I said it before and I say it now: Transportation Secretary La Hood was partially right. Own a late model Toyota? Take it back to the dealer. But don’t even bother telling the dealer to fix it. Demand a trade in for a car of a different model, a rental voucher, anything. The fix they have said remedies the problem seems more like a placebo for the drivers who may have an accelerator/brake problem rather than an actual fix for Toyota’s stock price.
…as a congressional hearing into unintended acceleration confronted Toyota Motor Corp executives with a 2006 internal document warning of quality problems.
The presentation by Jim Press, then-president of Toyota Motor North America, came three years before a crash in San Diego that killed four people and triggered the recalls now covering over 8.5 million vehicles worldwide.
Press also warned the company was facing growing problems with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller closed an all-day hearing into Toyota’s safety problems by criticizing the testimony of three company executives and saying he believed mandatory brake override systems were required in addition to the floor mat and “sticky” pedal recalls.
Rockefeller’s frustration with the witnesses, including Toyota North America’s current president, Yoshi Inaba, spilled over at the end of the hearing.
“I think there is more knowledge at the table than has disclosed itself,” he said, reminding the three that Toyota President Akio Toyoda had already said at hearings last week that corporate growth had been put in front of safety.
The brake problems can not be solved by a hack your local dealer mechanic can apply to your pedal or floor rug. I refuse to believe floor rugs or crooked gaps for the pedal assemblies are causing cars to accelerate or fail to brake. Car companies have those things figured out. Especially Toyota. A computer problem would cost Toyota more to fix as it probably exists in more than the 8.5 million cars sold worldwide of the models they have been forced to recall. Why am I so adamant about this? Because Toyota’s executives are being forced to identify these models by traffic accidents, not by their own diligence.
Toyota would rather let their customers drive around for 5 years with a chance of accelerating with no chance of breaking until you drive off your Prius off the road, plow your Lexus into your neighbors house or plow your Corolla into some pedestrian.