Problems just keep on coming for Toyota. They may be recalling 1.19 million Corolla and Matrix models, model years 2005-2007, for electronic issues which cause them to stall.
Toyota has said it wants to meet US officials to discuss this issue. They say that “Toyota does not believe that the alleged defect creates an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.” They’re probably right, but let’s be honest here, if you know about this issue and can’t be bothered to get it fixed, that’s not going to do your image any good, and Toyota’s image is already pretty battered.
This stalling issue has been under investigation by the NHTSA since November 2009. At the time, they had 26 complaints of Corollas and Matrixes stalling due to failures in the ECUs. The failures happen completly randomly, with cases ranging from highway cruising to passing through an intersection. Toyota believes the failure occurs because of a crack in soldered joints in the unit or because of an electrical short. In both situations, the engine will stall or fail to start.
“On March 8, a California Highway Patrol officer helped to stop a Prius that had suddenly accelerated to 151 kilometres an hour after the accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway.
The car’s owner, James Sikes, called 911 after his car sped up. Police told him to push his brakes to the floor and pull on the emergency brake. After the car slowed to about 80 km/h, Sikes turned off the ignition and the car came to a halt. A police officer put his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block.”
Bullshit. First lets google James Sikes.
Ahh shit whatever…Thats the story. American (San Diego) media is quick to jump on the band wagon.
So glad to be home for a few weeks… My car is still for sale, I’ve had a few nibbles but nothing major. At least I still have something nice to drive while I’m here although I do want to change car by this summer, hopefully.
I really want to go shoot some cars this holiday so I’m going to visit a couple of events and some other random stuff.
In the mean while:
The state settles its $37 million lawsuit against URS for $5 million, avoiding “a trial that could have shed light on who was to blame for the disaster that killed 13 people and injured 145.”
“There’s a close relationship between the state and URS, and [the state] didn’t want to sue them to start with,” said Kyle Hart, an attorney for Progressive Contractors Inc. (PCI), whose workers were atop the bridge for the repaving project when it collapsed and which earlier settled a lawsuit. “They still do business. … People have moved back and forth between those two entities. They are very close.”
“It never seemed to us [that] the state had much of an appetite to fight this whole battle,” said Hart, referring to the state’s efforts to collect damages from URS and PCI. “They always seemed to want to settle relatively quickly … and just get out of the thing.”
Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, who took a lead role in the victims compensation fund, said he thought the settlement was reasonable.
But he added: “In the end, I’m not sure how well the public interest is really served. I think there could be an advantage to continuing litigation because it would really expose the facts.”
I don’t call him Gov. BridgeFail because I’m mean, I call him that because eventually we’re going to learn that negligence by the state killed those people.
Eventually.
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Pat Pheifer:
The Ramsey County attorney’s office said Friday that it has hired an outside expert to inspect Koua Fong Lee’s 1996 Toyota that was involved in a June 2006 crash that ultimately killed three people in St. Paul.
The office also has asked officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to participate in the inspection.
Assistant County Attorney Phil Carruthers said it could take “a few weeks” to coordinate schedules and bring Wade Bartlett, a forensic mechanical engineer, to the Twin Cities to inspect the Camry that has been sitting in the St. Paul police impound lot for more than three years.
“The game plan is to get on this pretty soon,” Bartlett said when he was reached Friday at his home in New Hampshire.
Pretty soon? I guess it’s never a rush when you’re not the one sitting in prison.
Free Koua Fong Lee now, test the car later. The sentence was clearly disproportionate and Lee has already served more time than any crime related to that crash would justify. Drunks who kill don’t serve that much time.
And they’re still setting the bar impossibly high.
Neither Carruthers nor County Attorney Susan Gaertner would speculate on the impact of any new evidence or the car inspection.
“To date, we have received nothing from Mr. Schafer,” Gaertner said. “We read about, along with everyone else, what he says to the media, but we haven’t seen any evidence.
In other words, Lee’s attorneys will be expected to prove what no one’s been able to prove: that Toyota’s experience sudden acceleration.
Stalling. Stalling until this summer when people are up at the lakes. For reasons that will not vary one iota from the evidence now available.
The right thing to do would be to free Koua Fong Lee, putting Gov. BridgeFail and Lt. Governor InspectionCutbacks in prison to serve his time until both the Snelling Exit Ramp and the I-35 Bridge Collapse mysteries are solved.
That would be the kind of rough justice I could live with.
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Justice deferred, econo-links:
Bob Herbert on A Ruinous Meltdown
Publicly owned banks — fuck yeah!
Boehnernomics
WINston’s video of what healthcare reform may look like
Justice deferred, Jesus style:
Pope apologizes for having to apologize for something he’s not apologizing for and God forbid he accept any Irish bishops’ resignations because it’s really society that’s to blame (forgiveness is for suckers, smart young boys know how to get into heaven….)
Ignoring the shrinks
Justice served, Texas style:
Death Row inmate’s last request? A DNA test
Justice served, of some sort:
Man shot Murder Incorporated style while sitting in a barber’s chair
Original owners of 2006 Toyota models report very high vehicle reliability according to an independent survey by J. D. Power and Associates. The survey, which is used throughout the world, asked 46,000 original owners of new vehicles about hundreds of possible reliability issues that could occur.
Toyota boasts one of the best records for fewest problems reported, with Toyota coming in at #4 and Toyota-owned Lexus Division #3.
Toyota Rated Near Top In Vehicle Reliability - Fewest Problems
I see headlines like, Stocks climb after Fed pledges to hold rates low, and it’s hard not to think that the real hed should have been, Hostages released after the terrorists’ demands were met.
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Kucinich did what the prOg bloggers wanted him to do, so today they’re beating him up all over again for having been the nail that stuck out.
I don’t use the DFH nomenclature popular among lefty bloggers, but in this case it’s hard not to see this as the pro-corporate bloviators kicking dirty fucking hippies while we’re down.
It does get old, and for me, it’s past tiresome. If lefties never get to win any battles despite providing more than our share of cannon fodder, it’s time for us to find a new party, a party of convenience from which we can endorse real Democrats but go galt on the saggy assed poseurs who keep talking the talk while walking Wall Street’s walk.
