One of the lingering concerns over the Toyota recall is whether Toyota’s “precision steel” shim fix to the recalled CTS gas pedal assembly will be a reliable long-term solution. Our analysis indicates that these questions might be well-founded, and we’re not the only ones concerned about the viability of Toyota’s proposed fix. In an interview with Toyota’s Jim Lentz yesterday evening, NPR asked why Toyota was using a redesigned pedal for new production, but only offering the shim fix to existing customers. Lentz insisted that the repaired pedals would be as good as the redesigned pedal, that the costs of repair and replacement were about the same, and that the main reason Toyota was repairing rather than replacing recalled pedals was the desire to “get customers back on the road… as quickly as we possibly can.” That’s when NPR went for the jugular.
According to a PR Newswire release, a class action suit has been filed against Toyota and supplier CTS, alleging “inherent design defects,” specifically a “lack of failsafes” in Toyota’s ETCS-i (Electronic Throttle Control System-intelligent), in use since 2001. As in not the pedal assembly. A similar suit was filed in the US last November. Today, Toyota’s Jim Lentz was emphatic that electronics were not the issue with the ongoing recall, but shortly after the US suit was filed, Toyota quietly announced that an electronic brake override system would be installed on certain vehicles with automatic transmissions. Is that as good as an admission of guilt? You can bet the lawyers are already saying so. The full release is available after the jump.
Matt Lauer turns the screws on Toyota’s Jim Lentz, who responds to conspiracy claims by saying that his family, friends and neighbors drive Toyotas. “I would not have them in products that I knew were not safe,” he says, although he does acknowledge that rapid growth could have played a role in a general decline in quality.
Say what? GM has no problem kicking Toyota when its down, offering conquest cash to craven Toyota owners who might be tempted to flee the brand in the midst of recall mania, but its own handling of the situation deserves some analysis. After all, GM confirms that its Pontiac Vibe is assembled at the GM-Toyota NUMMI joint venture using the CTS-sourced pedal assembly that allegedly causes unintended acceleration. And yet The General went on the record last Friday [via Automotive News [sub]] essentially claiming that its Toyota Matrix rebadge was magically safe from the dread terrors afflicting its Toyota-badged cousin. Now GM has revised its statement on the Vibe, admitting that since the Toyota recall, it has received several complaints about sticking accelerators on Vibes (although no related wrecks have been reported). Better late than never… unless you’re making the pitch that consumers should choose you over Toyota because you will take better care of them. [UPDATE: GM reports that the Vibe’s brakes can stop the vehicle. Go figure]
The Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institutes For Highway Safety, reports that an audit of insurance claim filings shows no reduction in claim amounts in states with bans on cell phone use in cars. According to the report:
HLDI researchers calculated monthly collision claims per 100 insured vehicle years (a vehicle year is 1 car insured for 1 year, 2 insured for 6 months each, etc.) for vehicles up to 3 years old during the months immediately before and after hand-held phone use was banned while driving in New York (Nov. 2001), the District of Columbia (July 2004), Connecticut (Oct. 2005), and California (July 2008). Comparable data were collected for nearby jurisdictions without such bans. This method controlled for possible changes in collision claim rates unrelated to the bans — changes in the number of miles driven due to the economy, seasonal changes in driving patterns, etc.
Month-to-month fluctuations in rates of collision claims in jurisdictions with bans didn’t change from before to after the laws were enacted. Nor did the patterns change in comparison with trends in jurisdictions that didn’t have such laws.
Oh how quickly things change! Just weeks ago, if you’d asked the average well-informed consumer what Toyota needed to change with its strategy, you’d have been treated to a treatise on how Toyota’s quest for quality and mass-market appeal had reduced its brand to signifying snooze-inducing appliances. Indeed, Toyota’s new CEO has emphasized enthusiasm as an area for improvement, waxing eloquent about the “splendid flavor” of the sporty vehicles Toyota doesn’t offer. Accordingly, Toyota is launching a sporting sub-brand àlá BMW’s “M” or Volkswagen’s new “R” line of high-performance vehicles according to Inside Line. Thanks to Toyota’s descent into recall hell however, boosting the brand’s sporty credentials is suddenly of highly debatable utility.
Big changes were afoot in the Scion back in the summer of 2007, as the brand’s pioneering crop of Yaris-based funkmobiles gave way to a second generation of models aimed at expanding the brand’s appeal to American consumers. Oddly enough, the biggest changes came for a new model with an unchanged name: in a single […]
Hyundai’s fourth quarter profit quadrupled over last year’s fourth quarter results, reports Bloomberg, as net income hit $822m, up from $210m in the same period last year. Operating profit rose 44 percent to $722m. This comes despite an increase in the value of the Won, which has reduced profit on Hyundais exports, which make up half the firm’s revenue. And unlike other automotive firms reaping surprise year-end profits (like Ford), Hyundai’s gains come from increased sales rather than cost-cutting. Hyundai’s overall sales rose 14 percent to 3.2 million units last year, driven by growth in the US and Indian markets. Hyundai finished 2009 with just over five percent of the world market. Hyundai expects sales to rise 11 percent in 2010, and the firm is looking to take advantage of Toyota’s weakness by offering conquest incentives like those now offered by GM, Ford and Chrysler.
