and WE should STOP THEM! I will stand with Toyota in the court of public opinion and hope they SMACK Congress & The Idiot upside the head with NO, NO, NO when asked to testify!

It’s an observation I had as well.

It’s a glaring example of why government and business should not collude. To use a liberal argument, at best it has the appearance of impropriety. Whether or not it’s true (and I believe it is), the conflicts of interest are many.

What’s as shocking is the lack of perspective on the reporting. I recall learning about basic reading comprehension in 6th or 7th grade…where you have to consider the motives of the characters in a story. Those grade-school concepts escape the self-described experts in the media. How could any rational person not see this for what it is?!?

The election cycle cannot come soon enough. A conservative congress needs to unravel this mess and set the market free again.

Nice one EPU! Hopefully this catches fire in our portion of the media, on Talk Radio and among Republicans in Congress. Pull the Gov’t out of GM and let the miserable union zombie stand on its own legs or die.

Oh, one other question, Prius’ problem with rapid acceleration? Yea, I had the same issue with my big wheel.

A blast from the past: the Ford Pinto.

Sure helped Ralph Nader gain the spotlight in the 1960s.

Last time I checked, Toyota hadn’t screwed the American People as badly as, say, Ben Bernacke.

it isn’t in my budget for this year, I’d go out and put in an order for a Prius right now. And I don’t even want to own an electric car.

But Toyota will definitely be at the top of my list to check when I do finally buy a new vehicle.

I believe there was a news story before Christmas in Oscoda, Michigan, where a lady was backing out of a grocery store parking lot and ran over some children, killing the 12 year old and sending the others to the hospital. The last I heard on the story, the woman had trouble with the car and stopped to have it looked at by a mechanic. It was reported second hand that at the scene she said she couldn’t get it to stop.

The last I heard (my daughter lives in the area), it was ruled a malfunction of the car, and I don’t know the make of the car, but think if it was a Toyota product, this would be national news. The driver wasn’t charged, but will be sued.

…and probably 100% spot on.

Consumer Reports has removed Toyota from the recommended buy list.
The Blue Book trade-in values have slid on their cars.
Why? Because of the sheer unprecedented number of cars being suspected of failure.
No one has stepped up and said “don’t buy their products” and if this works out in a free market way, Toyota may dodge the bullet.
They have rebuffed frame-rusting claims on the last generation Tundra for years that in some cases led to the spare tire falling from the rear underbed to the pavement. They have wrangled with an admitted sludge build up in engines for near a decade. Because they are doing the right thing following a visit from our trade reps, discolors their allegiance to their customers.
When you dredge up Pinto and whether it’s 175 or 1800 gas tank fires, the reachback is not an indictable offense in today’s market.
People need to realize that vehicles powered by up to 400hp and attaining speeds of 100mph are far more difficult to engineer for safety and bullet proof reliability than your average Waring Blender.
If you look at the cars recalled in the last five years,discounting the current debacle, you will see that the recall volumes are pretty equal among the top maruqes sold in America. Ford, GM, and to some extent, Chrysler are ranking in the upper spots on JD Power Reliability surveys and your attempt to slur them by connecting them to the current administration is abhorrent The money taken by the manufacturers was loaned, not given and they depend on sales to generate profit to repay and go private again. The “spitbucket” union workers are screwed down much tighter in the workplace than you are and you can curse union management till you are blue in the face, but the the ones getting the job done are to be commended.

off the steering wheel of my 2007 Camry XLE, my 3rd Camry and NOT my last Camry, to get me out or force me not to drive it.

I’m not worried about reduction, if any, of resale value ‘cuz I drove my 1998 Camry XLE to 206,000 miles and was pleased to get $1,000 on a trade-in. I’ll probably drive my 2007 as long as I want/can… nice having 6 or 7 years w/o a car payment after paying it off.

anyone that can’t bend down and move the damn things needs to get more than their accelerator stuck.

because they will just leapfrog unionization and move production closer to growing markets, namely China, as opposed to shrinking and harder to compete markets, namely USA. I have every confidence that Indonesia or the Philippines can manufacture excellent quality cars for far less cost then we can here.

I’ve driven them for over 20 years. I’ve sold them for the last 10 months (career change due to this wonderful economy). They are the best cars on the road and it’s a media frenzy causing us to lose sales.

The acceleration issue is due to incorrectly installed floor mats. Hook them down as instructed and don’t put winter rubber mats on top of you carpeted mats. They won’t get stuck. We are modifying the size of the pedal to prevent human error.

The sticky pedal only involves the pedals made by a North America company (outsourced to China no less) and only on cars with many many miles on them. It doesn’t happen instantly, it happens over time and is very noticeable, if it happens all. We are modifying these pedals, new and old, just to be safe.

The Prius is not losing braking power. It’s a typical hybrid brake (for Ford it’s an issue for Toyota it’s a problem). When the brake is applied, at some point the brake transitions from electric generating to hydraulic brake. If you hit a pot hole or slippery condition, the ABS will kick in. The person feels a slight, split second shift. That’s all. It’s a feeling. A software fix was created to address the 100 or so complaints of the feeling since July.

Has Toyota handled this well. No. But they are doing the right thing.

Now of course, any knucklehead who has had an accident over the last 10 years while in a Toyota will blame it on the car, not the driver. And the insurance companies are going to be happy to pass along the lawsuits to Toyota. Already the Trial Lawyers are lining up to line their won pockets. What a country.

One last thought. Four weeks ago, my 22 year old sons life was saved by the crumple zones in his 1996 Camry (perfect shape, beautiful car) when he was rear ended by a Ford 150 going 40MPH. The driver’s dog jumped between his legs. Knucklehead with a capital K. Thank you Toyota for the safety features you put in your cars.

If Obama protects the Unions at all costs, maybe the solution is to unionize everything!

If we unionized the military, maybe he wouldn’t want to cut defense spending so that he coudl protect the union military members.

If we could unionize even the smallest of busineses, maybe he would cut taxes for small businesses to protect the union members.

If we could unionize the unborn, maybe he wouldn’t want to fund their destruction.

If we could unionize sick people, maybe he wouldnt want to destroy their health care.

If we coudl all just be one big union, maybe Obama would represent us too!

and every time I hear another news story about Toyota, I’m convinced I should go buy one.

It’s absolutely ridiculous!!

Sienna. Great van. Very reliable and not a part of all these recalls. We didn’t even consider Chrysler (the only American manufacturer that didn’t forfeit the minivan market)

Given the long-term track record, Toyota deserves some slack. Overall, they still have run circles around GM and Chrysler in terms of reliability and safety. The American cars improved over the last decade or so (they’re still not there yet) but let us not forget why that improvement even took place: competition from Toyota, Honda, and others. The Japanese have been eating GM’s lunch for decades because they simply make better cars- even with this factored in. This hopefully will pass as Toyota will learn from this and continue to make excellent cars that outpace those of GM and Chrysler.

I love the new van. The extra bonus is sticking it to Chrysler by not being an accomplice to sustaining the walking dead.

For anyone that thinks they’ll repay, I have a bridge in New York to sell you. Amtrak was also supposed to be temporary.

I know this is a matter of great concern, but I can’t help but think what a remarkably safe vehicle they designed and what a brilliant job they are doing manufacturing it.

The other thing that slaps me in the face is how the MSM can use numbers so wrongly blatantly and not a peep is heard.

The protests against nuclear reactor construction come to mind, where you would have the news organs harping on the dangers but if you actaully did comparisons just about every other form of power was considerably more dangerous.

Somehow they (the news media) always seem to be able to hit that visceral emotional chord that can’t be reasoned with.