Am I trying to destroy the Democratic party? No more so than Alan Simpson will destroy the Republicans.
“Alan Simpson’s a great guy, but he’s not going to bring along Republican votes on Capitol Hill,” said Vin Weber, a former congressman from Minnesota who was part of a younger generation of Reagan-era tax-cutters. “He’s always been a Republican that would be willing to raise taxes, but that’s not where today’s Republican Party is.”
The faux Republican party has all but destroyed the Lincoln brand. Simpson’s a true conservative, and no one hates Fox News/Rush style faux Republicans like a real conservative does. From Wikipedia:
Simpson’s father, Milward Simpson, also served in the Senate and was among six Republican members who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on constitutional grounds. Alan Simpson, however, has been an outspoken advocate for access to abortion, gay and lesbian rights, and equality for all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation. In an article in the Washington Post, the former senator wrote an article criticizing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy stating ” ‘Gay’ is an artificial category that says little about a person. Our differences and prejudices pale next to our historic challenge.”
In 2001, Simpson became Honorary Chairman of the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), a gay/straight alliance within the Republican Party. In this capacity, Simpson personally recruited President Gerald R. Ford to serve on the RUC’s Advisory Board.
He’s not one of us, but he’s not one of the current crop of them, either.
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From the comments, a link to UAW Local 2244’s president’s statement regarding Toyota’s plant closure in California.
I can’t fault Toyota for stealing a page from Corporate Team USA’s playbook, but conditioning workers’ final pay settlement on the union shutting the fuck up is, to put it mildly, upsetting.
One of the most important reforms this country needs is legislation clarifying that no contract, settlement or judgment can be sealed.
Privacy is not a judiciary value.
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You know who I really feel sorry for? Catholic Boy Scouts from Ireland.
“The Boy Scouts of America actually set back the child abuse prevention movement in this country, held it back, because of their secrecy,” Kelly Clark, a lawyer for Lewis, said in opening arguments.
Parts of the files have emerged in other lawsuits, and officials with the Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Texas, have previously acknowledged concealing some abuse. But in court on Wednesday, Chuck Smith, a lawyer for the Boy Scouts, said the files — sometimes called “the red-flag file” or the “confidential files” — showed that the group had been ahead of national trends in tracking abuse, and he said the files had been kept confidential only to protect victims….
Clark said the files, which were not made public on Wednesday, showed that national and regional scout leaders had allowed troop leaders and volunteers to work with scouts for years after complaints arose that they had abused children, sometimes even after they had been convicted of sexual abuse. He said evidence would show claims of abuse as early as the 1920s.
It’s very difficult for me to imagine why any Boy Scout files would need to be shrouded in secrecy.
And these claims are about the historical BSA organization. Now that all control has been ceded to batshit insane Christianists, this situation can only be getting worse.
It does not matter that the founders of the movement, including Baden-Powell himself, had little interest in promoting religion beyond a very generalized belief in a Supreme Being, a fact that should make it as easy for the Boy Scouts as the Girl Scouts to change the oath (in practice, if not in wording) from a belief in God to a belief in a Supreme Being. The religious conservatives who control the national office of the Boy Scouts see themselves as important troops in the culture wars. If religion, masculinity, and citizenship are as tangled as the rhetoric of the Boy Scouts and others seems to make them and if, as so many historians and social critics have suggested, there is evidence everywhere of a “crisis in white masculinity,” a status revolution in which white males feel like the beleaguered class, then it makes sense that the men running the Boy Scouts see the atheists and their ACLU lawyers as agents of an assault upon masculinity and whiteness (symbolized by certain European religions and the very American religion of Mormonism). The link between white masculinity and religion at century’s end explained why the Boy Scouts would not make this compromise, while the Girl Scouts would; the Girl Scouts, quite simply, have no stake in the masculinity part of the tangle.
See also Natzinger’s letter, coming soon to a Catholic apologist near you.
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A Gazan rocket killed a Thai worker in Israel this morning. As usual, the NYTimes doesn’t mention the aggregated body count. American news media never does.
GAZA — A foreign worker in Israel was killed Thursday by a rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of Gaza, according to the Israeli military, soon after the European Union’s top foreign policy official arrived here on a rare visit by such a high-ranking official.
The foreign agricultural worker, who the Israeli military said was from Thailand, was the first fatality from Gaza rocket fire since the end of a three-week Israeli military offensive into Gaza in January 2009. Israel said the primary purpose of its military campaign was to halt years of rocket fire from Gaza against southern Israel.
The Times of London doesn’t mince any words about the attack, but they do provide actual context:
A radical Palestinian group with suspected ties to al-Qaeda killed a worker in southern Israel today when it fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip, just as Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU’s deputy foreign policy chief, was visiting the blockaded territory.
The rocket killed a Thai immigrant worker at a farming community just across the heavily guarded Gaza border, Israeli medical officials said.
Lady Ashton was visiting UN facilities in the coastal enclave, which was hard hit in a war 14 months ago when Israel launched a major offensive to try to stamp out constant rocket fire by Hamas, who rule the territory, and other militant groups.
Despite the fragile ceasefire that resulted from the conflict, in which around 1,400 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis were killed, there has been sporadic rocket fire from Gaza, although usually without causing any casualties.
The claim by the Ansar al-Sunna brigades was significant, as aid workers and analysts have been warning that the dire conditions in Gaza – under tight Israeli and Egyptian blockade for three years, and devastated by the war – were spawning a new generation of even more radical Islamists with ties to al-Qaeda.
Hamas, which Israel and the West classify as a terrorist group, is considered by the new breed of radicals to be too moderate and not enforce strict enough Islamic codes.
The London Times has no kind words for Hamas yet they successfully convey the lopsided nature of the dispute. 1,400 dead Palestinians versus 11 Jews and one Thai. Those are numbers that explain all you need to know about what’s going on in Gaza.
Then again, the London Times didn’t base its report on what Israel’s military told them. The NYTimes finds space to write about how many rockets have been fired so far this year, but doesn’t even acknowledge that the first 29 generated no casualties. The NYTimes doesn’t speak truth to power, at least not to NY Jews.
