The Toyota Circus...
 

Now, I know a lot of you may have some different opinions than I do, but watching CNN this morning and afernoon, this is getting ridiculous. I work for the news, but this is out of hand. The way some of the media is handling this and the way our government is talking down to Mr. Toyoda is awful. The media and government should be ashamed at how they are handling this.

I am trying to put into perspective how many people have been killed or injured from the acceleration problem. I have seen an uncountable amount of Toyota cars pass me on the road. They've all been completely under control. There may have been cars that have accelerated uncontrollably, but come on. Now everyone is nitpicking. If people had time to make all of these phone calls while they were accelerating out of control, that shows me they were capable of thinking of other things. My first panic reaction wouldn't be to hope on my freakin' cell phone. That's what makes me the angriest about this. I remember learning how to stop an out of control car in drivers ed for God's sake. Throw the damn thing in neutral or park and get on with it.

I really needed to vent about this because now the media is jumping on every foreign carmaker for every little recall. Hyundai was the big news this morning on CNN because of a door latch that doesn't work. That's enough! Through my years either on the road or before I had my license, there have been WAY more American recalls that were more serious. Multiple GM, Ford and Chrysler products went under the gun for different parts causing fires. Yes, burning down peoples' houses. Anyone remember recalls like this? You can't stop a switch or relay from starting on fire, but you can certainly shut your damn car off or throw it in park.

Go ahead and flame me away, but this is being blown way out of proportion. You have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than having your Toyota kill you. You know how I know that? I know the stats. So folks, don't ever step outside ever again. Make this breaking news. Lightning can kill you IN your house while you're sitting on your couch. Oh guess what? It even can kill your kids as well!

This stupid media circus going on is going to cause thousands of people to lose their jobs. You know who's jobs will probably go first? The American Toyota plant jobs. If people remembered what they were taught in drivers ed, this wouldn't be such a big issue. I've seen recalls on failing brakes, wheels falling off their mounts, fires starting from bad switches, glass randomly breaking from frame pressure, total electrical failiure, etc. etc. Those all seem just as serious and were even more frequent in some respects, but for some reason, the accelerating Toyota is the biggest car problem EVER! Ick. Get over it. If family members don't remember what to do, review the info with them. Remember the days of throttle cables? OH NO! Sometimes they'd get frozen in some conditions! Duh, put it in park, neutral, or shut the car off. Americans, stop being such a bunch of money-hungry, lawyer-loving, babies. Suck it up and deal with something instead of pointing a finger and saying, "It's their fault." Deal with it. (Yes, I'm from the US. Born here and live in Milwaukee.)

Rant over.

:iagree:

:iagree: x2

What's the saying? The tallest grass is the first to get cut? It also didn't help that the American automotive industry was in the tanks already. This is just a solid chance for them to turn their fortunes around, albeit at the expense of others.

Toyota did not help by mishandling the situation a little bit, but they've definitely turned around. I'm really happy to see Toyoda owning up to his company's mistakes, and I hope new cars from the company (FT-86 included) live up to more stringent quality standards, even if it does cost a little sales to do so.

I agree, the media is getting ridiculous, but such is the nature of American media. I mean, we have 50 photographers fawn over who a 19-year old is dating, so I'm not surprised.

And it's also why I read foreign newspapers more than US ones now.

i'm putting my conspiracy theory hat on. I think that all of this was a ploy by the american auto industry. is it a coincidence that in the time that the american auto industry is in its absolute worst, that a recall of epic proportions hits their largest competitor? hrmmm. yes, i know it sounds a little ridiculous, but hey, like i said, im putting my conspiracy theory hat on.

i'm sure there are some folks in the auto industry that are pushing the press to have this sort of coverage, its great for GM and Ford! More bad press for Toyota, more good news for GM and Ford...

personally, if you asked me what i'd rather take a chance on- a toyota that might unintentionally accelerate or the idiot drivers talking on cell phones or putting on make up, i'll take the toyota.

however, i am glad i sold my Scion tC in december, before much of this debacle occurred. I think I saved myself from losing 1-2000 bucks...

