I am not trying to make excuses for what has happened, but from what I understand there have been a lot of opportunists trying to jump on the "Down with Toyota!" bandwagon since this all happened. Almost anyone who owns one of the affected cars and has had an accident of any kind has come out of the woodwork and blamed either the floor mat or accelerator, even when there is no chance it is related to their accident.

Because of this, it's going to be hard to determine what is fact and what is fiction for a while. I am looking forward to 2-3 months from now when the dust settles and we can look back on this and see what really happened.

 

damn - this is starting to sound like a conspiracy against Toyota....not just a bunch of dumb whiners

 

Hm I wonder if LaHood has an agenda

 

what exactly is there to wonder anymore?

 

Actually, for the record, LaHood retracted his incendiary statement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35216587/ns/business-autos/

 

nothing. obama administration wants to make good on its 50 BILLION investment in GM by trashing toyota.

 

that means the white house called and ripped him a new one.
too late.

just another incompetent cabinet member. shocking.

what's next, janet napolitano saying toyota's a threat to national security? they'll put tsa workers at toyota dealerships so you get searched before going in.

 

Exactly....not confident at all with how the gov is acting or what they will do....

I am sure their inspecting Toyota will be as successful as the wonderful security inspections at the airport.

 

and this is still on google news:

 

toyota shares off 5% today.

 

Retracting comments at this point is useless, the damage is already done, and it will spread like fire among the media .

 

Yeah, LaHood's retraction was certainly low-key for all the hysteria his widely-covered initial incendiary statement unleashed...

 

i think it's only safe if he comes out now and say ford and gm have even more issues in their cars

some people they just never think when they speak

 

From my understanding there is an unwritten rule to not attack competitors when they have a recall. EVERYONE has recalls.

Ford, GM, Hyundai, Chrysler have all broken that. They act like they haven't had them nor will have them in the future.

I applaud Honda for not stooping to those levels.

 

He can retract all he wants now, damage is already done.

Just like Steve and his going around newstations proving he does not know how to operate the cruise control ;-)