This story caught my eye: “Toyota to pay $1.2B to settle criminal probe”
Toyota agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle an investigation by the U.S. government, admitting that it hid information about defects that caused Toyota and Lexus vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly and resulted in injuries and deaths…
Was this ever a real problem? We know in cases like this, every side furiously tries to seize control of the narrative. It’s difficult for a civilian to sort fact from fiction.
Here’s a Car and Driver report from June of 2011, “It’s All Your Fault: The DOT Renders Its Verdict on Toyota’s Unintended-Acceleration Scare”.
Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation released the results of its study into the blizzard of reports that various Toyota and Lexus models were accelerating out of control. The DOT concluded that, other than a number of incidents caused by accelerators hanging up on incorrectly fitted floor mats, the accidents were caused by drivers depressing their accelerators when they intended to apply their brakes. “Pedal misapplication” was the DOT’s delicate terminology for this phenomenon…
Was that the final word? Or just a Toyota press release gussied up as news? I’m not qualified to say.
As a personal matter, I never took the acceleration scare seriously. If my car crashes, it will be because of some idiot driver, not because of Toyota. And if I drove a Tesla, I wouldn’t worry about the battery catching fire. And I’m not going to win the lottery, even if I’m stupid enough to buy a ticket. My common sense in these matters may not be the ultimate truth, but it’s my personal guiding light.
My general sense is that nobody has a better reputation than Toyota. In an era of redistribution, maybe Obama’s Justice Department feels a need to seize money from Toyota to partially balance the billion$ it shovels into the pockets of cronies at GM and Tesla. That seems a more likely explanation than Toyotas being death traps.
But the foregoing is all just a setup for a punch line. Get ready for your belly laugh of the day.
Today’s report continues:
“In other words, Toyota confronted a public safety emergency as it if were a simple public relations problem,” Attorney General Eric Holder said at a news conference.
This is Eric Holder speaking. The Eric Holder, AKA “Eric Withholder”.
Sherman, set the WABAC machine to June 28, 2012…
The House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in [criminal] contempt for refusing to turn over documents tied to the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting…
Not to mention Benghazi, the IRS, Obamacare, Syria, Ukraine, the deficit, you-name-it. Every human tragedy perpetrated by the Obama administration is treated as a public relations problem.
Bottom line: I guess Toyota stands accused of infringing on a government monopoly.
That’s weird. Russia had a sudden-acceleration issue in Crimea and we sent them about that amount via Kiev. With a curtsy from our Secretary of State on the side.
Maynard, I totally agree with your comment about Toyota quality. I made my living as a wrench bender (mechanic) for nearly 25 years, and Toyota is one of the best. I never bought into any of this because I never heard of a case of a driver with a runaway Toyota having the presence of mind to either place the transmission in neutral (automatic transmission), or push in the clutch (manual transmission). In this scenario, the car could be controlled and stopped safely. The engine could grenade though. I believe this is just a shake-down. We have no reason to trust any of the scum in Washington.
I think of the recent VW Tenn. workers rejecting the Union and think this is part of punishment of car companies (outside of GM and Chrysler) for not following liberal government/union plans.
Besides the Tenn. vote, I think the Unions are concerned about the number of cars being built in Mexico outside of U.S. labor law. Honda just produced its 20 millionth car in the U.S. on March 20, 2014. http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2014/03/20/106874-honda-builds-20-millionth-automobile-u-s.html Now, where did Honda open its most recent North America car plant? Mexico in Feb. http://world.honda.com/news/2014/c140221New-Auto-Plant-Mexico/index.html WSJ Nov. 2012 article on Mexico auto manufacturing. 1 out of 10 U.S. sold cars in 2011 were made in Mexico. Expect even more since Mexico makes many of the small cars and Obama has dramaticlly raised CAFE req’ts. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444083304578018462369529592
Jonah Goldberg’s recent column reminds us of Obama’s hypocritical projection right from his first inauguration speech.
http://townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2014/03/21/the-emptiness-of-the-right-side-of-history-n1812125
“…In his first inaugural, Obama declared, “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history…”
Obama doesn’t silence dissent, he just audits it.