Toyota At D.c.

[tim john]

Hello, any thoughts on how this is going in Washington with Toyota? They screwed up, but I think they are a good company with good cars. they didn't get to be number 1 buy building junk. I think the government is out to get them, they own most of G.M. Ford 8 mil engine fires, G.M. etc. The NHSTA screwed up too. I think they will downsize big time. Dealers may be filled with C.P.O. cars because people will be dumping these cars. They will be fixed, and service will be busy. Just my opinion.

Tim

[1990LS400]

Well at least the congressional hearings might take people's minds off the economy. And many people get into what the Germans call Schadenfreude.

I'm not so sure Toyota screwed up that much ... don't know how they could control whether or not people stack multiple floor mats on top of each other.

Toyota will likely come out much better than Audi did in the 1980s in its "unintended accelleration" issue -- that just about drove a stake through Audi's heart causing their sales to plummet and leading them to change the model name of the 5000 to the 100 and 200 to try to get people to forget. Remember too that Audi sold only two models, with variations, in the U.S. All their eggs were mostly in the Audi 5000 basket. And after all the research and tests, no one ever proved that there really was an unintended accelleration problem in the Audis.

Reminds me of a recent conversation with a family member who told me her 1 or 2 year old Toyota Camry gas pedal was sticking and that she was afraid to drive the car. The same woman told me only a few minutes earlier that her diabetic condition was making her feet so numb that she had almost no feeling left in them. I held my tongue.

There has been a lot of speculation in the news that NHTSA will be expanded due to their having no engineers that understand the software used in modern cars -- new employment opportunities!

I doubt if many people will dump their Toyotas -- except those who usually panic and do "knee jerk" reactions. I love those people -- they benefit the rest of us.

[tim john]

I think this is going to turn into a Japan bashing deal. I live Mich. Big three auto workers buy everything else made in Japan, China, etc. Best Buy tv's computers, Walmart, the list goes on. I wont' dump my ES, its paid for. The dealer won't give crap for it and its better quality then a newer GM or Ford and I don't want a car payment. Been listening all morning, getting kind silly.

Tim

[tim john]

Another point, If the big three are so great, why did they join with Toyota with that plant in Calif. Nummi plant, Ford fusion, built in Mexico on Mazda 6 platform, Saturn Vue v6, Honda, Ford Tarus SHO Yamaha engine, Chrysler Mitsubishi, the list goes on.

[nc211]

It's the US Congress. It's bound to be a spectacle for media show. Given the congressional approval rating of just 10% (came out today), I'd have say that Toyota's sales will probably jump through the roof! If Congress doesn't like it, then it must be the best on the market!

This is just a show, and we'll probably just embarrass ourself on the international stage over it, and Toyota will come out looking like they've made the right steps to acknowledge the problem, appologize for the problem, and earn the trust of every driver on the planet that they're actually working to fix it, instead of pulling a "it's not our fault" sidestep like some others have done over the years...

Funny, I don't recall Congress pulling Iacoca (sp?) to DC to address why the Dodge Shadows would turn themselves off whenever it started to rain, causing the car to die on the road and get smashed into from the rear from the guy behind it.....as was the case with my brother's 1987 Shadow. Turned out, the slightest bit of humidity/moisture on the computer box would temporarily short out the entire system.... hmmm...

I remember the Audi 5000 problems. My brother and a friend launched one onto South Beach in 87' one night in Miami, his buddy's mom's car. They swore up and down the thing just took off. Guess they really weren't up to no good...

[RX in NC]

Hmm, sounds like somebody's moonlighting on Toyota's PR payroll....

[The G Man]

These hearing and the criminal investigation will open a lot of people's eyes, they will see that Toyota is no better than the American big three as far as corruption. Memos have already shown that Toyota put profit before safety and they have been warned by quite a few people in the pass and had complains about sudden acceleration a long time ago.

The best scenarios here would be Toyota will come away from this with just decline in sales and trade in value for 1 or 2 years. The worst case scenarios would be Toyota will continue its land slide. Toyota have lost money last year for the 1st time and they are predicted to lose money again this year, couple that with the cost of these recalls and the lost of sales. They might be looking at sliding into 2nd or 3rd place worldwide by next year. With the high cost of labor Toyota is now facing and Toyota’s out of control spending. They might never recover from this mess, Toyota simply cannot make cars as cheap as the Koreans and with quality sliding at Toyota, Toyota’s best days might be behind them.

[nc211]

Hmm, sounds like somebody's moonlighting on Toyota's PR payroll....

Yeah, that's why I want a BMW!

I was mostly joking about Congress. Not trying to belittle the Toyota problem. But, can't ignore the track record of Toyota either, which is certainly one of the best in the game. I agree with the folks who are saying this is being blown way out of scope. If this is the new norm for automakers, then all I can say is "the line forms to the right, GM, Ford, Chrystler, Honda, BMW, MB, Audi, VW, etc..." This isn't so much as an investigation into a problem, as it is an attempt to swipe the #1 spot, which isn't American anymore. I think it's a cheap shot, and has the possibility to really backfire. The ball is in Toyota's hands. It's not like they've been producing 1990's Chevy Malibus for the past 20 years, and that fact I think has the ability to offer Toyota a real opportunity to shine here. But, it's in their hands on how they want to respond to this. They can admit their mistake and make damn sure not to do it again. Or they can admit thier mistake, and just rebadge the problem and hope the public forgets about it, until the next time. In their hands....

[RX in NC]

I recently decided to put a little money where my mouth is concerning Toyota's ongoing troubles. So after studying my Japanese candlestick charting techniques for several days (thank you Steve Nison), I bought nearly $25,000 worth of May 2010 put options of Toyota. For those of you who aren't familiar with options, the position I purchased means that as Toyota stock declines in price, my options position increases in value. So the more Toyota stock takes a beating, the greater my profits will be. I have until mid-May (actually early May due to my conservative nature) to ride this wave for better or for worse so the more the bad news keeps coming from Toyota, the healthier my return will be on this attempt to profit from the Toyota fiasco....