It’s like firing a gun into the sky. Sooner or later someone will get hit, but I have yet to hear of a single Israeli bulldozer ever missing its target.
To be continued.
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Etc.:
Perfect hashbrowns made with butter (actually, olive oil is easier and healthier)
Kraft cutting salt by 10% (which means their canned goods and processed meats now only have 4x as much salt as you need)
Sholom Rubashkin’s sentencing date set
78 ill from Shigella outbreak at a Chicago area Subway
ChiTrib on neti pots
Monsanto’s patent on Roundup Ready seed expires in 2014, and Monsanto has responded by jacking seed prices up 64%
How Wellpoint turned $30 million into $6.2 million
Harold Meyerson on the mess that is California
Details on the beating Bernie Madoff got in prison
Ken fucking Cuccinelli
The Scientology diet
Why sane people don’t go on Fox
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Btw, it’s not the Daylight Savings time. The Wolves have been out west and I’ve been staying up late to watch their games.
No, there’s no excuse for that. Not the way the Wolves have been playing.
Corporate Greed Gone Global. Toyota Sales & Marketing Spin Control at Congressional hearings today; rings of criminal negligence.
By D. Maradei Ugel
February 23, 2010
I find it interesting that some say Mr. Lentz was the wrong man to be answering questions at today’s hearing because he’s not equipped to answer the questions that relevantly pertain to “manufacturing”.
I beg to differ with that opinion; Who better to send then a Sales/Marketing expert. Sales & Marketing is essentially one of the major area’s wherein Toyota was in my opinion criminally negligent. Mr. Lentz more or less has opened himself up to be crucified because he was made aware of the acceleration issues in europe years prior to having complaints in the U.S. The complaints reported to Toyota in the U.S. increased 400% yet for the most part it appears that they were not only negligent in denying the issue to consumers for almost 10 years, but in doing so they were in my opinion “criminally negligent”. Choosing to ignore the deaths caused by their product to consumers in the U.S. when they were fully aware of the issues is what makes it criminal.
Toyota’s failure to test specific cars that were part of a fatality is yet another blatant example of their lack of sincere concern to the public’s safety. Mr. Lentz made so many excuses it almost seemed as if I was watching Saturday Night Live; it was that bad. Mr. Lentz is a marketing expert and this is a marketing & sales disaster of their own creation.
Mr. Lentz gave the impression that he has no power over manufacturing and no power when it comes to his position in terms of making the kinds of changes and tests that were necessary to significantly correct the issues. Mr. Lentz implies that those choices are made by “higher ups” at Toyota in Japan.
Mr. Lentz responded so many times when asked a question that , “he didn’t know”. So much in fact, that it was transparent and obvious he was holding back more fully detailed answers; that he surely had to be aware of considering his position with Toyota over the last 4 years.
This isn’t sales or marketing in the sense that we would normally think of it in terms of selling automobiles. This is sales & marketing to congress and the American people as a whole. This is the selling of pure horse shit. It will boil down to “what did they know” & “when did they know it” and Mr. Lentz has already admitted that they were aware of the acceleration issues in europe long before they were reported here in the U.S.
I have no doubt Mr. Lentz is answerable to the heads in Japan, however at the end of the day, the neglect of this company and their representatives is nothing short of criminal. The choice to willfully endanger the public, resulting in the deaths of some and life long injury to others which will require life long medical care; this lack of corporate conscience is what I see to be the most criminally liable of all.
Mr. Lentz continually made promises that they would test this or that, and they would create this group for quality control for such things, and they would test the cars that were part of fatalities . The overwhelming question is why haven’t these things been done already? Why are they in the process of creating these things when in fact they should have done so back in November 2009 at the latest and yet it is nearly March of 2010.
Mr. Lentz made many excuses, lack of knowledge, lack of authority and power to affect changes on his authority alone and if this is true then there should be some sort of correspondence that reflects his attempts to passionately persuade & encourage the heads in Japan to make the appropriate tests and changes here in the U.S. for the safety of the public
I have a friend in Orange County, California that had the acceleration issue on the 2001 or 2002 Lexus which caused the death of the passenger and resulted in life in a wheelchair for my friend.
My personal belief is that when an individual such as Mr. Lentz, accepts a position with a company it is their choice. If the company is endangering the public welfare of their consumers, Mr. Lentz should have blown the whistle or left the company rather then choose to be part of such “inaction” on the part of those in power. When Mr. Lentz reported issues & test results to Japan’s Toyota corporate heads and became aware they were not going address the issues, but choose to deny and ignore them instead; this is where their actions including Mr. Lentz ; become morally and ethically corrupt.
There are some who say that we should not be so quick to judge until all of the evidence is in. However based on the testimony of Mr. Lentz today it seems clearly evident that Toyota was aware of the problems and complaints and they chose to deny the issues. As a company Toyota has blatantly refused to act in a moral and ethical capacity and failure to do so, in a timely manner has cost additional harm to the public safety and further hardship and pain to the families that have suffered a loss due to Toyota’s greed.
At the end of the day, this companies greed cost human lives and that in my opinion, is neglect by choice and that in and of itself is criminal corporate behavior. Toyota’s prolonged denial and willingness to continue to endanger the public in my mind, is nothing short of criminal, resulting in the loss of human life, pain and suffering and they should be dealt with and prosecuted as an example to other corporate greed mongers in the future.
After watching today’s Toyota Hearings with Jim Lentz, President & Cheif Operating Officer of U.S. Toyota; whose primary background, based on his statements today, is Sales & Marketing; There were many things that were glaringly apparent as I watched muttering to myself during the entire hearing.
In this edition of the Internet Roundup: A Twilight: Eclipse trailer reaction, The Lonely Island featuring Julian Casablancas, A Professor tackles a chicken, Jimmy Kimmel’s Toyota Ad and A reporter gets annoyed after a technical problem.
Also, the plug-in gunshot fail, Mike Realm remixes the plug-in gunshot fail and more.
Click more to see all the videos.
