Toyota's Highway to Hell

Toyota May Recall Prius After Japan Orders Probe (Update1)
By Makiko Kitamura and Tetsuya Komatsu


Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. may recall its new Prius hybrid model in Japan after the government ordered the company to investigate brake-related complaints on the car.

“The possibility of a recall is not zero,” spokesman Takanori Yokoi in Tokyo said today by phone. The company is considering measures that may include a recall, he said.

A recall of the world’s best-selling hybrid car would bring the crisis to Toyota’s home market and tarnish the reputation of what President Akio Toyoda has called the company’s flagship model. The carmaker is already reeling from recalls approaching 8 million units worldwide due to cases of unintended acceleration.

“This could be fatal for Toyota,” said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a Shinsei Securities Co. analyst in Tokyo. “Toyota’s got a global problem and it’s not a problem of local suppliers.”

Toyota is examining 77 reports in Japan and eight in North America, he said. Driver complaints include brake failure or weaker braking while driving on bumpy roads, according to a list posted on the Web site of Japan’s Transport Ministry.

Toyota shares fell as much as 4.7 percent to 3,240 yen in Tokyo, to the lowest level in almost 11 months. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amphCtGQUHuc&pos=1

2006 Corolla,though.

Over 500,000 miles between the two of them! :)

to get that kind of mileage(I'm old as dirt),but filling the gas tank is a pleasure since I always had driven full size sedans.

Since the issue of Steve Wozniak's Prius arose yesterday, Toyota has been anxious to get in touch with the Apple co-founder to diagnose the problem and, according to his assistant, will take the car for testing.

At a speech on Monday Wozniak claimed his new 2010 Toyota Prius, which isn't under the current Toyota recall, randomly accelerated while in cruise control mode and that he could duplicate the event. After reading a similar story on Gizmodo Wozniak commented that he was having difficulty reaching the manufacturer to tackle his issue.

http://jalopnik.com/5462834/toyota-to-borrow-test-steve-wozniaks-prius-for-a-week

Here's a surprise: Fox News defends big foreign corporation and says Woz is stupid.

Is Wozniak Wrong About Prius?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584730,00.html

Fox is not known for doing their homework.

for example tractor mowers have been recalled which had leaking fuel tanks that caught fire. The list of incompetence and shoddyness is endless. Faulty cribs that have killed babies.....

http://www.cpsc.gov/

nt

You can trust 'em. Give me a good old fashioned gearbox, a stick, and a clutch.

Up here, with the ice/snow/mountains? Stick shift, period. Learned to drive one in 1970, and the only car/truck that's around now as an automatic is my Jeep (and only because I couldn't get a stick in this particular model).

Great on the gas, too. We're still at $3.20/gallon, so every bit helps.

it's a right of passage to overhaul a 'rock crusher' by yourself.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1958991,00.html

...The parable of Toyota may be that the tortoise became the hare. Over decades, Toyota built its reputation and market share in tiny increments through its renowned "continuous improvement" method. In the Toyota mantra, quality was always first, because it led to lower costs, which would eventually lead to higher market share. Eventually.

But in the '90s, Toyota set out to become the world's top auto company. Being best and being biggest created a tension that Toyota couldn't resolve, says MIT operations expert Steven Spear: "If quality is first, it drives a certain set of behaviors. If market share is the goal, it drives a different set of behaviors." Even as Toyota was catching the global No. 1, General Motors, the reputation of its cars was slipping. Spear, who has apprenticed in Toyota factories, says the problem was that the "Toyota way" — in which knowledge accumulated by élite cadres of engineers and assembly workers over many years is shared across the company — was diluted by the demands of production. "Even in the late '90s, people in Toyota would say, 'This is going to bite us in the ass,' " says Spear. "They just didn't know when."

Now they do. "We have to strengthen quality control," says Shinichi Sasaki, executive vice president for quality. It's a startling admission from a company that made reliability its quest. Toyota will fix its manufacturing problem. Restoring its reputation is going to take a lot longer.

JAPANESE CARS!!!!!!!!! ..... now ..... wheewww .... I finally got that off my chest. If you will excuse me I am going to go wash my lovely AMERICAN MADE HONDA that still drives like a dream.

...a little sarcasm and comedy to brighten your day. :)

<Do not gloat too much over someone else's misfortune, or a similar misfortune will visit you sooner than you know.> Paraphrasing a wise person.

but you're right that this kind of thing stays with customers. People remember. And they remember for a while.

GOing to be a good opportunity to make 25% or so on your money soon. The stock is dipping right now but once this passes there will be a strong rebound. If anybody has any cash you can make some money, minus the capital gains taxes of course.

...it would seem highly unlikely that the root cause is mechanical as Toyota continues to insist.