India is going to be an economic powerhouse, just like China. With 1.1 billion people, that’s a lot of potential customers for your goods. Suzuki knew this, which is why they pushed hard in India. Suzuki is the undisputed market leader in India. Whenever there are developments in that market, we should probably listen. Listen up: Read More >

With the Chinese planning an electrical assault on Europe, with Nissan preparing their Leaf and with Renault charging-up Zoe, Peugeot-Citroen (PSA) is probably feeling a little exposed right now. Bad enough PSA failed to work out an agreement with Mitsubishi. Now they’re deficient in the no carbs category. But don’t worry, a white knight is coming to the rescue and offering them a ready-made electric vehicle. That’s right, they couldn’t work out a capital tie-up, but PSA and Mitsubishi Motors worked out an agreement on electric cars. Read More >

When it comes to mountains of data like the NHTSA vehicle complaint data base, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure(trove).  Yes, there are limitations. But the remarkable degree of similarity of the UA rate between most badge engineered cars, and GM’s consistently low UA ratings speak of statistical relevance to some of us. One of those is David Lapidus, (TTAC handle: David42), whose data diving and Excel skills vastly overshadow mine.

In the last data dive, I used numbers from Edmunds to come up with a UA complaint rate for 117 cars from MY 2005-2010, excluding the flurry of complaints filed with NHTSA after the Toyota mat recall 0f 9/29/09. But those are cumulative, over the five years. David has taken it to the next level, to the individual model year. We may come back to the whole list another time, but initially we decided to focus on the Toyota Camry, since its large volume of sales and UA complaints would inherently increase the statistical accuracy of the numbers. And although this data dive may not solve the UA puzzle, it does raise serious questions about the most recent recalls and the Congressional barbecue of Toyota. Read More >

The Japanese government floated a highly interesting idea in Geneva. It could possibly revolutionize international car trade. Except for the United States. According to today’s Nikkei [sub], the Japanese government has proposed that the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, a working party of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, create a system for international whole vehicle type approval. The UNECE immediately began looking into the idea last Saturday, and as per the Nikkei, by Saturday evening, “a majority of the member countries had agreed to the proposal.” That was fast.

It did not need much work: An international mutual recognition framework already exists for automobile components. The USA and Canada are absent from this framework. Says the Nikkei: “But for vehicles themselves, automakers have to obtain for each model approval from their own government as well as the governments of the countries to which they export.” Well, not exactly. Read More >

And while we are solidly in left brain mode, here the explanation of Toyota’s brake override. You can start on a steep hill, even brake with your left foot, says Toyota. Let their presser speak for itself: Read More >

This is left brain – right brain weekend. While the more image driven can submerge themselves in pictures of old car ads, the other faction can unleash their inner nerd with abandon. Yesterday, we covered how ABC had entered the grail of automotive disaster-fakery, previously populated by NBC and CBS. ABC’s smoking gun video had been torn to shreds.

Today, we turn our attention to the man who aided and abetted the tricksters: Associate professor David Gilbert of the renowned Southern Illinois University. His work has been inspected by Exponent, a research company hired by Toyota. Hired by Toyota? Well, that should discredit Exponent immediately. Not so fast.

Crash Sled thankfully has found a full copy of Exponent’s retort to Gilbert’s machinations. The report is hosted on the ABC website, so we can assume it passed ABC’s scrutiny, for what that may be worth. Let’s look at the report a little closer.

Warning: This discussion needs a basic understanding of electric circuitry. If that’s not your thing, then don’t waste you time reading further. We’ll leave you to Sunday’s pictures with the message that Gilbert is a charlatan extraordinaire, and that whoever put him on the stand to make a case against Toyota needs to have his or her head examined. However, should you own a 2010 Toyota Avalon, then you have slight cause for concern. Read More >

Last week, Professor David W. Gilbert testified at a house hearing and said he had replicated the unintended sudden acceleration in Toyota’s vehicles. Toyota, and their testing lab Exponent tried Gilberts method and said he was right. “But Toyota said it also created the same response in vehicles made by competitors, which it said rendered Mr. Gilbert’s findings misleading,” writes the Washington Post.

