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Mr. Toyoda apologizes

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This is actually pretty amazing .

I don’t remember anyone from Ford apologizing to the families of those 27 people killed and injured in the Pinto fires in the 70’s.
It took them 4 years (!) to recall the car.

I am not saying Ford is the Devil and Toyota is great.
It does seem that Toyota, even after trying to hide things for a while, is doing the right thing.

But it is also a sign of times, where companies cannot get away with what they used to in the past.
Everything is everywhere right away. We live in a time where “secret memos” are all over the internet.

Conversation 21 comments

  1. IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! THESE LATEST "SUDDEN ACCELERATION" & "BRAKE FAILURE" RECALLS INCLUDE CARS & TRUCKS MADE 4 OR 5 OR MORE YEARS AGO!!! I wonder what that does to "resale value?"

    Mabey that's why I saw a Prius on a Buick lot yesterday with 34,000 miles and the word "NEGOCIABLE" after the $10,500 price tag!!!!!!!!!!

    I guess I should just be thankful I'm still ALIVE after all the money I've wasted on Toyotas!

  2. don't be surprised, it's more of a cultural thing than doing the right thing or taking responsibility

    I am now attending graduate school in japan on a scholarship, one of my Japanese lab mate, who was only a few months away from graduation, got arrested last year for drug possession and usage, the police found a few drugs and needled in his room.

    how does that relate to this topic? well, the guy got arrested on a weekend sometimes during fri-sat, and on Sunday there were news about his arrest already. in his statement he mentioned that he obtained all his drugs from another city hundreds of km away, and he also said that he began using those drug BEFORE he started his study here. and on monday, the president of the university, issued an apology to the "entire student body and the society" using words like "utmost regret…" and how this thing caused great "distress and trouble" and how the university did not provide enough education and discipline to guide this young man and prevent this "tragedy" from happening, despite the fact that my lab-mate clearly stated that he got his drug from some total non-related strangers and he was doing it prior of entering the school. so it's not like he suddenly turned weird and ppl around him failed to notice it, at least for me, during the few times that i talked to him, he seemed absolutely and completely friendly and normal, so i have no idea how anybody could have suspected anything.

    around the same time, there was another incident in america that most ppl here probably heard of already, where a student in ucla slashed the throat of another student out of the blue in front of everybody in the class. and what was the statement of the UCLA officials? not only did they failed to provide any form of apologies on their own behalves, they were pretty much trying to divert any responsibility by stating that this kind of incident could come from anytime, anywhere,by anyone and there was no way that they could have anticipated and/or prevented it. despite the fact that the slasher was well-known as a total weirdo nutcase who was reported to security and counseling services multiple times by various students and professors for causing harassment and weird behaviors.

    so, nope, mr toyoda apologizing is not surprising nor amazing, and until one of gm/ford's vehicle malfunction out of control and kill the president or someone with equal status, i would not expect them to offer any form of apologies, let alone actually acknowledging and doing anything about it.

  3. I love your site, but I call baloney on this quote: "It does seem that Toyota, even after trying to hide things for a while, is doing the right thing."

    Toyota is only "doing the right thing" because they have been painted into a corner, and have no options left. Do some more reading about how their management have ignored this issue for several years. Read about their management culture that is insular and arrogant. You'll change your opinion.

  4. Yes, they are doing the right thing. At the same time, the media reports and commenters claiming that people are taking a huge risk by driving a Toyota are absolutely being hysterical. As Consumer Reports noted, the probability of the pedal malfunction is exceedingly low…there is frankly a greater chance of being in some other type of accident rather than a Toyota run amuk.

  5. Why does Toyota care, they know they will still be top 5 globally again. Look at all those Camrys, Corollas and Rav 4s. You see them every 12 seconds on the roads.

  6. Vince, you said: "This is actually pretty amazing ."

    Amazing? I think the word you're looking for is "Lame".

    They'ld STILL be hiding behind BS & great advertising, if they hadn't been CAUGHT!!!

    I think they oughta offer to "BUY BACK" every death trap to roll off their assembly lines! You think I'm gonna KEEP a lethal car "fixed" by the same guys who screwed it up in the first place?

    Do you think Obama will come out with a "cash for crashers" program?