Ford’s announcement that it would restore merit pay increases and 401k matching to salaried employees has drawn protests from the UAW even though it has restored profit-sharing for UAW workers. The UAW’s head of Ford representation Bob King tells the Detroit News:
They’re two separate issues. We gave up a long laundry list of benefits. None of that is being restored. We think they should use the money to pay down debt
We agree that they’re not linked,” say Ford spokesfolks. “But we don’t believe that we violated the contract.” And while the union bashes Ford for restoring white-collar benefits, it’s actually reaching out to salaried Delphi retirees, as MLive reports that UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger has written a letter to Delphi asking it to restore salaried pensions which are being cut. So does the UAW support salaried auto industry employees, or does it see them as an opponent in a zero-sum game? More than likely, the answer is neither. Or both. As this video of chaos breaking out at a UAW meeting of NUMMI workers seems to indicate, the UAW is still an out-of-control juggernaut, unable to share a coherent perspective on the industry. But hey, thanks to their ownership of a majority stake in Chrysler and about 15 percent of GM, they’re an out-of-control fact of life.
Kudos to Edmunds Inside Line for throwing up pictures of two Toyota gas pedal assemblies. The recalled unit, made by CTS, is shown above in a 2010 Camry. The non-recalled Denso-produced unit is after the jump.
Staff from the House Energy and Commerce Committee met with representatives from Toyota yesterday, reports Automotive News [sub], as Congress wades into the Toyota recall debacle. According to a letter from the Energy and Commerce Committee to NHTSA administrator David Strickland and Toyota North America Boss Yoshimi Inaba [letters available in PDF format here], the discussions with Toyota were characterized as “helpful,” but that “it left important questions unanswered, including when Toyota learned about this serious safety defect and what actions the company took to investigate and resolve the hazard.” Hearings have been scheduled for February 25, and the Committee’s letter to Inaba requests disclosure of all internal communication related to to the production shutdown, among other company documents.
Toyota’s recall of 2m vehicles in Europe isn’t doing much to clarify the chaos surrounding the unintended acceleration panic that is enveloping the company. Eight models are being removed from Europe’s roads, including Auris, Avensis, Aygo, Corolla, iQ, RAV4, Verso and Yaris. The fact that two of these models (iQ and RAV4) are built exclusively in Japan (European Corollas are built in Japan and South Africa), seems to suggest that the problem is not limited to gas pedal assemblies supplied by CTS, which has been blamed for the US recall. The other models are built in France (Yaris), Turkey (Auris, Verso), the Czech Republic (Aygo) and the UK (Avensis, Auris). According to Automotive News [sub], the recall affects these models built between Feb. 2005 and this month, even though
Toyota lengthened the arm of the friction lever and changed its materials on all vehicles produced in Europe using the subject accelerator pedals starting in mid-August 2009
About half of all dealers culled in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies have filed for congressionally-mandated arbitration, reports Automotive News [sub]. 409 of the 789 culled Chrysler dealers and over 1,000 of the 2,000 culled GM dealers have paid the $1,625 to file for arbitration, and will move into the next phase of the process: agreeing on an arbitrator. Having threatened to sabotage the process with a lawsuit on constitutional grounds, it’s a bit of a surprise to see Chrysler suddenly validating the arbitration process,but that’s what appears to be taking place. Chrysler tells AN [sub]:
The company looks forward to the expeditious completion of the process. A robust dealer network is a critical component of the group’s strategy of rebuilding a strong and resilient American automaker
Representatives of the culled dealers are optimistic that many could be reinstated when arbitration wraps up in June, but only if Chrysler continues to approach the arbitration process with an open mind. Whether that happens or not will be clear as the process goes on.
The ongoing kerfluffle over Toyota’s recall of over 2m vehicles for a gas pedal defect which (allegedly) caused unintended acceleration has caught much of the automotive media flat-footed. How could it be, many have wondered, that the automaker most associated in the US market with the concept of quality has slipped so badly? As TTAC’s Steve Lang recently discussed, Toyota has been on a decontenting binge since the mid-to-late-1990s, putting profit above the quality obsession that had defined its operations up to that point. As a result, the current generation of decontented Toyotas and accompanying quality issues and recalls can be seen as the culmination of a long-term trend. But why did that transition take place? Though it’s easy to blame greed and mismanagement for the decline in Toyota’s quality, the decline in standards was actually a natural progression of Toyota’s constantly-evolving, efficiency-obsessed production system.
German Mercedes tuner Carlsson has announced a 25-unit, limited-edition C25 coupe based on the Mercedes CL and the ancient nightmares of dread Cthulu. Sure, it has a 735 hp turbocharged V12, but that isn’t why people will buy it. The real ownership pitch: Carlsson will only sell one per country, thereby “guaranteeing exclusivity” for its buyers. Which begs the question: would Carlsson have sold that many C25s on their own merits? We think not.
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