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 >

Instead of solving the truly pressing needs of the land, Republicans and Democrats are publicly squabbling over the relevance and veracity of the Biller “smoking gun” documents that claim to prove that Toyota hid safety problems. U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter on Feb. 26 to Yoshimi Inaba, president and chief executive officer of Toyota Motor North America Inc., that said the documents provided “evidence that Toyota deliberately withheld relevant electronic records that it was legally required to produce” in lawsuits. Towns went on to say that  the documents “shed some light on Toyota’s handling of the sudden unintended acceleration problem” and “indicate a systematic disregard for the law. Not so, says U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California. And he has a smoking gun of his own: 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 >

And the data beat goes on. I asked Edmunds if they had updated model information to filter out the spike of UA reports to NHTSA after the 9/29/09 Toyota mat recall in order to improve my attempt at coming up with a model-specific UA rate. Not only did they oblige, but they already did all the work! A big hat tip to Edmunds, who has taken a lead in the quest to make sense of the data as well as the whole UA fiasco. Read More >

TTAC’s attempt to correlate NHTSA data with sales to generate a UA complaint rate was the first, even if it was flawed. Others have now waded into the 776,482 lines of data available from NHTSA (anybody need something to do?), and while their efforts are admirable, they’re not yet good enough. UA rates by maker or brand fail to show how different the UA rate is for certain models, which is essential in tracking down the issue. The UA problem is not a make-specific problem generally, but a model specific one. More on that when we revisit that with updated stats. Read More >

This is the companion piece to the Most Influential Modern Global Car: the 1975 VW Rabbit/Golf. Now if I had the same photographic luck as with the Rabbit, there would be a big American car in the same shot, say something like this. Well, the Florence Apt’s [sic] will do fairly well as a stand-in, with its traditional architecture. Because if any one car can take credit for re-inventing the traditional “American” car, it’s this Honda Accord. Read More >

If news about recalls can’t bring Toyota sales in China to their knees, maybe insurance premiums will.

The Nikkei [sub] reports from China that insurance premiums on Toyotas have recently risen by as much as 40 percent. Insurance premiums are going up everywhere in China. No wonder, considering that more than 100,000 die a year on China’s roads, and about half a million are wounded. But Toyota premiums are rising particularly sharply. 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 >

While Toyota is trying to convince the American public that they’re as American as losing at hockey Wal-Mart, Hyundai is pulling the same stunt over at the other side of the pond. Forbes reports that Hyundai wants to become a card carrying member of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Read More >

A Toyota press release [via Marketwatch] reads:

Toyota Motor North America, Inc. (TMA) today announced that Toyota has committed $250 million to its contracted manufacturer New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) to fund transition support for NUMMI’s salaried and hourly team members. Toyota’s financial support is enabling NUMMI to offer bonuses to salaried and hourly team members who continue to produce quality vehicles for Toyota through April 1, 2010, when Toyota’s production contract with NUMMI will end. This funding is subject to ongoing negotiations between NUMMI and the United Auto Workers with respect to those hourly team members represented by the union.

[Hat Tip: PickupMan]

Here’s TTAC’s and the web’s only complete guide to Toyota’s gas pedals (so far), with tear downs, pictures, analysis, explanation, the shim fix, and commentary, all consolidated into one portal:

Part 1: Exclusive: TTAC Takes Apart Both Toyota Gas Pedals: Tear down of both the recalled CTS pedal assembly and the non-recalled Denso pedal assembly. Note: Assumptions and conclusions in this initial tear down lack the more complete understanding of the importance of the friction arm aspect of the CTS unit.

Part 2: Toyota Gas Pedal Fix Explained – With Exclusive Photos: Describes Toyota’s proposed fix for the recalled CTS gas pedal assembly, with detailed photos and graphics. Explains the significance of the friction arm assembly and its limitations.

Part 3: Toyota Gas Pedal Fix Simulated – Friction Reduced, By Too Much?: TTAC simulates the fix prescribed by Toyota for the recalled CTS pedal assembly, and notes how the fix changes the degree of friction, and the possible unintended result. With detailed pictures

Part 4: Why Toyota Must Replace Flawed CTS Gas Pedal With Superior Denso Pedal: Detailed analysis with pictures of the two pedal assemblies, an explanation as to why the Denso design is superior, and a call for having all CTS pedals replaced with the Denso pedal.

Part 5: TTAC Does The Toyota Pedal Shim Fix:  Stop Gap Solution At Best: Toyota’s solution is carried out here with detailed pictures, the whole Toyota document detailing the fix, and our commentary.

Part 6: Toyota Floor Mat/Gas pedal Recall Includes Computer Reflash And Trimming Of Gas Pedals: Info on the details of the floor mat/gas pedal interference recall.

Part 7: Toyota Recall  Creates Unintended Accelerator Consequences: As predicted in Part 4 (above), the CTS shim fix reduces the carefully designed amount of friction required for comfortable and smooth pedal action to the point where pedal action may now be jerky and potentially unsafe.

(Thanks to you-know-who-you-are for access to these parts and info)

Chrysler once again topped Edmunds’ True Cost Of Incentive index last month, despite failing to significantly improve its sales over February 2009’s miserable showing. The only upside is that Chrysler basically held even with reduced incentives, as the entire industry is spending about 14 percent less on incentives than it did a year ago. Another interesting point of analysis from Edmunds:

Comparing all brands, in February smart spent the least, $341 followed by Scion at $426 per vehicle sold. At the other end of the spectrum, Lincoln spent the most, $5,568, followed by HUMMER at $5,195 per vehicle sold. Relative to their vehicle prices, Saturn and HUMMER spent the most, 14.9 percent and 13.6 percent of sticker price, respectively; while Porsche spent 1.4 and smart spent 2.3 percent.

But Toyota and GM will help carry those numbers up next month, with huge incentive spends planned. Meanwhile, after many automakers found religion about retail sales last year, fleet sales are back in a big way. And they’re no longer seen as something to be ashamed of.

Read More >

When it comes to the cause of the alleged Toyota unintended acceleration, the TTAC commentariat is divided into two camps:

One side is convinced they know what’s wrong with Toyota. (It’s the cursed computer. May it roast in hell and grow tin whiskers.)

The other side isn’t so sure and argues for caution. It could be pilot error. Plain old hysteria also isn’t ruled out. Or some trade warfare that reared its no so pretty head at yesterday’s hearings: “You block our beef because of mad cow disease. We do the same to your cars.”

Well, who says life is fair. Flash: The doubters are being discriminated against. The commentators who know what’s wrong with Toyota can become instant millionaires. Here is how it works: Read More >