I had CNN on this afternoon for about 20 minutes. During that time, some Congressman made the point that more deaths have already been caused by unintentionally accelerating Toyotas than were caused by exploding Pintos back in the 70s. I have no idea if that's true or not. But if it is, then that does kinda put things in perspective as well. I'm not saying I like the way the media is handling this, mind you. I agree that it's been blown way out of proportion, and I think these idiots (politicians + media) are just making a bad situation even worse. But given how upset people got over exploding Pintos, IF it's true that more people have already been killed by these Toyotas, then I can kinda understand the level of hype.

The one question I have is:
~Is this, any recall from Toyota, causing issues in others countries or just the US?
I know in the US we get limited news on the world, sad, but I have not heard much Toyota's having issue in other countries.

Per RTÉ Business: Toyota's global recall crisis

Not sure if folks outside of the US are getting their panties in a knot like we are though.

So not just US cars, overall I have no beef with this (other than Toyota's look horrible per my style). I agree the media is blowing this up a bit to much, the early reporting was spot on and Toyota quickly stepped up (after a bit of lag) to fix this issue. Yet the media is still hyping this way beyond a logical level it is getting pathetic, I guess Obama has not screwed up enough lately to report on anything else? :stirthepot:

Regarding the part I bolded, the only problem is that just yesterday in his testimony before Congress, Toyota's US head said that the current recalls do not totally solve the unintended acceleration problem, and admitted that they're still not sure what the root cause is. I can understand why Toyota owners would be alarmed -- the guy basically came out and said "Uh, well to be honest, we're still not really sure what the problem is, and the fix we're putting in under the recall may not actually solve the problem." :eek:

Here is all I am going to say.

Toyota CEO get drilled for 3 hours.

Head of Nation Transportation gets questioned for 30 mins....what is wrong with this picture.

Doesn't help Toyota is non-union, and The U.S. government owns GM (Union)

This is such a one-sided investigation it's not funny. Toyota is just taking the fall because the timing is right.

That's the clip "the news" keeps playing... But I think that guy was talking about the "brake/throttle override." Complete spin job.

I guess I should clarify what I'm saying... The congressional panel asked, "So fixing the floormat and gas pedal will solve this?" (Something to that effect) The Toyota manager replies, "No..." Then they quickly stop the clip. GRRRRRRR! He was saying more, but the media only will stop the interview there! Gross, just gross.

I wonder what all this is going to do to the resale values of these cars. I mean, that's where the owners are going to really get screwed. Years from now, they'll go to trade in their Camrys or whatever only discover that the trade-in value is squat, because nobody will want to buy them used.

honestly Toyota had it coming. This is what happens when you try to be number 1. First of all, they started to act like GM, became to big, and the cars began to price themselves out of the intended market. Plus then to be number 1, they started coming out with new models like crazy and ramped up production of those models.

Personally i have been a die hard Nissan fan my life (and Audi/Porsche for the upper markets). Even still, Toyota is a great company that just needs to return to its roots of producing cars that suit the average American family.

Just wait till the next Michael Vick, Brittany Spears, or Michael Jackson to steal the spotlight and save Toyota. Unbelievable how as a nation, we are so easily steered by the media.

seriously... when they first mentioned this stuck throttle thing, i immediately thought "Put it in neutral!" This is what happens when people entrust their lives to a piece of machinery they don't understand. i'm not saying you should need to be a mechanic to drive a car, but you should at least know that when a car is in neutral, no matter how much gas you give it, it's not gonna move. Obviously, none of the people who died would have died had this throttle issue not happened in the first place, however if they remembered the basic bits from drivers ed they would still be alive.

I guess this is what happens when a driver is more concerned with 'cars that can park themselves' than actually knowing how to control their vehicle and save their own, their family members, and other drivers lives. sorry if that sounded snide, but what i mentioned earlier should have been anyone's first impulse