So Edolphus Towns, the guy who called Akio Toyoda over here before that earthquake rattled Japan's shoreline, is suggesting Toyota withheld information on yet another issue related to the recalls. The charge was made in a hearing after Wednesday's affair. (Told you there was more coming soon...)
What is just as interesting is how other car makers are getting product problems addressed around all this, knowing Toyota is getting more scrutiny. Hyundai's 2011 Sonata gets good reviews and write ups just this month. Then, makes a recall for a door latch. But that came on the heels of Mr. Toyoda's visit...so who got the headline?
Last year, the Los Angeles Times
published an article that wrongly and unfairly attacks Toyota’s integrity and reputation.
Said Toyota, in a case of 'spoke too soon.'
President Obama, Akio Toyoda and I are about the same age. Not only might we have heard a certain song when it was on vinyl, but we remember what cars were like when we were in high school, college, and later. (Yes, you can still find that catchy little ditty online.) We would all remember when Toyota became a serious alternative to American-made cars. Toyota was striving for a machine which you did not need to service as much as other brands.
There are still many Toyota owners who have never seen under the hood of their car. That notion is a goal other car makers strive for. It is the basis of why the company rightfully has so many loyal owners.
Since the 90's, there's a computer in your car. It collects information. It keeps it. Your tech can plug in and read it. But it's not a 'black box' in the way airplanes have them.
The difference? What's in your car knows what was going on at a given time, how things are behaving, should the lights go on now, etc. Black Boxes, as they are currently designed, basically hold the last thirty minutes or so of events in a secure location. Meant to retrieve information after an accident or major failure. Computers may have no idea what's going on when they crash. And may fail in the crash.
But some don't. Information can be gleaned from them. Speed, transmission gear, wheel motion, number and location of deployed air bags, and so on.
ABC's Brian Ross did a recent report on the fact that a shorted Avalon's computer could not tell the electronics had failed. Hence, the suggestion that cars need a black box like commercial airliners.
Car companies also track behaviour supplied from insurance companies, police department accident records lawsuits, and lotsa other such treasure troves of data. They are supposed to do this.
Perhaps they just won't say that up front. State Farm, you'll recall, told Toyota what it knew long before the story went Toyota Marathon in the press. A press which they can no longer attack.
In a letter to Toyota, the issue Towns refers to vehicle rollovers. Mr. Towns seems to be looking for a pattern showing how Toyota reacts to 'knowledge' of a problem.
E. Todd Tracy, a Texas attorney with 22 years of experience litigating against automakers, believes that Toyota's issues with legal discovery run far deeper than a few sanctions.
Automakers are required to keep a thing called..
"Books Of Knowledge" which detail design and testing data, during the discovery phase of liability lawsuits against the company."
And the issue here is how Toyota responds to problems in general. Not what the specific problem is. Towns is suggesting the company has withheld critical safety data. One of Toyota's current lawyers suggested in response that the described information may be partially confidential due to competition. I guess it's not a good thing for your competitors to know how many issues you're having.
The documents had previously been protected from public distribution by several courts, and Biller, who is embroiled in several lawsuits with Toyota, had been seeking the right to release them to the Los Angeles Times.
The memos, written by [Dimitrios Biller, a former lawyer for Toyota] to other officials at Toyota, describe a failed attempt to produce evidence in vehicle rollover lawsuits.
The documents noted that the records had never been made public and that the carmaker entered into multimillion-dollar settlements on several occasions to keep them secret, the committee said.
Mr. Towns cited a 2006 e-mail message in which Mr. Biller explained that he agreed to a $1.5 million settlement with a woman who was paralyzed in a rollover accident largely to avoid disclosing the database.
Toyota's lawyers been busy.
It is not uncommon, however, for companies to object to certain demands for documents made in litigation. Consistent with that philosophy, we take appropriate steps to maintain the confidentiality of competitive business information and trade secrets.
Unfortunately, it comes off as if they did find a serious issue, they would keep it secret. Their competitors might take advantage of any perceived weakness? So what are the customers supposed to do.
On Long Island, a case like what will be reviewed across the country. A young woman died in a Yaris days after having her dealer check the car. In this case, as with others, the suspect is the electronics. Which again, were not believed to be fallible at the time.
From the Los Angeles Times. A must read. Toyota wasn't happy about it.
During a routine test on its Sienna minivan in April 2003, Toyota Motor Corp. engineers discovered that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick, potentially making the vehicle accelerate out of control.
The automaker redesigned the part and by that June every 2004 model year Sienna off the assembly line came with the new panel. Toyota did not notify tens of thousands of people who had already bought vans with the old panel, however.
The automaker knew of a dangerous steering defect in vehicles including the 4Runner sport utility vehicle...