Eclipse Trailer Reaction:
The Lonely Island featuring Julian Casablanca: Boombox (An SNL Digital Short):
Professor Tackles Interrupting Chicken:
Jimmy Kimmel Toyota Ad:
Reporter gets annoyed after technical difficulty:
Plug In Gunshot (Original):
Mike Realm’s Plug In Gunshot mashup:
Mike Realm’s Iron Man Trailer Remix:
French Girls Go Wild At French H&M debut of a new Sonia Rykiel collection:
Tik Tok Parody:
Wings long lost brother?: Giwrgos Tampakis-Shake it:
Click here to see the complete list of videos on The Internet Roundup.
SAN DIEGO – Toyota Motor Corp. dismissed the story of a man who claimed his Prius sped out of control on the California freeway, saying Monday that its own tests found the car’s gas pedal and backup safety system were working just fine.
The automaker stopped short of saying James Sikes had staged a hoax last week but said his account did not square with a series of tests it conducted on the gas-electric hybrid.
The episode March 8 was among the highest-profile headaches Toyota has suffered in recent months. It recalled more than 8 million cars and trucks worldwide because gas pedals can become stuck in the down position or be snagged by floor mats.
In Sikes’ case, Toyota said it found he rapidly pressed the gas and brakes back and forth 250 times, the maximum amount of data that the car’s self-diagnostic system can collect.
Toyota officials said they believed Sikes was hitting the pedals lightly, which would have prevented the brake-override system from kicking in.
The company had no explanation for discrepancies with Sikes’ account but confirmed the brakes were overheated and the pads worn. Bob Waltz, vice president of product, quality and service support at Toyota Motor Sales USA., said the front brakes were “metal to metal.”
Toyota said it believes a CHP officer’s account that he smelled burning brakes while guiding Sikes on the freeway.
Sikes has said his car raced to 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego.
The CHP officer ultimately helped bring the car safely to a stop by telling him over a loudspeaker to hit the emergency brake and foot brake simultaneously. Sikes spoke to reporters shortly after the incident but has since kept a low profile.
And the rest of the car was fine, the automaker said — the gas pedal was not slowed by friction, the floor mat was not even touching the pedal, and a system that cuts the engine power when the gas and brakes are pressed at the same time was working.”If there were some kind of electronic problem, you would think it might actually stay permanent,” Michels said. “When your TV goes on the fritz, when electronic stuff goes on the fritz, it doesn’t just do it once and never do it again.”
I was daydreaming again. This time it was about walking through the snowy fields in my backyard in Syracuse, NY. It took me a minute, but I came back to reality and looked out the window at 7500 ft elevation and saw the urban sprawl that was Los Angeles. We were about to touch down at the Burbank Airport. In my mind, I remember thinking, “It’s so big. How am I going to get around without a car?”
"Alright, so I just go to that big cluster of buildings and turn left?"
In the summer of 2008, I participated in Ithaca College’s Los Angeles Program. They set us up with housing and all the amenities, offices for our school needs, and a vast network with many internship opportunities. It seemed all tailor-made to assist in very aspect of living in Los Angeles, except one thing: if you didn’t have a car, you’d either have to bum a ride or take the bus. I was stuck with the latter.
It’s not that the public transit system in Los Angeles is bad (though some people will tell you otherwise). But if you have to be somewhere and want to be there ASAP, you’re in trouble. The buses have long routes and like any other motor vehicle on the road, get stuck in traffic. Despite all the shortcomings, I still managed to get to my internship in West Hollywood on time and make it work.
Things were a little different when I decided to move permanently to LA in January 2009.
I came back with the same mentality, “I’ll just make it work… somehow.” I already had my apartment and I knew some people in the immediate area who were gracious enough to give me a ride to the grocery store and places like that. It all seemed to work out, but one fact still remained: I needed a job.
Now, this is an interesting problem to have: You come out to LA and don’t have a car AND need a job. The math doesn’t quite work out. In most cases in the industry, you start out as a production assistant. Production assistants make many runs, which involve driving. So, LA + CAR = JOB (you can check my Math on that). You take CAR out of the equation and life’s harder, if you expect to work. What a predicament!
But here’s something we didn’t add to the equation: IC ALUM. Like I stated earlier, Ithaca has a large network of alumni who live and work in Los Angeles and they have been through the Los Angeles Program themselves. ICLA invites these alums to speak to the students at events to give them advice on how to get into the industry.
My Alma Mater
I went to one of these events and met an editor of a very popular show. He graduated from Ithaca in 1992. Because I was interested in post-production, he was the guy needed to meet and talk to. I remember walking up to him and telling him that I was a IC alum and looking to work in Post Production. He said that he knew a couple of places that could be hiring, gave me his email address, and asked me to send him a resume. That night, I sent him an email and didn’t hear back from him until two weeks later.
It was a Wednesday. I recall being at my computer and looking through my email and seeing a message from the editor. He told me I might be getting a call from a IC Alum, who was working as an associate producer for a new show on NBC. I might have just finished the last line of the email when the phone rang. It was the post-supervisor of the show, asking if I was available for an interview. I told him that I was. He said, “How about this afternoon?” I told him I’d be there. After I hung up the phone, it dawned on me, “How am I going to get there?”
I entered a zone called: The Crisis Management Zone (I’m sure Rod Serling would be proud). I went through all the possibilities. Well, I guess I could WALK there, but it would take me several hours and give me sore feet. I could TAKE THE BUS–that would be a disaster. What could I do? I got on my computer and looked up different cab companies in my area. Yes, I took A CAB to my first real job interview.
My chariot awaits!
The cab driver picks me up from my apartment and drops me off at the studio lot. I tip him five dollars because I’m happy to even be there. I wander around the lot and ask a guard where I need to go and he points out the building to me. I walk inside and realize I’m in a professional sound mixing facility. I see posters on the wall of some very well-known shows that were mixed there. It all looks very impressive. The post supervisor walks out to meet me and says that they’re currently mixing a show right now, but he’ll be right with me. Is this a dream? I’m not even sure at this point.
