GREENDALE FORUM

Well, this is way off topic... so I moved it to the political section.


So? I find your above statement offensive. Guess we are even.


And if we didn't have those Asian companies building cars over here (and sending the profits back to the motherlands) the Big Three would be employing more Union workers, building more cars, and likely would not have required a bailout.


Odd, there are a million or Kamikaze Kars on recall in Europe, China and Israel. Toyota's been quiet as to where those gas pedals came from. Denso is their own company which makes the parts for them in Asia.

And actually, while based in Indiana, CTS produced the parts in Canada to Toyota's specifications. Toyota has traced the problem back to 1999, and CTS didn't start producing them until 2003 (Hmmmm). They also produce the pedals for GM and Ford. Perhaps it was a poor design by Toyota engineers...

But let's see. First, in November, it was a floor mat problem (uh, huh), then moved to the gas pedal when there were fatal crashes with the floor mats in the trunk a month or so later. I'm still betting this is a software problem.


In my stable I have:
- 2006 Pontiac G6 GTP (which replaced a 1993 Grand Am GT, which replaced a 1986 Grand Am LE)
- 1999 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883

And my mom (a Greendale Original) drives a 2007 Ford Freestar (which replaced a 1996 Ford Windstar, which replaced a 1987? Ford AeroStar). Yes, this family supports American workers and real American companies. Trying real hard to keep inferior rice burners out of our garages.

Since I answered your question, I think it is only fair I ask what is in your garage?

In the meantime, I'll be watching my rearview mirror for any Toyotas behind me. Would hate to have one mess up the back of my now-classic American-made Pontiac when they decide to move forward uncontrollably.

Perhaps I should add, "Remember Pearl Harbor" to my signature as well.

Oh, yeah, Camaros. Well, they look cool, but they get 18 mpg in the city, and with my Toyota, I routinely get 35 mpg. Maybe it's a guy thing, Joe!

The combination of quality and efficiency of the Japanese manufacturers' products still, for the most part, cannot be matched in the US fleet. If GM would get its head out of its posterior and design something other than muscle cars and trucks, I might consider buying one. When I bought my Toyota, in 2003, first I TRIED to find a U.S. car that could come close to the fuel efficiency and reliability statistics of this vehicle, but nothing could touch it, except other "rice burners" as you call them. Ford Pinto was a Mazda design, and was being discontinued. Ford Focus was new, and had unfavorable maintenance history in its 2 years on the market. And nothing else in the U.S. fleet got over 30 mpg at that time. Nothing. Instead, they launched the Hummer.

A Toyota executive speaks honestly about there being a real problem, and that the company is hustling to do the recall, and the pompous a$$es in Congress posture about how bad the company is handling things. Does anybody remember the last time a GM executive publicly admitted the company had made a mistake? How about looking at the proportion of recalls by U.S. car manufacturers vs. Japanese manufacturers? Ah, Statistics!

This is just another bit if Big Business Theater. There are 50,000 deaths on the highway each year in the U.S. alone. There have been 34 deaths since 2000 in the US that were attributed to Toyota accelerator malfunctions. 50K deaths per year, 8 full years (2001-2009), that means 34 out of approx 400,000 deaths were due to this defect. Or, to look at this another way, the deaths per million passenger miles driven in Toyota vehicles is still very low. Toyota has 6 million vehicles on the road in the U.S. If each drives even 10K miles per year, that's a HUGE number of passenger miles.

National Safety Council has a report on accidental deaths in 2006 on its NSC website. 5,000,000 deaths world wide, 179,065 deaths in the US from injury (as opposed to illness). If you spread 34 deaths evenly across the 8 years, that's 4 or 5 deaths per year. Again, not a huge risk. More risk from falling down stairs, I betcha.

Gimme a break.

Now, I am not in any way saying that it is not important to try to fix this problem. But I think the Toyota Witch Hunt furori is a bit overblown. Basically it's another distraction while Wall Street continues to rob us blind, and our DO-NOTHING Congress fails to take any meaningful action about anything at all.