    I'm hoping to trade the Camry on a Ford BEFORE I (or someone else) winds up underneath it!

    Ya know, when MY Toyota kills somebody I TOO will be SUED into poverty — not JUST Toyota!!!!!!!!!

  7. SO… CONSUMER REPORTS SAID: "…there is frankly a greater chance of being in some other type of accident rather than a Toyota run amuk."

    HUH???? Wouldn't the LOGICAL conclusion be that your chances of DEATH in a TOYOTA would be equal to {chance of being in some other type of accident} P-L-U-S {chance of being in a Toyota Unexpected Accelleration (&/or sticky brake pedal) accident} ??? Because otherwise you're suggesting that cars with brake & acclelrator problems are LESS likely to have an accident, (compared to cars that are reliable).

    Did "Consumer Reports" REALLY make such a mathimatically stupid statement?

  8. Well, Vince, this is due to people like you, who keep us updated about automotive news and what´s happening around the globe. I guess that it´s simply not as easy to hide incidents like this. I remember when Mitsubishi had a similar case, where they tried to hide production mistakes for years. But that was years ago, nearly a decade. Things have changed.

  9. Read up on conditional probability! The probability of having A event happen to you, and B occur as well, are independent of one another. There is a greater chance of being hit by a drunk driver or cell-phone talking maniac than being in an accident caused by a Toyota with sudden acceleration.

    "David Champion, director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports magazine, said the reaction to the recall was overblown.

    "When you look at the statistics we are putting an awful lot of effort on a very small risk," he said.

    "There has been something like 2,000 complaints of unintended acceleration in some 20 million Toyota vehicles — it's almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

    There is a lot of grandstanding out there…put it into neutral and fix the defective parts.

  10. Read up on conditional probability! The probability of having A event happen to you, and B occur as well, are independent of one another.

    BUT the probability of being KILLED (which can happen by EITHER A(drunk driver hittin ANY car) or B (Toyota unintended acceleratrion) ; is MORE likely if you're driving the TOYOTA because not only are you just as suseptable to A; now you ADDITIONALLY suseptable to B (unintended accelertaion &/or failing brakes)at the same time! So your chance of being killed are A + B. (In other words; statistically speaking, it's much MORE likely to be KILLED in a TOYOTA than in a Honda, Chrysler, etc.)

    If you still don't understand that your more likely to be killed in a Toyota; you REALLY need to re-take statistics 101. It's not debateable. Its just math. I guess you either understand the math here– or you don't!

  11. CONSUMER REPORTS SAID: "There has been something like 2,000 complaints of unintended acceleration in some 20 million Toyota vehicles — it's almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

    Lets have the Consumer's Reports staff all jump into a big Haystack … THAT HAS 2000 AIDS-INFECTED NEEDLES IN IT!

    How's that for adding a little "perspective".

    So the odds of being killed in a Toyota is how many times MORE likely than winning the Lottery? Has anyone at CU EVER bought a lottery ticket? Why? — I mean if it's virtually impossible for anyone to ever win…ever! I mean since winning the Lottery is far far less likely than getting KILLED IN A TOYOTA!!!!!

    Better yet, lets have them all buy a Toyota off the lot; right now. and drive it every day. If the Magazine has X number of employees, how many days will it be untill the first one gets killed (or runs over a fellow employee in the parking lot?)

    Will the first one get killed by Toyota's unintended acceleration? Or will it be by Toyota's poor quality brakes?

    Or will it be by some other still undiscovered safety hazard ( like one of those that had the insurance institute for hyway safety calling Toyota's first minivan the "Previa Death Trap"?

    I really don't think SAFETY has EVER been a priority at Toyota. And I don't expect a sudden change in their behavior. (But they are really good with the marketing spin!)

  12. "I don't remember anyone from Ford apologizing to the families of those 27 people killed and injured in the Pinto fires in the 70's."

    Vince, I thought you were smarter than that. Of course you realize that the Pinto issue was forty years ago. It changed the way companies worked. It made companies more transparent and take responsibility for the defects they sold to the public.

