First the Problem Was Toyotas That Won't Stop. Now It's Toyotas That Won't Go

First the Problem Was Toyotas That Won't Stop. Now It's Toyotas That Won't Go

abcnews.go.com

[T]he National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agency is investigating more than two dozen complaints from drivers alleging their cars stalled while underway, including while on a highway or at an intersection.

[N]early 400,000 Corolla and Matrix vehicles from model year 2006. In late November, Toyota announced a recall of Toyota and Lexus vehicles....

ABC News...found that safety analysts had identified 2,000 cases of sudden acceleration involving 16 deaths and 243 injuries.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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[edit on 2009/12/7 by GradyPhilpott]

It has not been so long ago and it still might be true that Toyota had the best selling passenger cars in America. Their quality was deemed to be about the best in the business.

Now Toyota's reputation seems to be falling faster than Tiger Woods'.

This kind of news would normally go into BTS, but with so many problems at Toyota these days, one has to wonder if the company is cutting corners and the public is getting the short end of the stick.

And the bad news does not stop with stuck accelarators or stalling engines. Tundra owners are experiencing corrosion problems. Toyota SUVs are having "uncontrolled braking" problems and it has not been long ago that Toyota owners were complaining about sludge destroying their engines.

Every company is going to produce some lemons. Cars are sufficeintly complex these days that every car maker is bound to have to issue recalls for problems both minor and major.

This string of problems from a company whose reputation is such that Consumer Reports gave an automatic approval rating even to their new and untested models, a practice that CR stopped recently, is quite alarming considering not only the death toll, but the expense and inconvenience quality control issues have on consumers.

What's wrong with Toyota? I don't know, but something's up and people are dying. Someone needs to wake up and fast.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 2009/12/7 by GradyPhilpott]

Well but remembe the propaganda that help kill the auto industry in America . . ."foreign are better"

I guess now that they dominate the American auto market is time to start killing Americans like China crap has been doing including our pets.

Toyota is in big trouble with the economic downturn. They have posted losses this year in the tens of millions of dollars and had to down-cast their 2009 Model Year Sales by 1,000,000 units!

Toyota is bound to eventually suffer the same largesse the Big Three eventually did.

However with the Government now a part owner in GM and Chrysler look for the press here in America to start singing a different tune about domestic and foreign cars.

The bad press deserved or not will go to the foreign based competition and the good press deserved or not will go to the domestic manufactures.

On another note today is PEARL HARBOR DAY and I say never buy from those sneaky no good rotten Japs!

reply to post by marg6043


The quality gap was real and all one needs to do is drive around town for an afternoon and count the number of 10-15 year old Toyotas and Hondas one sees, not to mention the Mercedes' and BMWs.

These track records are what makes this alarming trend newsworthy.


[edit on 2009/12/7 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler

On another note today is PEARL HARBOR DAY and I say never buy from those sneaky no good rotten Japs!

Japan has a sixty year history of being a good ally. There is no evidence that I'm aware of that indicates that Japan is not still a good ally.

The question is whether or not economic conditions are negatively affecting Toyota's quality control.

It is not just Toyota. Ten years ago I was a cabbie in the Netherlands and I drove an e-type Mercedes. It had a chip-failure every now and than and it stalled, the engine kept running put it wouldn't accelerate no more. You just had to pull over, stop the engine, wait ten seconds and start again and you could drive on. I had it once on the freeway while passing another car and completely on the left lane so I had to cross three lanes before I could park it on the shoulder. All went well but it could have anded very differently.

This is the result of introducing not well tested electronic and chips to something that is in no need of them. Older cars, from before 2000 didn't suffer that much from these problems.

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


I don't think it's the economic conditions that are effecting their quality control, if that were the case this problem would only have been happening for the last couple of years and apparantly it's been happening for longer than that.

Auto industry experts, while crediting Toyota for initiating the recall, questioned why the automaker had taken so long to act.

A review of consumer complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows at least 1,000 incidents of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles in the last eight years, along with scores of accidents and injuries as well as untold property damage.

"They knew something was wrong way before that San Diego accident happened," said Rebecca Lindland, an auto industry analyst for consulting firm IHS Global Insight. "That was just the catalyst to get them to finally do something."

"I suspect the real problem is that there is something wrong with the electronics in the engine," said Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA chief and a consumer activist.

www.latimes.com...


I was reading an article about Toyota's recall last week, or the week before (I just spent 40 minutes trying to find that article, unfortunately i can't find it now) and in that article Toyota said that this problem doesn't effect their cars in Japan. I'm highly suspicious of such a dangerous defect that only seems to effect the cars that are not sold in their country.

reply to post by chise61


Good points. I believe that most, if not all, Toyotas sold in the US are built in the US., Canada, and Mexico.

Apparently, there are many variables in the equation.

Quite surprising news really because Toyota has such a great track record for reliability.

Ok, Ok, I have an old Toyota Corolla sitting in disgrace in my barn, but the reason it's there was MY fault..

The engine is great and that's why I haven't just scrapped it. It may see the light of day again.

With the more modern cars (mines about an '86) comes more black boxes, more economical parts and obviously more to go wrong. And even U.S. built Toyotas are probably built using the same parts as anywhere else they're made. Do we point the finger at the "constructors"?

I would probably never buy a new vehicle and have an overwhelming desire to go in the opposite direction.....

I WANT A "MINI"! A good OLD mini with simple relays as the most complicated electrical circuits, great economy, cheap insurance, un-trackable, cheap parts and most of all .. FUN

With the stupid array of black boxes that most modern cars are equipped with, the possibility of a driving failure is maybe lowered due to warning censors etc, but if a problem does occur the chance of a quick roadside repair becomes almost impossible due to the fact that a lot of systems will not allow the car to run for safety reasons or are just too damn complicated for the average driver to fix.

THEY LIKE IT THAT WAY......sucker$$$$$$$

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


Yes there are many variables, however their quality control measures should be equal across the board. The easiest conclusion to jump to is that it is the fault of the workers that assemble the product, but it could just be the main office cutting corners in certain markets, cuts that the assemblers are unaware of. It doesn't look good when a company's products only seem to be defective in countries other than their own, people may start to think that it's being done intentionally.

Originally posted by chise61
reply to post by GradyPhilpott

 

It doesn't look good when a company's products only seem to be defective in countries other than their own, people may start to think that it's being done intentionally.

They may, indeed, hence the location of this thread.

This is fecund material, to be sure.

Well, I have a 2005 Toyota Yaris and it's a brilliant little car!!

I have never had one problem with it since the day I bought it new from the showroom and other than having to go in for it's annual MOT, it's never seen the inside of a garage.

Also, it only cost me £10 for every 100 miles I drive. Now that's what I call economical.

reply to post by nik1halo


Toyota has an excellent reputation for building reliable cars. Yours is consistent with that image.

It's the recent spate of problems, some resulting in death, that is of concern.



[edit on 2009/12/8 by GradyPhilpott]

The car sold in the US that has the highest component level of US parts and labor is the Toyota Camry. I would be very interested in learning where not only these cars were built, where all of the failing parts where designed and manufactured.

One improve the market share of US cars is to have quality issues in Japanese cars.

Originally posted by dolphinfan
The car sold in the US that has the highest component level of US parts and labor is the Toyota Camry. I would be very interested in learning where not only these cars were built, where all of the failing parts where designed and manufactured.

One improve the market share of US cars is to have quality issues in Japanese cars.

Probably here in the UK There are a lot of Toyotas made here. Don't worry though, they're closing all their factories over here, because it costs too much to build anything in the UK.