Toyota must have recalled what seems to be all its cars on the road (well, some 8m to 9m worldwide to be halfway exact.) Now it’s Chrysler’s turn. Last week’s announcement for pedals with sticktion was just the warm-up. The serious recalls are coming now.
Chrysler is recalling some 575,000 Jeeps and Dodge and Chrysler minivans, says Bloomberg. (Read More…)
It was just this guy that thought that this was how you got something to Toyota’s research and develop office
Sgt. K.S. Dickson of the Winfield (West Virginia) State Police detachment had wvgazette.com by way of explaining the recent bomb scares at four of Toyota’s US facilities. Apparently the suspicious packages were sent by a Nigerian inventor trying to sell his turn signal design to Toyota. After one package was “disrupted” by a police bomb squad, it was discovered that
There were no explosives in the box, just relay switches, wiring and film canisters, in addition to a letter from the Nigerian man claiming to be an engineer
Talk about timing: While Trans Sec LaHood was in Japan yesterday, ostensibly to look a trainsets, while he toured Toyota instead and uttered dark “time will tell” threats, while he said that his people are still working on the evidence for a second $16.4m federal fine, back in Washington, the timer was set for yet another ticking 16.4 mega-tonne bomb. (Read More…)
U.S. Transport Secretary Ray LaHood is in Japan today. He’s looking at trainsets. Japan is bidding on the U.S.A.’s (long in the) future high speed rail network. So is everybody else in the world, including the Chinese. Good luck to both of them. While in Japan, LaHood personally inspected Toyota’s safety facilities in Toyota City to see whether they are up to snuff. You think Mr. “Feet to the Fire” LaHood gave Toyota a clean bill of health? Think again. (Read More…)
The sun had long set over Tokyo on a Friday night, and the hardworking executives had ordered their last round in the Ginza hostess bars, when The Nikkei [sub] put on the ticker that Consumer Reports magazine has lifted their “do not buy” fatwa against Toyota’s 2010 Lexus GX460.
Last month, the magazine issued their damning assessment after the SUV scared the dickens out of the testers: (Read More…)
The AP [via Google] reports that NHTSA’s investigation of the pedals manufactured by CTS that were behind Toyota’s recent unintended acceleration recall has widened to include 2007 model-year Dodge Calibers. Dodge built 161,000 Calibers in the 2007 model-year, but according to Chrysler Group complaints of sticking accelerators only cover about 10,000 vehicles built between March and April of 2006… even though all 2007 model-year vehicles were built with CTS pedals. So what’s the difference between vehicles made in that five-week period and the rest of the 2007 model-year? According to Chrysler spokesfolks:
We have data that is telling us that there were a certain amount of complaints during that time period
The Detroit Free Press got its hands on draft auto safety legislation drawn up by Senators Waxman and Rockefeller, and aimed at preventing another Toyota recall-style scandal. In addition to mandating brake override systems on all cars sold in the US, The Freep says the bill would require that
[NHTSA] come up with rules for space between the brake and accelerator pedals, gear shift designs and stop-start systems – all problems highlighted by the Toyota probe. Automakers would be required to build vehicles with event data recorders that could be easily read, a step Detroit automakers made several years ago but that Toyota and other foreign brands have resisted.
Despite the Freep’s attempt at making the bill sound like it’s only going to affect Toyota and other non-Detroit automakers, there is plenty in the proposed legislation that could hurt any automaker.
The Treasury may be standing by GM’s “payback” claims, but the Congress hasn’t exactly been looking for ways to do the auto industry any favors. In fact, a toxic brew of political fallout from the financial crisis, auto bailout, and Toyota recall scandal has seems to have inspired a backlash against the industry that came to a head this week in the US Senate. Legislation has been introduced that would prevent NHTSA officials from taking jobs with automakers for up to three years after they leave the agency, and yet more is being drafted which could require a vast array of standard safety equipment on all cars sold in the US and could even add a federal fee to new car sales. Adding insult to injury, a much-hoped for exception to dealer financing oversight in the new financial reform bill appears to have fallen victim to Senate negotiations. Did nobody tell the old guys that they’re investors in the auto industry?
