General Toyota lawsuit/recall/problem thread

It's surprising, honestly, that a company headquartered in a country where honor is so important, could close its eyes to possible problems in order to maintain profit margins. I guess no one is immune to greed.
I'd say this is actually more the status quo in Japan than anything. The level of interaction and cooperation between big business and government there would be considered nothing less than corruption to many Americans. The only reason that these problems are finally coming to light is just due to the extent of the problem. You can't just dismiss recalling 8 million vehicles.
 
It's not without irony, that Hyundai seems to have become Toyota's biggest competitor -- using basically the same methods, which Toyota (and other Japanese car makers) used in the 1970's and 1980's to conquer the European and American market: Making cheap, simple cars with good value for money.

I'm sure that Toyota would rather be compared to VW, Audi, BMW or Mercedes in their effort to become and remain the world's no.1. But in contrast to Toyota those have manoevered through the current crisis pretty much unharmed so far and will probably come out at the other end stronger than before.

And ironically even the U.S. car makers -- should they survive the next years -- might also be winners in the end, if only thanks to massive government interference and weakness of the main competitor.

There are still far too many cars being made in the world and someone's got to give. It would be a joke of history, if this recall affair would damage Toyota so much, that they would be the one who's got to give, rather than Opel, Chrysler, Fiat, Peugeot or other more likely candidates.

If something like this recall affair would have happaned to Alfa Romeo for example, everyone would have shrugged and filed it under brand character. But since Toyota has created themselves the image of being Mr. Perfect, the fall is deep now.

One thing can be learned from this: Yes, you can approach the car business with a complete no-fun, no-nonsense and only profit oriented attitude, without creating any emotional bond to your customers. But get into real trouble once and your customers will let you fall like a hot potato.

This should be taken as a warning for other mass producers and I'm sure they're watchng any analyzing the whole thing very accurately, to prevent falling into the same traps in the future.
 
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*Snip*

And ironically even the U.S. car makers -- should they survive the next years -- might also be winners in the end, if only thanks to massive government interference and weakness of the main competitor.

There are still far too many cars being made in the world and someone's got to give. It would be a joke of history, if this recall affair would damage Toyota so much, that they would be the one who's got to give, rather than Opel, Chrysler, Fiat, Peugeot or other more likely candidates.

If something like this recall affair would have happaned to Alfa Romeo for example, everyone would have shrugged and filed it under brand character. But since Toyota has created themselves the image of being Mr. Perfect, the fall is deep now.

One thing can be learned from this: Yes, you can approach the car business with a complete no-fun, no-nonsense and only profit oriented attitude, without creating any emotional bond to your customers. But get into real trouble once and your customers will let you fall like a hot potato.

This should be taken as a warning for other mass producers and I'm sure they're watchng any analyzing the whole thing very accurately, to prevent falling into the same traps in the future.

Let's not forget that of the US Automakers, Ford was the only one prepared for the economic crisis and has actually profited thanks to the actions of GM and Chrysler. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, I have talked to has expressed disappointment with GM and Chrysler for taking the bailout money.

Did toyota put that sand in your vagina Aygo?

I don't know why, but that just sounded better to me.
 
Let's not forget that of the US Automakers, Ford was the only one prepared for the economic crisis and has actually profited thanks to the actions of GM and Chrysler. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, I have talked to has expressed disappointment with GM and Chrysler for taking the bailout money.

I don't think that financial strength is what he was talking about. BMW, VW, MB, Audi all have a certain relationship with their customers. Most people who buy these brands don't jump brands easily. For instance I would very much buy another Audi for a daily, not for a project though too damn costly :)

Toyota has NO relationship with their customers they just make "cars".
 
This thread is has fallen into a "I've always hated Toyota, and I'm glad this has happened" type of thing. The thing of it is, and what every last one of us on this forum knows, is that Toyota will get past this. After Toyota regains consumer confidence, and gets whatever internal problems they've been having ironed out (lets not forget, for more than 20 years Japanese has meant quality, and the Japanese system of honor is a very real part of their culture and society), they will return to dominating the boring white goods car segment of the market.

Uh...

<----- I was never really among the Toyota haters. Yeah, I probably would have went with something else had the dealership selection in my town been better, but it was honestly the best vehicle that fit my distressingly practical and sensible criteria, at the time.

NOW I'm quite pissed at Toyota, because of the way they screwed up the recall and their frankly godawful communication with their customers. I'm sure they'll come back, Ford's had some humdingers of safety scandals and they're stronger than ever, but it's going to be a short term struggle because a lot of Toyota's customer base is made up of repeat owners, who will now be less than pleased.
 