After a couple of minutes, the associate producer and post supervisor sit me down for an interview. It goes very well. I seem to be answering all the questions the right way. Then they drop the bombshell on me, “So, you have California car insurance, right?” I tense up, but only for a second. I can’t have California car insurance because I don’t even have a car to insure. I tell them, I don’t have it yet. Then they ask, “Well, you have a car, right?”
There are points in your life when you’ll sit and wonder, “What would have happened if you had done things differently? Taken a different direction?” I could answer the question one of two ways. I could tell the truth. Mom would like that. Then, the interview would be over – the opportunity would leave as fast as it had come to me, seemingly out of nowhere. Or, I could lie.
“Yes, I have a car,” I said. If I had been given a polygraph test, it would have spiked through the roof.
A dramatic interpretation on my interview.
We shook hands and they told me they would get back to me by the end of the day. Sure enough, later that night, I got a call. They told me I had the job. INCREDIBLE.
I had pulled a rabbit out of a hat. But I had also bounced it into the frying pan and it was about to hit the fire. ”How am I going to make THIS work?” I wondered. It was another form of crisis management that I had to go through. Luckily, I had an idea: I could just rent a car for a couple of weeks.
I did just that while my Dad helped me research cars. I ended up buying a 2007 Toyota Corrolla and everything worked out with my job (which lasted three months, but that’s another story).
So, after all that, would I recommend going this route? No. But I did it. I made it work because I had to. The experience, though, is a testament to the value of taking risks. You have to take chances if you want to make it in the business. Sometimes, you just never know what it will bring you. For me, it got me my first car.
First, let’s look at the when the Toyota unintended sudden acceleration fatal accidents* happened:
The distribution does seem to be fairly uniform from 2004-2008, with an increase in 2009. Interestingly, 5 of the crashes in 2009 occurred in the first half of the year and the other 12 occurred in the 2nd half.
Next is a bar chart of the number of fatal accident by the year make of the car. Given that we saw more crashes in 2009, we’d expect the distribution of year make of car to be skewed towards 2009. But instead, it looks like this:
Why would we see more fatal crashes in 2009 if 2005 cars were one of the big culprits?
So, as is fairly common knowledge, Toyota’s got a problem with their gas pedals. They just want to stick to their slogan: Keep Moving Forward. What company wouldn’t want to stick to their slogan, I mean hey, that’s the point of a slogan right?
Olive Garden, “When You’re Here, You’re Family”. Applebee’s, “Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood”, Mastercard, “For everything else, there’s mastercard.” AT&T, “More Bars in More Places”, you get the idea. Companies have these little phrases to help you be inspired to use/purchase/like their products. If I were Toyota, I’d change the company slogan pronto! Especially when this all started to come about a few months back.
In a CNN video I watched, the reporter was talking about the acceleration system being “electronic”, and comparing it to the older cable system where the gas pedal was literally connected to the engine via a physical cable. That sounds a hell of a lot safer to me. Cars are becoming more computerized than they should be, if you ask me. I can see how adding some kind of crazy entertainment system with computer-controlled this and that would be cool. I can see how digitally-adjusted climate control, or speed/rpm/etc gauges can be fun, but when it comes to the core job of the car, stop and go, I believe that older technology to be just fine. Toyota needs to leave well enough alone here, and put their focuses elsewhere so that safety doesn’t become a liability.
So I took the day off today; ran away from home. It was the usual girls day out – with a couple of twists. We started our trip by strategizing just what we would do if Connie’s Camry decided to take us on an adventure in super-accelerate mode. I don’t think we came up with a solution that all 3 of us agreed on. I’m pretty sure I’d know what to do, but I’m thankful to be driving my piece-of-junk Ford Windstar instead of anything made by Toyota. (Oops. Did I say that in print? Ford makes our old Dodge Caravan seem like a 4-star hotel.) My poor friend. If she keeps her car, her insurance will go way up. If she sells her car… well, who’s going to buy a Toyota after all this?
Anyway.
So then I made my friends sit and wait while I got a really good haircut by my favorite hairdresser with her cute pregnant belly. Not that making them wait was anything for me to feel guilty about… Not when their villainous plans for the day included going to Applebee’s to WATCH THE KY BASKETBALL GAME. What is the world coming to? Me. At Applebee’s. Watching a ballgame.
I have to admit though. If I’m going to watch sports, I’d rather do it with women. They can follow a game and carry on a conversation at the same time. That was a new experience.
At Shoe Show I found a pair of shoes that fit my two requirements for buy-able sneakers. Comfortable with no laces. And as a bonus… they were Skechers – my favorite! That was all good and wonderful until I asked Debbie, “Do these look dorky?” and she casually answered, “Yeah. They look like an old man’s shoe.” LOL I love having a brutally honest friend. But I liked the shoes enough to buy them in spite of her and her opinion.
And to wrap up this extremely important post… I bet you’d like to know what the Voths are reading these days. As a family, we finished the Moffats series (by Eleanor Estes) and we’ve moved on to another of her books: Ginger Pye. The kids enjoy the evenings that we’re all at home with plenty of time to read together before bed. Next up will be a little Louisa May Alcott. I think we’ll start with Eight Cousins. One of my favorites. The main character is a girl, but the book is jam-packed with boys and their shenanigans.
The other day I started a book by Ron Carlson – The Speed of Light. I’ve only finished the 3rd chapter, but I’m ready to go out and buy everything else he’s written. His writing style and character development amaze me. The book is scattered with descriptive sentences so perfect that I feel I should memorize them. But the story itself distracts me from the poetry of his language – for a page or two. And then I’m whacked with another one of those fantastic sentences.
Judah, my son who is still convinced that he hates to read, has managed to make it to the halfway point in the first Septimus Heap book (by Angie Sage.) He’s enjoying the story, and if it was on audio, he would have finished it in a flash.
Wesley, in his quieter moments, reads the Usborne Book of World History or the Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia. That’s when he’s not reading a mom-assigned book for his book-it chart, like… A Wrinkle in Time.
Malin is an ambitious reader. When she discovered the American Girl books at the library, she didn’t choose one. She checked out 5 or 6. I think she finished most of them before I returned them to our friendly library book drop.