You can speculate all you want about what will happen to Toyota in the long run (my personal opinion is that they'll recover in due time but at an astronomical cost). But why not take advantage of their mounting troubles and make what could potentially be some big money off what is certainly a run of bad news that will continue for the near future....

So Mr. Toyoda, please screw it up even further during your testimony today. My options position is counting on you....

[The G Man]

I agree with the folks who are saying this is being blown way out of scope.

I just dont see how anybody can still say this is being blown out of proportion when there are 39 deaths attributed to sudden acceleration in Toyotas, 8.5 million vehicles recalled and thousands of complaints and accidents associated with these Toyotas. To give that horrifying number perspective, there were 27 deaths attributed to the famous (Ford) Pinto exploding gas tank of the 1970s and only 6 deaths attributed to sudden acceleration of the Audi 5000 in the 1990s. The media coverage was so intense that Audi's sudden accelaration case almost put Audi out of business here in the USA.

[nc211]

I agree with the folks who are saying this is being blown way out of scope.

I just dont see how anybody can still say this is being blown out of proportion when there are 39 deaths attributed to sudden acceleration in Toyotas, 8.5 million vehicles recalled and thousands of complaints and accidents associated with these Toyotas. To give that horrifying number perspective, there were 27 deaths attributed to the famous (Ford) Pinto exploding gas tank of the 1970s and only 6 deaths attributed to sudden acceleration of the Audi 5000 in the 1990s. The media coverage was so intense that Audi's sudden accelaration case almost put Audi out of business here in the USA.

Yeah, but Audi didn't exactly enter into that period of time with a complete bill of health to begin with, unlike Toyota today. Look, as I said in previous statement, I'm not trying to belittle the severity of this problem. I'm just saying that calling the President of Toyota over from Japan to put him on national tv so our political bull !Removed! artists (for whom I'm sure have probably killed far more Americans than Toyota with their decisions) can talk down to him like he's some child in trouble with the Principal, is a bit much. If we're going to do this to Toyota, then we better get the Chinese over here next week to answer for the tainted baby food, toxic drywall, led-based baby toys, etc.... Oh, and let us not forget Mexico, and the whole Lettuce (crap your pants for weeks) incident two years ago. Hey, while we're at it, step on up Swine Flu vaccine makers for !Removed! up the vacine doses for the little kids recently that resulted in a recall. And the baby crib makers, who've recently gone through a recall so babies don't get their heads stuck in the rails and strangle themselves to death...oh wait, that's China, already got them covered. Shall I continue? Yes? Ok..... How about those sitting on that panel, those superior beings, who allowed the Brady Bill to expire which allowed the gun used in the Virginia Tech killings to get into the shooter's hands? Great move that one was. Hey, here's one, Mr. Ford for the Ranger trucks that would catch fire in people's garages and burn down their house. And don't even get me going about the pharmaceutical companies, and the lives they've destroyed by making "errors". I don't see them on the US Judge Wapner show..

To summarize, I'm not belittling the severity of this problem. People were harmed and some killed. However, well....I think I made my point pretty clear..

[The G Man]

I just read this on the news:

A Minnesota man have been in jail for 3 years serving out a 8 year jail sentence because his Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp, plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile in a horrific crash that killed three people, he insist that he had done everything he could to stop the. He was driving his pregnant wife, 4-year-old daughter, father and brother home from church. In court he wept as he described the impact of his imprisonment on his wife and four children, ages 8, 5, 3 and 2, who are on welfare. The victims, Javis Trice Adams, 33, and his 10-year-old son, Javis Adams Jr., died at the scene. Adams’ 6-year-old niece, Devyn Bolton, was paralyzed from the neck down, and died shortly after Lee was convicted

The prosecutor will reopen now reopen the case in light of evidence of Toyota's issues with sudden accelartion, both the victim's family and the driver plan to sue Toyota. Currenty, there are quite a few of these cases around the country, and Toyota will have to deal with this mess after all the recalls are done.

[SW03ES]

Like nc I personally think these congressional hearings are a laughing stock. What possible benefit is there to anyone to have the president of a company sit there and be berated all day by a bunch of holier than thou congresspeople? Its such an exercise in American !Removed! waving its kind of disgusting IMHO. Like if any of them were the president of Toyota anything would have been different. In fact most of them couldn't even run a small company let alone one as big as Toyota.

[The G Man]

Like nc I personally think these congressional hearings are a laughing stock. What possible benefit is there to anyone to have the president of a company sit there and be berated all day by a bunch of holier than thou congresspeople? Its such an exercise in American !Removed! waving its kind of disgusting IMHO. Like if any of them were the president of Toyota anything would have been different. In fact most of them couldn't even run a small company let alone one as big as Toyota.

I guess public safety is benefit from these hearings, we cannot just have cars flying sround the road at 100 MPH out of control :)

[RX in NC]

It certainly will benefit me for as long as I hold my put options position open!!!

Hey, something good's got to come from it - why not some significant profit for a simple options player in North Carolina?!

[SW03ES]

LOL RX I would love to see nothing more than you make a killing in this thing ;)

I guess public safety is benefit from these hearings, we cannot just have cars flying sround the road at 100 MPH out of control

Thats just the thing though...where is the public safety benefit? How does having the President of Toyota get totally humiliated in public by a bunch of self righteous chest thumping politicians who don't even know what they are talking about benefit the public safety?

In fact all it does is cost us taxpayers a bunch of money so the committee members can be seen on TV being "tough". Free campaigning.