After latest government report, Toyota dealers feel vindicated

[PBS Poll-435]

After latest government report, Toyota dealers feel vindicated

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Last updated: Wednesday August 18, 2010, 9:55 AM
BY ANDREW TANGEL
The Record
STAFF WRITER


"We've been believing all along that there's nothing really wrong with our vehicles," said Michael DeLaCruz, general manager of Parkway Toyota in Englewood Cliffs.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Congress last week that preliminary findings of the agency's investigation showed no electronic defects. Drivers failed to apply the brakes in 35 of 58 crashes tied to unintended acceleration, the agency found.

Bill Strauss, president of Crestmont Toyota in Pompton Plains, said the report reinforced his theory that the government overstated safety concerns with Toyotas to boost sales of domestic carmakers.

"I thought in this country we were innocent until proven guilty — but not if you're a carmaker," Strauss said.

more at http://www.northjersey.com/news/100962039_Toyota_customers_are_back.html

[divideandconquer]

1. This lie about the government picking on Toyota to help the US automarkers is despicable

Talk about a lack of proof!

[Fumesucker]

3. The entire unintended acceleration brouhaha has been drenched with lack of proof..

Lack of proof on all sides.

The last time this sort of panic went so public, back in the 80's with Audi, it turned out to be entirely the fault of drivers..

But it very nearly killed Audi in the US anyway.

[divideandconquer]

5. So State Farm's statistics were faulty as well?

<http://consumerist.com/2010/04/state-farm-to-toyota-pay-us-back-for-unintended-acceleration-accidents.html>

And what about Toyota being caught covering up numerous other safety problems?

[Fumesucker]

6. The number 2 vehicle in unintended acceleration by percentage of vehicles sold..

Is the Lincoln Town Car..

And the number 3 is the Volvo S40.

Statistics don't really prove anything, correlation does not imply causation.

[divideandconquer]

7. 9 out of the top 20 in the entire industry are Toyota products, seems damning to me

Didn't you count them?

[PBS Poll-435]

9. What do the Lexus ES, Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis, and Toyota Avalon have in common?

I just can't imagine. I really can't.







:P

[PBS Poll-435]

10. Ironically, State Farm Insurance increased the percentage of Toyota vehicles in its fleet

After the "findings."

[divideandconquer]

11. Any link to this assertion?

[ThomasQED]

2. I've had a Toyota for years and love it, however...

how does an article like this not explain what caused the 'unintended accelration' in the other 23 crashes??

[depakid]

4. Trouble is that the Obama administration has shown itself to be no more trustworthy

than the Bush administration- so a lot of people aren't going to believe a word the agencies say about this, or about the Gulf- or any other politicized circumstance or matter where some corporate interest is on the line.

[Richard Steele]

8. Yup- they've shown that "vindicating" major corporations is JOB ONE.

The fricking US Coast Guard was BLATANTLY under control of
British Petroleum's PR department while BPcorp itself
ignored "direct orders" from our highest authorities....

ToyotaCorp's ever-changing explanations for their defective cars
were seldom better than LAUGHABLE.
The few INDEPENDENT experts who examined their hardware
very quickly replicated the problem under labratory conditions,
and just as quickly saw their test data IGNORED by the media
and the US agencies responsible for auto safety.

Seems that there's very little Corporate Crime
that the Obama Administration won't go along with.

Obama has yet to stop a single evil thing that Bush started.

[uncommon]

12. Of course it was over-reported in the news and made into a bigger story -

hurting foreign imports at a time when the US economy is really struggling makes perfect sense. Increase domestic sales, keep the jobs in the US.

Cars are like any other consumer product - sometimes they will be defective. This is the risk we take.

Frankly the numbers in the stat chart someone posted above cause me no alarm - seems like a relatively low margin of error for the number of cars sold.