Avery believes that she can’t read. She’s slightly mistaken. She understands beginning sounds of words, ending sounds, and vowel sounds. She spells words out loud for me when I ask her to. Her procrastinator mama knows that we have until the middle of August to put that all together. I kind of think that a 5-year-old mind is a healthy primordial soup that doesn’t need to be rushed.
And there you have it. Some highlights of my day along with a glimpse over our shoulders into the books in our hands.
(If you’re looking over Roger’s shoulder, wake him up! He tends to fall asleep when he reads.)
Lexus has released the IS350C F-Sport Special Edition. It’s essentially an IS350C with plenty of F-Sport accessories and a few extra touches for that “Special Edition” feel.
The engine hasn’t been touched, but handling should be improved with Bilstein shocks, lowering springs, a sway bar set and upgraded brakes on all four corners. There’s also a set of new 19-inch alloy wheels with sporty rubber to go with them. Making it a special edition is a unique F-Sport grille, plenty of badging and the exclusivity of just 100 units. Also, you can only get it in Obsidian or Tungsten Pearl.
The interior also gets some F-Sport accessories: embroided floor mats and a leather-wrapped shift knob, both with F-Sport logos. There’s also a badge on the centre console indicating which of the 100 cars your particular one is. Pricing is set at $58,375 including the destination charge, which seems a bit pricey considering the competition. Nonetheless, it doesn’t look too bad. Have a closer look in the gallery below.
Press Release:
Lexus Introduces 2010 IS 350C F-Sport Special Edition
* Only 100 Units Will Be Produced
* Features F-Sport Performance Accessories and Unique Grille
* Interior with Numbered Badging and Blue Contrast Stitching
TORRANCE, Calif. (March. 8, 2010) – Lexus today announced the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $57,500 for the 2010 IS 350C F-Sport Special Edition which will arrive at dealerships later this month. The MSRP does not include a delivery, processing and handling fee of $875.
“The F-Sport Special Edition builds on the IS 350C and takes the fun of the convertible up another notch,” said Mark Templin, Lexus Division group vice president and general manager. “The F-Sport accessories on this car were precision engineered specifically for this vehicle, allowing us to provide sport-tuned performance without sacrificing ride quality.”
This 2010 IS 350C Special Edition was designed to engage driving enthusiasts with the performance and styling enhancements from the F-Sport accessories line. This IS 350C, only available in two colors, Tungsten Pearl or Obsidian, can be distinguished from other IS convertibles by the following F-Sport equipment:
* Newly designed 19-inch forged alloy wheels with a wheel lock set and Michelin Pilot Sport 225/35ZR19 tires in the front and 255/35ZR19 tires in the rear;
* Front and rear brake upgrade for a firmer pedal feel and enhanced fade resistance;
* New and unique F-Sport grille not previously available;
* Shock set developed in cooperation with Bilstein®;
* Lowering springs that reduce the ride height approximately one-inch in the front and rear;
* Sway bar set that helps reduce body roll and provide flatter cornering;
* Embroidered floor mats with F-Sport logo;
* Leather-wrapped shift knob with F-Sport logo;
* And exterior badging and an individually numbered badge on the center console complete the uniqueness of this vehicle.
The IS 350C F-Sport Special Edition also comes with black leather-trimmed seats with sporty blue contrast stitching. Other Special Edition standard features include heated and ventilated front seats with wood trim; Bi-Xenon HID headlamps with Adaptive Front lighting System (AFS); headlamp washers; and Lexus Navigation. The hard disk drive (HDD) navigation system has a seven-inch VGA touch-screen, Bluetooth® phonebook download capabilities, a rear back-up camera, Voice Command casual-language voice recognition system, Lexus Enform, XM® NavTraffic, XM® NavWeather, and XM® Sports and Stocks. XM services include a complimentary 90-day trial subscription. It is also features the new telematics system Lexus Enform™ with Safety Connect™ (includes complimentary one-year trial subscription).
“The IS 350C F-Sport Special Edition is a unique package of style and excitement. With only 100 units available nationwide they’ll sell out fast to customers who want power, performance and a little more fun under the sun,” said Templin.
Yes, I am a Luddite when it comes to deploying sophisticated technology to carry out mundane tasks, like the accelerator pedal in my car.
While I don’t go as far as Ned Ludd might have by ripping ‘brain boxes’ from underneath the seats of automobiles and handing the horrified owner’s a hefty stick and bobbin of yarn, in return, to do the job, I do manage a serious aversion to this technical overkill. No pun intended.
Our pioneer/forward time traveler mindset has us all believe that we live in times which are more advanced; more complicated, and more harried than those who went before us. And, it is this very reason that we seem to be accepting runaway automobiles as part of the process.
The potential causes read like a blog post from a conspiracy theory site: electromagnetic interference; cell phone signal or bluetooth interference; partial gate opening on processors (I don’t understand that at all..), or those atomic-sized stalagtites (-mites?) that bridge processor pathways and are undetectable or, the tried and true: just bad code.
Be assured that the ultimate culprit will be less exciting than we expect and the cure may be quite simple.
Unintended Acceleration is not a new topic for the automobile industry. Follow this link to read about earlier instances of this phenomenon and the industry dealt with the problem.
I believe that the culprit will be a weakness in messaging protocol between the request broker and the object receiver. In other words, the pedal is pushed down and the car accelerates but when the accelerator returns to it’s initial state, the unexpected happens.
For this reason, Luddites like me prefer mechanical linkages.
Dustin Mattison pulled together some interesting comments on Toyota and its ’silo-based organization’.
It is of course remarkable how quickly people, institutions and companies can switch from ‘hero’ to ‘villain’ status. So recently Toyota was hailed as such a successs story, yet now everyone appears to have known that this was just based on … what, a myth, good luck?
Business results prove that Toyota did a lot of things very well for a considerable period of time. What it perhaps did not do so well was adjust to changing conditions – among them, its own successful growth (but it shares that fault with most industrial Leviathans). I have commented in previous blogs that the warnig signs were there (for example, the reports issued by Professor John Henke). Based on my contacts, it is certainly true that the highly devolved organizational model, on which Dustin comments, prevented strong business functions from developing. I believe that in the field of contracts and relationship management, there was virtually no central oversight. Yet let us not forget that many suuppliers loved this model and felt strong loyalty to Toyota. Before the cynics observe that this lack of central control meant higher margins for the supplier, let me say that there is no strong evidence of that, and even if they did, I suspect the overall relationship costs for Toyota were much lower.