In a statement, Toyota says: “The analysis of Professor’s Gilbert’s demonstration establishes that he has reengineered and rewired the signals from the accelerator pedal. This rewired circuit is highly unlikely to occur naturally and can only be contrived in a laboratory. There is no evidence to suggest that this highly unlikely scenario has ever occurred in the real world. As shown in the Exponent and Toyota evaluations, with such artificial modifications, similar results can be obtained in other vehicles. “ When Exponent applied Gilbert’s test to five models, including a Honda Accord and a BMW 325i, all five vehicles reacted similarly. Read More >

Just as Paul Niedermeyer, Edmunds, Consumer Reports or anybody else who has the time to download and analyze 103.1 Mbytes worth of customer complaints to NHTSA, Toyota is pouring over the data. However, their attempts are being thoroughly frustrated.

According to The Nikkei [sub], Toyota found out that oftentimes complaints submitted to the NHTSA “either are unverifiable or lack vehicle-owner information required to facilitate follow-up.” In other words, a lot of the complaints look like they are bogus. Even if they are real, their validity cannot be ascertained.

And herein lies the rub: Read More >

When Toyota stumbled there were (muted) shouts of glee around the car producing world. “Yay! They fell flat on their face! Let’s pick up the pieces.” Well, nobody said it openly, but action speaks louder than words: Ford and Hyundai revved up their “quality” aspects (wink, wink) GM and Chrysler fired up their incentives (it’s all on the taxpayers, so who cares?) Ford and  Hyundai said “to hell with subliminal messages” and followed with the money. Even Nissan couldn’t help themselves and offered a bounty to deserting Toyotaphiles. February came and went and Toyota only registered a 9 percent drop (year on year after the carpocalypse). This was quite confusing. Especially given the fact that production had been halted and dealer stock was quarantined until fixed. Analysts had predicted double digit drops and were surprised themselves. Everyone had expected something out of a George Romero film to happen to Toyota. So, suddenly, this turns into an Agatha Christie story. “Who benefited from Toyota’s stumble”? Read More >

According to popular wisdom, the Koreans have no love lost for the Japanese. And likewise. What’s more, Koreans and Japanese car makers are bitter competitors for foreign market share. So wouldn’t it stand to reason that Korea would jump on the “down with Toyota” bandwagon with their 96 million feet? Just the opposite is true.

The Chosun Iibo, according to Wikipedia “one of the major newspapers in South Korea,” takes the position that Toyota could very well be “a scapegoat for U.S.-Japan squabbling.” Read More >

According to popular wisdom, the Chinese have no love lost for the Japanese. So wouldn’t it stand to reason that China would jump on the “down with Toyota” bandwagon with 2.6b feet? Just the opposite is true. The Chinese government urges caution, tells its auto industry to watch and learn, and to step up its quality. What’s going on here? Read More >

Legions of Toyota owners have brought their automobiles to their dealers to have their carpets zip-tied and their pedals shimmied. But did that end the customer complaints? You guessed it: It did not. The NHTSA has already received 10 complaints that the fixes were for naught and that cars still have a mind of their own. Understandably, do-nothing-NHSTSA, having received congressional tongue lashings about lackadaisical attitudes, is on it like sonic. Read More >

Should you be working at a Renault (or Nissan) outfit that is not directly involved in the making and selling of cars, be on the lookout for people from headquarters. Renault is combing its assets all over the world for “non-strategic” ones that could be sold off to raise cash. Read More >

In order to save Nissan from certain death in 1999, Renault dispatched Carlos Ghosn to Japan to take over as COO. The French-Lebanese Brazilian was promoted President of the Nipponese carmaker, and CEO in June 2001. In Japan, he had shocked the conservatives, later he became a cult figure, a gaijin shogun. He was even immortalised in a manga. In 2005, Ghosn was crowned King of the Realm and became CEO of Renault.

So, you’d think by now that Monsieur Ghosn-sama is sick to death of the Franco-Nipponese alliance? And that the 55 year old will retire to the South of France?  Read More >

Renault is using their Dacia subsidiary to produce cheap cars for Eastern Europe and other emerging markets (such as Germany, where Dacias had been snapped up during the Abwrackprämien-orgy.) Meanwhile, Renault’s Japanese twin Nissan is starting to feel a little left out. Yes, they have the Nissan Pixo, which is a rebadge of the Suzuki A-Star, which is built in India (and was recalled recently), but Nissan seems to want something of their own and they want the Indian truck manufacturer Ashok Leyland to help. Sounds easy enough … Read More >