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Toyota is already the victim of one of the most irresponsible and destructive bouts of media thuggery in history. It won't get better for the company in the days ahead, although it does get a break today: Thanks to snow in Washington, a scheduled ritual Congressional executive humiliation proceeding against Toyota had to be postponed. The media, meanwhile, continues its daily rampage.
The expected recall of the hybrid Prius yesterday, to fix an alleged quirk in the computer-driven anti-lock braking system, was quickly followed by news that the Toyota Corolla is under inquiry for faulty steering. Exactly who made what complaints about the steering wasn't clear, but it didn't really matter. First it was the gas pedal acceleration problem, then the brake problem and now a steering problem. Since all car owners have complaints about their cars, every Toyota in existence will soon have to be deconstructed.
Here are some samples from the BBC blog site. "I own a Toyota Camry 2006 model. I have experienced problems with the brakes in the snow that nearly caused an accident," writes Arun from New Jersey. Aside from telling Arun to move to Florida where it doesn't snow, what's to be done? Is this worth an inquiry? Another: "We have a 2005 Camry. The car has developed a slight shudder when accelerating and decelerating. I have not contacted my dealer, but plan to do so soon."
Once this snowball starts rolling, everybody starts contemplating all the perceived quirks and problems their vehicle might have, even imagining a few new ones that were previously unnoticed. See how that anti-lock break shudders when you jam it down -- must be something wrong. In Toyota's case, there was little remarkable about its product history until one of its Lexus products crashed in San Diego while a passenger in the vehicle was making a 911 call claiming the accelerator had jammed. The report of that crash, and the 911 recording, created a gruesome story that flew through the Internet and the media.
Even though it is far from clear what caused the Lexus to crash, it is now the pivotal event in the media's relentless and escalating portrayal of Toyota as a company that has been lax in responding to safety concerns. Again, there's no evidence for this, but the reports keep on coming. Time magazine yesterday posted a story "Toyota's Safety Problems: A Checkered History," purporting to show a "growing list of safety issues" between the company and U.S. government highway officials regarding accelation-related problems. Over 25 years, until October 2009, the magazine lists 12 incidents in which officials investigated and esssentially found nothing. There are certainly more evaluations in recent years, but none lead to any conclusive signs of a problem. The complaints are all found to be "ambiguous" in cause and nature. In September 2006 a driver filed a complaint to the National Highway Transport Safety Agency about "engine surging" in his Camry. The NHTSA spent six months investigating and testing the driver's car, but couldn't find anything.
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