Let's not forget that of the US Automakers, Ford was the only one prepared for the economic crisis and has actually profited thanks to the actions of GM and Chrysler. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, I have talked to has expressed disappointment with GM and Chrysler for taking the bailout money.

Ford owes much of that to luck. They had to reform after the Firestone problem. Yes it was that disastrous. It didn't help that Nasser and Billy are complete idiots (esp. the former).

Thankfully Mually has tunred them around and they look to have a positive future despite the massive debt.

As for VW, they are growing too fast. Just like Toyota. Though their quality is already crap so they could handle a big recall without their image being blemished.
 
Billy isn't a complete idiot. He was smart enough to recognize that he was in way over his head and bring someone else who knew what they're doing in. Probably the hardest thing to admit is that you don't know what you're doing and should step aside, much credit to Billy for figuring that out in time to save the company.
 
Yes Billy realized he was an idiot. He was better than Nasser who was a complete idiot and blew all of Ford's cash reserves.
 
I don't think that financial strength is what he was talking about. BMW, VW, MB, Audi all have a certain relationship with their customers. Most people who buy these brands don't jump brands easily. For instance I would very much buy another Audi for a daily, not for a project though too damn costly :)

Toyota has NO relationship with their customers they just make "cars".

A of people have a big relationship with Toyota...they've pinned it all on the history that a Toyota is reliable to a fault and reasonably safe. It's also a matter of people having bad experiences with domestic brands, hearing 2nd hand/3rd hand experiences from friends, etc. that tends to create this relationship. On an emotional level, probably a feeling of safety or something, but most likely no real sense of "excitement" or "joy", at least in most recent Toyota's
 
As for VW, they are growing too fast. Just like Toyota. Though their quality is already crap so they could handle a big recall without their image being blemished.

I just read that VW is very closely monitoring the whole Toyota affair and that they are determined to not let something like that happen to them.

You can never exclude technical problems but you can definitely improve the way the solution is handled.

And by the way: I always read about the American quality problems VW is said to have. Only I cannot relate to it, because the perception here is a completely different one. I know that VW dealers suck and that their customer service is quite bad (and that seems to be a worldwide phenomenon) but you won't find anyone here, who'll say that the quality of the cars sucks.
 
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The ones over here are horrible. I've heard negative things about Audi quality too (to those who don't know all Audis sold in the US are built in Europe).
 
Quality-wise Audi currently has a higher reputation here, than BMW or Mercedes.
 
I think it may be down to the American way of life. We tend to treat cars like a giant dust bin, not careful at all with them. On the build quality front, we get the same Audis and the VW Passat and higher models are the same ones sold in Europe.

You know, if I would have said or even insinuated, that Americans are filthier and less caring with their cars, I would have been skinned alive in here :p
 
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^ A comment that stupid doesn't deserve a response or starting a flame-war.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/19/report-house-subcommittee-petitions-toyota-for-secret-documents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

According to a report by Automotive News, the House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to former Toyota lawyer Dimitrios Biller requiring him to submit secret documents to Congress in advance of a February 24 hearing about the Japanese automaker's unintended acceleration issues. Biller is required to submit the reported four 18-inch bank boxes of documents to Congress by February 23. Biller filed a federal racketeering suit against his former employer over the summer.

Just one week ago Toyota won a temporary injunction against Biller barring the lawyer from releasing any of the secret documents. Biller's lawyer, Jeffrey Allen, says the congressional subpoena supersedes the injunction and that Biller intends to supply the documents by the February 23 deadline. Biller contends that Toyota destroyed multiple documents that could have implicated the automaker in SUV rollover cases. In late September, Texas Judge T. John Ward ordered Toyota not to destroy any crash informaton.

Toyota is suing Biller for $33.5 million for divulging confidential information and Biller's lawyer contends that Toyota's ex-lawyer flew to Japan and tried for four days to get executives to air his concerns over the handling of the information. Biller was then reportedly asked to resign and given a severance.

The February 24 House Oversight meeting has still more drama due to the fact that Toyota President Akio Toyoda will testify before the committee. Toyoda originally planned to leave the testifying to Yoshimi Inaba, president of Toyota's operations in North America. That changed when committee chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) sent a formal letter to the Toyota president requesting his presence.

We're not sure how the alleged SUV rollover info is relevant to unintended acceleration, but the bigger picture may be that congress is looking into whether Toyota has a history of hiding evidence that could potentially paint the company in a bad light.
Sounds like Congress is prepping for a witch-hunt into all of Toyota's dirty laundry.
 
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