did we have to really bail out GM.
MegF142857 2 years ago
What does the bail-out of Car Company A for poor sales have to do with confronting Company B about fatal defects which were left uncorrected for months~years?
Do you seriously see this as a CONTEST between countries, or a CONTEST between companies?
gagothesith 2 years ago
@gagothesith Isn't it?
MegF142857 2 years ago
MEGF142857, IN YOUR MIND, evidently it is nothing more than a CONTEST.
What a mentality. The very same mentality which makes companies refuse to promptly correct serious, even potentially-fatal, defects "because they might look bad in this CONTEST".
When you're old enough, you should consider a career with Toyota or any company with a mentality which leads it to precisely this kind of quagmire.
gagothesith 2 years ago
We'll just have to disagree on the perspective of my comment. It was not targeted at Toyota's actions. Yes, companies do compete against each other. Have you not run a business? I disagree that a company hiding mistakes is a long term benefit. I used to own a Toyota and glad they are taking action to correct their mistakes. I now own Fords and glad they didn't run their company into the ground and expect taxpayer bailout.
MegF142857 2 years ago
Oh.. just to be clear... hiding mistakes isn't a short term benefit either. Killing customers is not good for a company!
MegF142857 2 years ago
We can agree that running a business where one does not have a monopoly of the market obviously means competition.
But I do not in any way see competition as an excuse to sacrifice customers--on the contrary, the competition should be based on who can serve customers better.
My "I am glad that Toyota is finally taking action to correct their mistakes" is tempered by the unanswered question of why it took them until 2010 when they have known since 1997 ...
gagothesith 2 years ago
my faith that they will be able to correct existing mistakes lacks foundation when they still insist that "so far they have found nothing wrong with the design or with the technology" ...
my hope that they will be able to prevent serious flaws from recurring, or at least from remaining uncorrected for long, is empty hope when nobody in particular admits that "I knew but did nothing." or "I knew but told nobody".
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
1 Did Akio Toyoda know of the problems or not? when did he first know? and what did he do once he knew?
And if Akio Toyoda himself was simply not told by those who knew, who were those who knew but did not tell him AND did not solve the problems either--Toyota North America President Inaba? past President Watanabe? PP Cho? PP Okuda?
2 What will they do for those who were victims of crashes and feared for their lives when brakes failed and cars suddenly accelerated?
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
And what will they do for those who were killed?
3 A company executive--any company's executive--can shed tears OF JOY when others whose INCOMES are tied to the company's fortunes express support. That's fine.
But a company's executive and its employees should also shed tears OF SHAME when customer's LIMBS AND LIVES are put at risk or lost.
All these are the reasons why I can only conclude that *so far*, Akio Toyoda and his men are still failures.
gagothesith 2 years ago
@gagothesith Speaking of competition.... GM has been offering incentives including lease pull-aheads, zero-percent financing and $1,000 down payments to get into GM vehicles for Lexus and Toyota owners. - Ford has been offering adding $1,000 on trade-ins of Toyota, Lexus, Scion, Acura and Honda models.
My original point was about Congress interfering with the marketplace and bailing out GM and not about Toyota safety. Still relevant, IMO.
MegF142857 2 years ago
MEGF142857, with all due respect, allow me to point out
1 that the bail-out of manufacturers and financial institutions came way before serious product flaws of a particular foreign manufacturer came to light;
2A: financial institutions are bailed out because of fears that their bankruptcy will have a domino effect on much of the rest of the economy;
2B-1: manufacturers in general are bailed out for the purpose of saving jobs;
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
Yes, thanks for the due respect. Take care.
MegF142857 2 years ago
2B-2: certain types of manufacturers in particular are bailed out also for the purpose of retaining a heavy-industry manufacturing base for the country--indispensable in times of war, etc.
3 Yes, car manufacturers other than the one in trouble would take advantage by offering incentives for consumers to switch.
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
(i) Competitors seeking to benefit is an *after-the-fact* matter--nothing to do with what caused the serious flaws in the products of the company in trouble.
(ii) Other Japanese car manufacturers or non-Japanese car manufacturers (whether American, Korean or European) benefitting from Toyota's hopefully-temporary problems are no different than Japanese and Korean manufacturers having benefitted from the years when The Big Three produced poorly-performing products.
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
(iii) Also, the government--whether regulatory bodies or the legislature, of any country--going after a company which is (1) PROMPTLY correcting (2) NON-FATAL flaws in its products would indeed be a problem.
(iv) But if (1) the flaws are FATAL and (2) the action is DELAYED BY YEARS, then it is right for regulatory bodies and the legislature, whichever the country the market is and in whichever country the company's head office is, to step in.
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
4A: Believe it or not, Japanese car giants have been recipients of subsidies and incentives both from the federal and the state governments which want them to build factories domestically/locally.
Evidence of which is the support expressed for Toyota by the Governors of the states in which their factories and the factories of their parts suppliers are located.
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
4B: Speaking of "government giving domestic companies an advantage", there is a system in Japan which grants subsidies and reduced taxes for purchasers of cars which satisfy certain levels of fuel efficiency, certain size, etc.
The total amount of deductions and savings is from a few hundred thousand yen to several hundred thousand yen. (Divide by 90 to convert to US Dollar)
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
The subsidies and deductions were applied only to Japanese cars--European, Korean and American cars were excluded. Until recently when six models of American cars were added to the list, after intense lobbying by the US Government.
. . .
gagothesith 2 years ago
5 So yes, the US government has bailed out US companies and has multiple times intervened to save companies which lose the competition.
But they have nothing to do with (1) the serious-to-fatal flaws in the products of Y-Company, and have nothing to do with (2) the DUTY of regulatory authorities, of legal authorities and of the legislature to step in when laws are broken and consumers are hurt or die, regardless of which company from which country is at fault.
gagothesith 2 years ago
Toyota is to blame. that made a shitty product and should be held accountable for their crappy work.
Working conditions are different and laws to protect the public purchasing these products are different. We are importing junk. Buy American and German cars. They are truly the best.
WireZombie253 2 years ago
so democrats blame toyota and republicans blame the user...simply put, it is probably both
superman0124 2 years ago
"Democrats and Republicans"? What have you been smoking.
gagothesith 2 years ago
i actually watched hours of the hearing...and every democrat blamed toyota and every republican said...how about we actually do some research and see if it was the vehicle or the user error. try doing your homework...
superman0124 2 years ago