RAN Stumps Toyota

Rainforest Action Network stumps Toyota General Manager Bob Carter after his presentation at the 2007 LA Autoshow with a simple question: "Why not drop the lawsuit against California"

At a loss for words, Bob hits the camera out of my hands. Thanks Bob.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• toyota
• ran
• rainforestactionnetwork
• bob
• carter
• bobcarter
• laautoshow
• la
• auto
• show
• 2007

[solecal310]

Why wasn't the same question proposed to the Big Three who are a part of this same environmental issue? What about all the other automotive manufacturers who build these CO2 creating machines? Why is Toyota, who has proven many times throughout the world they do in fact care about the environment (they do sell more hybrids than anyone else in the world), the only ones being targeted? Sounds very fishy to me. Long live the Prius!!!

[RANVideo]

We'd welcome posing the same questions to the other majors, and have done so on other occasions.

[chimneybert]

The idiot who filmed this used a fake I.D. that happened to have the name of one of Mr. Carter's friends from Mercedes. All he did was cover the camera and call security to haul him away. These left wing environmental nutcases think that they can get away with anything! It's too bad that Toyota isn't pressing charges.

[RANVideo]

Carter did more than "cover the camera". He hit it out of my hand. Check out coverage from Associated Press, Bloomberg and Chicago Tribune for verification.

[RANVideo]

Debate and discussion are welcome, but profanity and insults will be removed. Thanks all.

[snowberg]

If his job is to promote a vehicle, how does what he did help him to accomplish that job?

First day of media training: if you don't like the question, answer a different one, and never, ever show anything but the positive side of your company. So, in this situation the correct response is: "I'm not here to talk about that today, instead I think we need to focus on Toyota's impressive record, blah, blah."

[snowberg]

Just because an organization is not a press organization doesn't mean that they aren't "legit."

If my mother lied to her boss, I don't think it would make me suspicious of her.

(As a side note, I don't think what RAN did here was illegal. It was a private event and they left when asked to. They *MAY* have lied to someone to get in, but as long as they didn't forge an official document to do it, it isn't illegal.)

[bd189]

"Why fight the good guys?"

because gm is about to become second to toyota and when that happens toyota definitely won't want to lose money in 'no tune-ups, no oil changes, no clutch replacement'. they and honda like gm, ford and mopar don't want to advance and is another reason we aren't like 'the jetsons'.

[metalpnx]

c02 emissions is simply a non issue. It's a great buzz word, but thats all. Urban warming however is real but is not a result of c02. Air quality may suffer from emissions but this will not lead to global flooding or freezing. But if you want to freak out about it thats cool. I'm going to drill out my catalytic converter thou so i can get better gas mileage and save fossil fuel and the world.

[jstack6]

I've read Toyota has big reliability problems with their big truck.

This Toyota guy was really upset with the questions for a million times I guess. Looked very tired to.

Maybe all automakers will respond better and make efficient vehicles when they stop the Billions we give big oil. In Europe gas is $7 to 10 a gallon, the real price.

No mandates would be needed then.

[phluxualized]

A perfect example of how much more important the APPEARENCE of green is over the fact of it. Just put a bunch of leaves on your branding and forget about going all the way and making a real difference. There is a small company in california that's been modifying Prius's to make them fully electric.. Toyota can't figure that one out?! This guy is boldfaced lying.. and that's his job in this situation.

[bettysman]

With regard to Toyotas's battling the new clean-energy bill, David Friedman, at the Union of Concerned Scientists said, "Toyota needs to pick sides. Is it for a cleaner world? Or is it just another polluter, willing to use misinformation to avoid accountability? So far, it seems the company is picking the latter option."

[solecal310]

The other automotive manufacturers should be a bigger target for environmentalist because if you look at the statistics, Toyota comes second, behind Honda, for best average fuel economy for their vehicle line up in the US. Thats pretty good considering Toyota manufactures full size pick ups and large SUVs, unlike Honda. You guys should spend more time protesting against Hummer and Dodge who are nowhere near Toyota's level of "Green-ness." Why fight the good guys? Just my two cents.

[hawkica]

I dont blame them for suing. Some people need a larger truck or suv to tow their crap around theres no way they can come out with a no CO2 v8 gasser in less then 2 years. They need to deal with the crisis in cali. It would be retarded to ban new low CO2 vehicles. People would just use worst co2 HD haulers to do their job.. Socal haze just needs to get darker till 2010

[hawkica]

the man's media badge identified him as Dave Schembri, head of Mercedes-Benz's Smart division...knocked the video camera from the man's hands, and security guards separated the two.