The problem with Toyota’s organizational design is that it depended on the competence and insights of a small executive team. The model appears to have lacked appropriate checks and balances and this deficiency became more severe with rapid growth. I agree with comments by Forrest Breyfogle that modern technologies allow very different and better balanced structures, supported by high quality information flows that enable insight and decision making in a far more collaborative way. The old ‘centralization versus decentralization’ see-saw through which most of us have lived is now anachronistic. A matrix that brings together the relevant expert groups (business units and support functions) to have joint and several responsibility for key business activities and processes appears to be the way forward. Silos always accompany any sort of specialism and to some extent
are desirable; rather than seek to eradicate them, we have to ensure that the contention they generate is creative rather than destructive.
i think it’s time to give you some quick opinions on a few vehicles shown at this year’s motor show
Lets start with the car above, the Peugeot SR1, or the prettiest Peugeot I’ve seen on a while, it looks excellent, it makes you wonder how did the 3008 slipped through the net.Peugeot said that this car has the general design for all future Peugeots, So be it. Suzuki Swift Plug-In Hybrid
On the other end of the scale we have this, the swift is a fine car sure, but prototypes like this are just to show what’s fashionable now, being ¨Green¨is where money’s at. If you want to show you give a damn about the environment just start pushing Hydrogen until it goes through.
Touring Superleggera Continental Flying Star
This is more like it. It takes a special sort of man to look at a Bentley continental and say ¨You know? It would look better as a shooting brake.¨Thankfully this man exists and gave us this masterpiece.The world always has space for a 6-liter, W12, 560HP Shooting Brake more.
Alfa Romeo 2uettottanta Concept
This needs to be done immediately it must have a V6 and Alfa should get rid of that name and rename it the Gulietta Sprint. Next!
Toyota FT-86
Lastly, I want to talk about this. The last time i talked about it i really didn’t gave the FT-86 the time it deserved (probably because I was rambling about hybrids) and how Toyota has pretty much shot itself.
However, this car is what the quintessential sports car is all about. Toyota has made boring econocars for a good time now and for them to release this Small, Front Engine-Rear Wheel Drive car. Inspired the Drifting lovers and Manga an Anime favorite Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 (Before anyone of you start, if it had been inspired by the Trueno Hachi-Roku it would’ve had Pop-Up headlamps.More on those later.) Assuming Toyota assumes responsibility for the ¨Unintended Acceleration¨ incident, and if the people recognize just what a properly good car it is. We may be on the way to a ¨fun¨ Toyota again.
Yesterday, Toyota faced more woes as a Prius seemed to accelerate on it’s own down a San Diego highway in California.A man in traveling East on Highway 8 couldn’t get his 2008 Toyota Prius to slow down after switching lanes to pass a slower moving vehicle. [pullquote quote="I thought it was maybe stuck, somehow the pedal was stuck." credit="James Sikes"] After frantically trying to figure out why his Prius was accelerating on it’s own accord, James Sikes called 911 to see if they could aid him in slowing his ‘run-away’ car down.
When California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Neibert caught up to the Prius, he witnessed Sikes standing on his brakes trying to get his vehicle to stop. Eventually Sikes got his Prius to slow down to about 55MPH by pulling the emergency brake and then trying to shut the car off. Sikes came to a stop bumping California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Neibert’s bumper…but not before the Prius tried to accelerate again.
[pullquote quote="I won't drive that car again, period, my mat was perfect." credit="James Sikes"]
Surprisingly enough, Sikes’ 2008 Prius wasn’t even on the list for accelerator problems released in February, but for floor mat issues.
Most view social media as a two-way dialogue between companies and customers. This means of communication is great for gaining valuable customer feedback. In the case of Toyota, it also serves as a great way to hurl insults and complaints at a company.
According to The Big Money, Toyota’s “fan base has actually grown by nearly 10,000 since the recall was announced.”
Instead of reflecting a Toyota pounding-session, where the conversation is dominated by the outraged and the disheartened, the Facebook page of the shamed company seems to reflect a mixture of anger and sympathy, with some loyalists vilifying the media for “over-hyping the recall.”
Across the world in Toyota’s birthplace of Japan, many locals echo this sentiment.
According to Advertising Age’s article entitled “U.S. ‘Overreaction Stirs Empathy for Toyota at Home”, these citizens are shocked by the amount of media coverage the recall is receiving.
Some feel that there is an ulterior motive for the U.S. media’s fascination with the recall.
Citing the U.S. car market’s demise, many Japanese automakers feel that the domestic U.S. auto market is seeking to profit from the woes of Toyota by exacerbating the crisis.
An article entitled “Toyota’s U.S. market share breaks down” supports this theory, stating, “The troubled Japanese automaker will probably see its market share drop to its lowest level in almost five years, giving the runner-up spot in the U.S. back to Ford Motor Co.”
Watching the auto-giant fall on its face as its reputation is dragged through the mud does not sit well with the Japanese, who fear the loss of confidence in Toyota will translate into a loss of confidence in Japan.
Given the lingering tainted perception of Chinese production after the toy and paint recalls, this concern is justified.
The drop in production quality is linked to the company’s rapid growth.
Abandoning its traditional, lengthier model of production, which included preparing the human resources division first and foremost, for a speedier one in which employees were often not properly trained, is the source of the problems.
As the company seeks to return to its basics of manufacturing excellence and its pursuit of perception, the values that gave the company its advantage, U.S. loyalists stand with their beloved company, battling those who dare denigrate the brand in the social media arena.