In 2007, California's Court of Appeal found that "Toyota had intentionally violated two orders compelling discovery" of stability test results in a case involving a Toyota-made forklift that tipped over and killed a worker. The court slapped Toyota with a $138,984.33 sanction and ordered a new trial. Toyota, which denied wrongdoing, ultimately settled the case.
FYI, Toyota's reply to that LAT story...
Among other mysteries... what condition are the used models in right now?
U.S. regulators have purchased and will test the Lexus ES 350 once owned by a Tennessee woman whose testimony this week in Congress personalized allegations of unintended acceleration in Toyota MC vehicles.
NHTSA did not perform tests on electronics and the car was later sold to an owner who drove it for 27,000 miles and reported no acceleration problems, the Transportation Department said.
In this case, the original owner disputed the floor mat claim. It's not clear what happened between owners.
Next up on the public relations menu...falling vehicle values. And vehicles which may not have been worth their claimed values...
"Drivers and passengers of Toyota vehicles, including Lexus vehicles, have died and suffered serious injuries and property damage. All owners and lessees of Toyota-made vehicles have suffered economic damage to their property."
Notes a suit brought in New York and reported in Newsday. He's annoyed not only at the company's current issues. He's taking issue with the fact that the value of the car has dropped. Affecting the lease value at end of contract.
That owner has company.
Unlike previous Toyota lawsuits, the one filed by the Sanders Law Firm seeks damages for the loss in resale value of models affected by the recalls. It also seeks damages for loss of use and reimbursement for alternative transportation.
Currently, Kelley Blue Book says it hasn't dropped Lexus values, just some Toyotas. I'm guessing that might include the Matrix, which had a recent window sticker typo. One that went on for seven months it seems.
"We are seeing a softening of both used Toyota values and the New Car Blue Book values of new Toyotas this week," said Juan Flores, director of vehicle valuation, Kelley Blue Book. "The softening of values is a product of weakened consumer demand, and the realization that Toyota is going to have to offer lower prices to get some consumers to consider Toyota vehicles again."
In addition to the values decline, site traffic from Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com detailed in the company's Market Watch® report also shows a continued decline in Toyota interest in the wake of the recall announcements.
A teacher in Riverhead, as also reported by Newday, saw the feature 'driver's side knee air bag' on the window sticker of a 2010 Toyota Matrix. (She bought it May 2009.) Oops. In January 2010, Toyota sent letters saying the line item was a mistake. No Matrix has that feature. They gave the owners a $50 Amex card for their trouble. The teacher seems to want the airbag she thought she was getting.
And yeah, it's being used to bash "Toiletta."
So it wasn't just floor mats that helped save Toyota some money. In other words, a typo is only worth $50 on a $16,000-$22,000 car you may have bought thinking that feature was in the car.
I would ask when that one was discovered, and how many sticker have that typo. Toyota would know that, and I would hope they will inform Mr. Towns as well. Since he wants to know how they respond to problems. I mean, he did have to invite (isn't that a funny word) the company president to speak rather than someone lower down. Because it appears if Mr. Towns didn't ask, Mr. Toyoda may not have come. Time is money too, you know.
And here we have the difference between a company and its image.
What it has been known to do. And what is going on now which will forever change how people view it.
What we see with Toyota in particular is that this new electronic complexity has overwhelmed its famous concept of kaizen — "the accumulation of small improvements" — that has made Toyota such a quality brand worldwide. The company has so perfected the practice of kaizen from the bottom up at the assembly line that it has lost the big picture of how the whole electronic engine — and thus overall safety — works.
Companies have the right to profit. When they produce an outstanding product, they should be so rewarded by the free market.
Consumers have the right to know when they are less important than a company's profits.
Acting like it doesn't have to reply to an investigation looks really bad. (And okay, people aren't crazy about Toyota's dealer service evidently...)
Looking like it shouldn't have to turn over information to a government panel because somehow they're afraid competitors will get hold of that information looks really bad.
If people are having fatal accidents in your product, seeing people not connected with the company make the absurd charge that the government investigation is tainted because the government bailed out a competitor...that also looks bad.
Dr. Poulton, "I'm not saying it's a conspiracy. But this probably couldn't have come at a better time for the U.S. auto industry, amid a recession, to find a scapegoat, and Toyota is the perfect scapegoat."
Perfect scapegoat? Um...do you suppose they brought scrutiny upon themselves, even just a little, honey?
Toyota can't help their newfound attention, and should go to extremes to distance itself from such 'conspiracy' talk. As noted by The Detroit News, the heads of NHTSA and the EPA own Priuses. Obama, you'll recall, dumped his guzzlin' hip hop 300 for a sippin' Ford Escape Hybrid. (Whose ad may just appear on this page thanks to the wonder of bots!)
Fortunately for Toyota, Thursday featured a debate on health care. Friday, it snowed more than expected, and NY Gov. Paterson's out of the race. But March is coming quickly...