If you are reading this, the odds are good that you are very familiar with the recall issues over the past year for Toyota, with their tardiness in issuing proper recalls in the US costing them $16.4 million. That fine stems from Toyota’s deadly unintended acceleration issues but since the news of that whole mess has become public, we have seen a ton more issues with Toyota’s recall process causing question of how much quality they actually put into their vehicles. This morning Consumer Reports announced that the NHTSA is once again investigating Toyota for a delay in a recall issue from the 1989-1998 T1000 pickups and 4Runner SUVs.
It seems that there has been a steering linkage failure on those models and although Toyota discovered the issue in Japanese models in 2004 and quickly issued a recall; it took them almost a year to issue the same recall for US customers. Toyota’s claimed that the problem didn’t affect US-bound models (even though they used identical parts) and the Japanese automaker has changed their excuse, claiming that a difference in driving cycles between Japanese and American drivers would prevent the issue in the States.
So according to Toyota, the steering failure is caused by Japanese drivers? Comments like that ruined John Rocker’s reputation and they shouldn’t be accepted from Toyota either. The fact is that the steering failure did affect US models and the NHTSA received 52 complaints about the problem, causing a reported 16 accidents resulting in 7 injuries and 3 deaths. Once again, Toyota has shown that they are more concerned with preserving their image of quality rather than preserving American lives. They scramble to issue recalls in their own country but they let our citizens drive around in vehicles with mechanical issues that are killing people. Why aren’t American lives worth enough to Toyota to issue recalls in the same timely fashion that they do for the Japanese people?
Perhaps Toyota should just start including a branded body-bag that doubles as a spare tire cover or rather than a warranty, they could offer a term life insurance policy to the person expecting to drive the new Toyota the most frequently. More so, I wonder how many Americans have to lose their lives before other moronic Toyota drivers realize what kind of car company they are supporting. Remember, a cheap car is only a good deal if it doesn’t kill you.
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Comments
If it wasn't for the Reventon, sorry I can't get over that car, I would say , Best Collum Ever. If that second paragraph doesn't get people's attention, let alone make their head's want to pop like it did mine, I don't know what will except maybe your forth paragraph.
That bodybag line was classic and you summed it up so good with the "Remember, a cheap car is only a good deal if it doesn’t kill you". This will be going out on my e-mail list as soon as I leave here....JOE
Toyota may have great gap control, fits and finishes; and maybe even good overall reliability of its engines. Multiple safety recalls, however, trump all that. Just imagine if Ford or GM had that many recalls let alone safety related, and held back on telling anyone. They would have to give back their quality awards.
Fact is all car companies delay their recalls to some degree. When it gets to Toyota's chronic level, though, that's a disease called bad corporate character; and that's immoralas much as it is illegal.
It also highlights how poor many drivers are by not shifting to neutral and fully applying the brakes then finally turning the car off.
Rob E., San Jose Autos Examiner
It's real easy to say what you would do in a situation but untill you are in a life threatening situation, you cannot say what you would really do....JOE
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