    Everyone learned except Toyota. Toyoda didn't apologize after ten years of unintended acceleration reports. He didn't apologize after selling cars with a defective peddle shape. He didn't apologize after selling cars with a defective accelerator mechanicals. He blamed the supplier. He didn't apologize for the flawed ECUs. He didn't apologize about brake defects. He didn't apologize for not designing a fail-safe system that other automakers use. He didn't apologize for engine sludge. And he didn't apologize for frame rot.

    He only apologized after four defects were identified in the past month. He got caught.

    So Vince, it's not exactly the same as something that happened forty years ago. The Mea Culpa is happening now because he knows that it's not over. Just wait and enjoy.

  13. The chance of getting killed in a Toyota by unintended acceleration is less than that of getting hit by lightning, but many like Anon here now believe that it is more likely to be killed by a Toyota. Not only that, but the recall has to do with a part that wears over time, and has nothing to do with the brakes–despite all the scare stories out there about the Prius brakes being slow on bumps. And statistically speaking, you can only get killed once. It's almost infinitesmal that you can get into an unintended acceleration event and get hit by a drunk driver at the same time. But don't let that stop the scaremongering.

  15. The chance of getting killed in a Toyota by unintended acceleration is less than that of getting hit by lightning,

    So it's O:K to temp fate by driving your Toyota to the golf course and hitting a few holes in a Lightning storm? I don't think so. And I WON"T buy another Toyota.

  16. All this ridiculous lynching mob is trying to bring Toyota down to their pathetic level. I say, open your eyes bozos and look around to see what people drive. The average American has been voting with their hard earned dollars what works for them. That is why Toyota has been so successful. All the rest is negative hype to distract us from the fact that our own GM and Chrysler went bankrupt and we bailed them out with our hard earned money….What is worse, losing our money down the toilet by bailing out GM and Chrysler or Toyota's fixing for free a manufacturing mistake?

  17. "The chance of getting killed in a Toyota by unintended acceleration is less than that of getting hit by lightning, but many like Anon here now believe that it is more likely to be killed by a Toyota. "

    There are so many reasons that that comment is unacceptable. Words selectively chosen to minimize the severity of this defect didn't fly with the Ford Pinto forty years ago, and it certainly won't fly with Toyota today. The assumption is always going to be that only a fraction of these events will be documented properly. And if 20 people have been reported to have been killed, then it's probably higher. Your fuzzy math also doesn't take into account injuries, property damage, misery and general aggravation.

  18. some may think it's over-reacting to refuse to drive a vehicle that has enough of a risk of possibly lethal defects to warrant the mfg being forced to not only recall them but stop selling them

    however,
    if this was a child's "TOY",
    all the parents would have demanded refunds when they immediately RETURNED them…

    …oh wait
    children DO ride in Throttlegate Motors products

  19. Vince… c'mon man! It's not fair to sucker punch Ford in a story that has nothing to do with them. They did, you might remember, call back all of those Explorers and replace the tires, even though the defect wasn't with their car. That's the great hypocrisy of how foreign car companies get treated in the media today. Ford or GM have recalls, and they get slammed. Toyota does the same thing, and people start crying, "Stop picking on them!" Toyota is guilty of the same thing GM was a couple of decades ago – fixation on being the biggest, regardless of whether or not you're the best. It's never good to believe that you're so established that you can't fail. At the end of the day, Toyota is a company just like every other – maximizing profit is their goal above all others.

  20. It all comes down to the typical crap produced american local content componentry.
    They use CTS pedals in the US models and the japanese Denso brand for the rest of the world which have no problems.
    Careful though, these CTS pedals are used in quite a few other american brands as well.

  21. Q: What is worse, losing our money down the toilet by bailing out GM and Chrysler or Toyota's fixing for free a manufacturing mistake?
    A: Toyota's refusal to even admit to ANY problems for the better part of a decade while their customers die & kill others due ENTIRELY to TOYOTA'S NEGLIGENCE & engineering incompetiance & extremely poor quality. And when caught; Toyota's attempet to pin poor quality on supplier's instead of taking some RESPONSIBILITY for repeatedly missing quality checks on so many parts for so many cars over so many years. (I assume you're aware that the Japanese Government (MITI) has bailed out Toyota more than once. And that all those profits made on all those faulty Toyotas go right to Japan)

    Americans are such suckers.

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