The 86 year old was the laundromat owner. The driver was a spry 68.

 

If CTS feels so confident in their designs, then how come Ford just announced a recall in China on the Transit Connect over the accelerator pedal issue?

 

Oh boy, CNBC just asked the question of: "Do you feel safe buying a Toyota/Lexus right now?"

 

So what measures will Toyota take to protect its dealerships? They've just been told not to sell the bulk of their inventory and they have to be losing money day by day.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/28/d...-back-in-2004/


From the "This story just keeps getting uglier" department comes a new bit of information concerning Toyota and its growing sticky pedal problem. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Toyota and the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration were looking into the problem back in 2004, but an interesting twist led the investigation down a path that ultimately turned up nothing.

The Freep says that this early investigation was strictly limited to incidents of unintended acceleration lasting one second or less, which strikes us as odd considering prolonged periods unintended acceleration are a lot more dangerous than a blip of the throttle. And this is where the story gets a bit tricky. The Freep reports that a 2008 lawsuit stemming from an alleged unintended acceleration-related death of a woman driving a 2005 Camry says that the decision was made to limit the investigation right after a former NHTSA employee, Christopher Santucci, took a job with Toyota.

The lawsuit alleges that the new Toyota employee negotiated a deal with his former coworkers at NHTSA to limit the investigation of unintended acceleration claims to instances of one second or less. Santucci said in a deposition that the NHTSA investigation involved 2002 and 2003 Toyota Camry, Solaras and Lexus ES300 models. NHTSA had reportedly received 139 complaints in the 2004 investigation, but found no defects.

Now that Toyota has officially recalled millions of vehicles, the question remains whether these older models will eventually be recalled as well. The short answer is that we have no idea, but former NHTSA head Joan Claybrook feels that the government safety agency should have taken unintended acceleration claims more seriously in the past.

 

every news channel i watched talked about toyota and it's massive recalls. the media is abusing toyota right now.

my prediction is that toyota will no longer be #1 seller in america this year. i think both chevy and ford will outsell toyota. most likely, accord and civic will outsell camry and corolla. and the biggest threat of toyota, Hyundai will have another tremendous year because of all new sonata, elantra, and tucson.

 

No. It is NOT a good point...and it is incorrect. For many years, some of the best and most reliable vehicles Toyota ever produced were in American plants such as the NUMMI plant at Fremont, CA and the one at Georgetown, KY.

 

I can't agree,Mike.
I feel the vehicles made in Japan are better vehicles.
I owned a new '07 Camry XLE and both the interior and exterior fit and finish was terrible.Also had rattles and creaks.Japanese built Camry's were much better made and at that time many Camry owners on the Toyotanation forum agreed.
I will no longer buy any Toyota product built in the US.Canada,yes but prefer Japan but not the good ole USA.
Just look at the current problem Toyota has on vehcles built in North America.

 

I agree with you, COO is not the issue. How the suppliers are managed/controlled/monitored/incentified/directed is more important.

 

You're correct that the post-2006 Camrys are not as well built as their predecessors were (especially the superb Camrys of the early-mid 1990's, IMO the best ones ever done), but that is not a plant or country-of-origin issue. Newer Camrys simply reflected the use of cost-cutting and cheaper materials, especialy in the interior. Blame the designers, not the workers or plant managers.

Consumer Reports, BTW, generally agrees....they can find little quality difference between American and Japanese-built Camrys.

Now, it's true, though, that foreign manufacturers DO have trouble with American plants...........the Nissan/Infiniti plant at Canton, MS and the Mercedes plant at Tuscaloosa, AL are two examples of foreign-operated American plants that have turned out poorly-built vehicles. But that has not been the case with Toyota....its plants are more uniformly consistant.


Go check out the Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan if you want a well-built, American-badged Camry competitor.

 

Good point. People also tend to ignore that often the more expensive Toyota and Lexus models made in Japan are designed to a higher price point which results in them seeming more solid then cheaper designed American made models. If Japan manufacturing is so great then how due people explain all the issues with the current ES350 and 3rd Gen Lexus GS and it being put on the not recommended list on consumer reports. How about the ball joint failures on the Japanese 2nd Gen GS and all the door lock actuators that go bad. I would not just blame this on American made Toyota's as the Camry and Accord have been made in America for a long time and they are always at the tops of reliability and quality for family sedans.

It does seem the media is beating up on Toyota now and the only reason this is as big of a deal is because Toyota has earned a reputation for very solid and reliable cars for a long time. If this happened to Ford, GM, BMW, or Mercedes people would not be making nearly as big of a deal but when it happens to a company like Toyota or Honda it is a much bigger deal. Toyota is experiencing being a victim of their own success and reputation. I hope this does not start a trend at Toyota.

 

I am well aware of the issues on older Toyota engines like the MZ and ZZ. With their new engine designs Toyota has improved reliability and defects, but problems still remain.

The oil hose VVT-i problems on the GR engines are becoming more common. Internally in the company, Toyota is not satisfied with the reliability of the oil-driven VVT-i system. That is why Toyota is moving eventually to completely electric valve timing and lift. Toyota already has electric valve lift with Valvematic, and they have electric VVT-i on the intake side with VVT-iE in some of the Lexus engines.

When Toyota combines Dual VVT-iE with Valvematic, many of the remaining engine problems should dissapear. Toyota must focus right now their resources on making sure Valvematic and Dual VVT-iE are very reliable.

Did you read the big long article I posted? It clearly shows some of the decisions Toyota took 6-7 years ago that are now backfiring on them.

The decisions I am talking about include accelerating the release of new models, basically rushing out new models too quickly, and relying too much on computer simulation. These decisions are separate from the engine issues from the 90s. These decisions were first made 6-7 years ago.

Only 2-3 years ago did Toyota realize the quality problems that were happening from quick model releases and heavy reliance on computer simulations. That is why all future Toyota model releases take a bit longer, and they are back to relying on lots and lots of physical prototypes for testing.

The full effect of all the changes Toyota implemented in this specific regard to improve quality won't be seen until redesigned models in 2012 and 2013 appear.

If I were Honda, I wouldn't be celebrating. Honda has problems of their own, and they still haven't completely taken care of that failing automatic transmission fiasco from years ago. There are other numerous current problems with Honda, including a large problem with failing gear syncros on the 6-speed in Civic Si models, that Honda refuses to publicly admit to.

Karma will come back to seriously backfire on any automaker laughing at Toyota's problems right now.

Honda for many years has been more arrogant and stubborn than Toyota, so it's only a matter of time until karma catches up with them.

 

One problem I find with all of this reporting in the news is they keep saying these cars are subject to unintended 'acceleration'. If you take your foot off the pedal and the throttle sticks the car won't accelerate, it just keeps going at the same speed. It may be a small point to the public but in real world conditions it makes a big difference. I know the media is damn poor in the science department but can't they at least get the terminology straight? If a lawyer goes into a courtroom and claims an 'acceleration' problem the case would be open for a mighty big defense arguement. Or does no one care?

 

One thing is for sure, the resalve value of the effected cars will tank! Time to pick up a used Highlander once the problem is fixed!

 

agreed. it's easy to blame on 'made in USA', but domestic products have improved drastically.