(Read More…)
You might think that, when confronted with its first major quality crisis, Toyota would have responded by upping its spending on DC lobbying. After all, when Washington has painted a target on your back, it’s usually a good time to hire a few well-connected friends. But then, a good deal of the congressional scrutiny aimed at Toyota has focused on the company’s lobbying efforts in the first place, especially after the House Oversight Committee leaked Toyota briefing documents that showed the company had successfully negotiated away penalties for defects. Perhaps then, Toyota’s decision to reduce lobbying spending in the first quarter of this year was a reaction to accusations that the automaker manipulated the NHTSA. Or maybe the Japanese firm simply decided that its huge lobbying budget simply wasn’t winning it any friends. In any case, Automotive News [sub] reports that Toyota spent a mere $880k on lobbyists last quarter, down nearly a third from its $1.3m Q1 spend in 2009. And, according to the Toyota report cited by AN [sub], defect recalls don’t even enter into the equation, as Toyota merely
lobbied the House and Senate on such issues as making it easier for workers to unionize, patents, financial regulation and energy matters
Meanwhile, as the image above proves, Toyota wasn’t going to be able to match the lobbying power of a GM anyway.
Read the full PDF of Toyota’s settlement with NHTSA [courtesy: The Detroit News] here.
On April 5, the NHTSA levied their largest civil penalty in recorded history. $16,375,000 against Toyota, because “they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families.” When we reported that, people thought Toyota would just appeal and drag it out. Not so easy, said The Nikkei [sub]. Toyota is between a rock and a hard place: “Admitting to the charge could strengthen the cases of car owners suing the firm, while refuting it risks inflaming U.S. public opinion.” Toyota found a way out. (Read More…)
And the hits, they keep on coming: The Nikkei [sub] has it that Toyota will recall 740,000 Sienna minivans that have been sold or operated in cold-weather areas in the United States and Canada. They’ll be checking for corrosion of the spare tire carrier cable. (Read More…)
University of Tokyo professor, author, and Toyota Production System expert Takahiro Fujimoto sits down with Wharton Business School professor John Paul MacDuffie to analyze Toyota’s staggering fall from grace [via Strada Blog]. Fujimoto largely skates over the “fat product” phenomenon, but acknowledges that high quality and increasing complexity led to debilitating arrogance at Toyota. As he says, Hyundai has been growing just as quickly (if not more so) in recent years, and yet has managed to avoid Toyota-esque quality scandals. The problem, he says, isn’t on the production side. Design quality problems stemming from arrogant middle-management at company headquarters, he says, are the fundamental deviations from the Toyota Way.
According to the latest Rasmussen telephone polling [via The Financial], 48 percent of Americans believe that the government’s ownership stake in GM and Chrysler means it has a conflict of interest in regulating competing automakers. 25 percent disagree, saying that the government’s bailout doesn’t affect regulation, and another 26 percent aren’t sure. When it comes to recent criticism of Toyota by administration officials like Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, only 25 percent believe the criticism stems from a desire to help GM, while 38 percent disagree and 37 percent aren’t sure. But the polls most interesting results have nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with perception:
Despite Toyota’s major safety recalls, owners of its cars are still more loyal than those who drive cars made by the bailed-out GM. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans who currently own a Toyota say they are at least somewhat likely to buy their next car from the troubled automaker, compared to 57% of GM drivers who say they are at least somewhat likely to buy their next car from GM.
Toyota’s Lexus GX 460 has been taken behind the woodshed by consumer reports. The SUV re-emerged with two black eyes. CR issued a “Don’t Buy” rating and declared the GX 460 a “safety risk.” Said TTAC’s Edward Niedermeyer: “Expect GX460 sales to fall off a cliff until the model is fitted with an electronic straitjacket.” Fall off a cliff? Sales are zero as of this morning. (Read More…)
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