Corona, Ugly cousin & forbearer to the X Chassie (Mark II, Cresta, Chaser & Cressida) line. Not very often do i come across some inspiring examples till now… While looking thru Yahoo Auctions i came across this TT100 2000GT which is apparently a rare 2TG model with genuine 48,000km’s on the dial. its a funny fact but i’ve looked at these so many times on ebay.com.au with unfavourable eyes as the T100 series didn’t have the nice grill/light combo as its T104 counterpart. but with those Takechi Project Hart rims, fender mirrors, front lip, period suited stickers and the lowness makes me see these things in a new light.
if you have a spare 850,000 Yen laying i could prob see better cars to spend your money on but if your a big fan of Toyota’s (like me) and you couldn’t justify building a kyusha corona when a kenmeri or old datsun is much easier… now you have inspiration to stay true to your brand.
Have a look at the auction its self, the car is Mint – TT100 2000GT
A few things of interest in the NYTimes this morning. Ombudswhatever Clark Hoyt apologizes for a Times business reporter who plagiarized his stuff from the Wall Street Journal, but still can’t manage to apologize for the entire newspaper plagiarizing Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government’s lies about ACORN offices. Worse, the Times apologized for not having covered this bogus story earlier and in more depth.
Hoyt has famously acknowledged that their coverage turned out to be inaccurate (hard not to be when they allow themselves to be spoon fed by propagandists) but will not issue a correction (even while noting NYC’s ACORN reorg/name change), which pretty much cheapens all the Times’ content.
Frank Rich has a somewhat cynical column about this week’s up or down vote on health care. Even Rich can’t muster sufficient cynicism over a process fraught with unsolicited compromise and concessions made to Senators who will never ever vote for improving health care.
“They are waiting for us to act,” Obama said on Wednesday of the American people. “They are waiting for us to lead.” Actually, they have given up waiting. Some 80 percent of the country believes that “nothing can be accomplished” in Washington, according to an Ipsos/McClatchy poll conducted a week ago. The percentage is just as high among Democrats, many of whom admire the president but have a sinking sense of disillusionment about his ability to exercise power.
Listening to Left, Right & Center at WYSO.org right now, and the latest jabber is that we should pass the bill and fix it in a subsequent Congress. Only the loathsome presence of WaTimes propagandist Tony Blankely makes me even slightly sympathetic to the mess that’s up for a vote.
Imho, that will only work if we can find some Puerto Ricans to shoot up Congress between now and the next session. (Last Monday was the 56th anniversary of their last attempt.)
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I’m still boycotting the WaPost (except for Toles), but I do need to acknowledge that Frank Ahrens has another weasely column on how impossible Toyota’s quest for truth is in l’affaire acceleration whatzeefuck.
A curious argument that essentially says there are 20,000 parts in a car and Toyota has to conduct spectrographic analyses of each part in alphabetical order before they can solve this unfathomable mystery.
The cheapest thing about this Ahrens column is how much of it parrots his previous column. The second cheapest thing is that it’s the same column I cited but did not link to before, except with the date stamp updated to keep it up towards the top in Google searches on this topic.
Is Toyota paying for this column? They’re certainly regrouping and going on the offensive. Monday they’re going to “stage” a technical demonstration to prove the onboard electronic control systems are peachy keen perfect.
I did not know you could prove a negative. It seems to me that such a demonstration would only prove they don’t know how to replicate their sudden acceleration problem. Or maybe that they do know how to conduct a simulation but in a way that doesn’t trigger any sudden acceleration problems.
Paranoid? Me? No, just very much aware of how worthless this kind of cyber-dog and robo-pony show is. Engineers have proven time and again that bumblebees can’t fly. Proving that a specific kind of malfunction that has occurred many times doesn’t actually exist should be a piece of cake.
At Injuryboard.com, Michael Phelan writes about Toyota’s extreme lack of transparency regarding their black box data. In fact, Toyota’s demonstration on Monday is meant to be a rebuttal of those accusations. A rebuttal that will still not make that black box data public.
It’s very hard to believe that Toyota’s not withholding information.
Very hard.
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I think Toles has hit on something here. We shouldn’t be talking about global warming, we should be talking about climate change. You can’t mock climate change by pointing to snow in Dallas because that’s just reinforcing the fact there’s a problem.
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More on that state senate race DFL endorsement here in St. Paul from the PiPress. Jeremiah Ellis is probably a great guy and deserving of the nod, but how much value should be placed on an endorsement that came from so few DFLers?
Each Minnesota state senator represents 25,000 Minnesotans. The PiPress’s account doesn’t say how many delegates were voting, but they do mention a procedural vote in which 104 delegates voted.
104. And the DFL didn’t even blush when they handed out that endorsement.
That’s .4% of the people in SD67. I have no idea who in that district is most qualified to hold that seat, but fortunately another contender, Rena Moran, has decided to run in the primary without the DFL endorsement.
Maybe by summer people will be paying more attention. They may even have a chance to talk to one or more door knocking candidates. Democracy might actually happen, something that’s far more likely when thousands vote as opposed to a scant hundred caucus-qualified DFL activists. Activists who, of course, booed when Moran refused to abide by the endorsement.
SD67ers now have several months to study up on the candidates.
Rena Moran: Wellstone Action!, Facebook.
Jeremy Ellis: webpage, Facebook.
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Etc.:
More former Scientologists speak up about their whackjob fully evil-activated pseudo religion
Botox for migraines?
Low oxygen zones?
No shortage of political scandals
Looking back at laissez-faire’s origins
Suicide Bomber in Chief?
Taser update from Digby
Rivaling the Great Depression
Ahmed Chalabi update
Sunday morning music from WINston
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They’re fundraising at WYSO today. Things have changed a bit since my buddy got railroaded out of their studios by their former whackjob station manager. That job’s turned over a few times in recent years and Vick is on right now to do some fundraising and to air his last interview with Barbara Ehrenreich between pitches.
If you value public radio but don’t like your local version of it, consider making a donation to WYSO, preferably while Vick’s on the air.
Justice sometimes prevails, but it needs encouragement, especially in the Miami Valley.
It’s Time to Get an “Obama Discount” On a Slightly Used Toyota
Popular Mechanics senior automotive editor Mike Allen explains in the most recent issue why the Toyota is a solid car and the hysteria over a pedal defect questionable. The anti-Toyota campaign appears to be by some inside Toyota as an Obama led campaign to direct buyers to GM cars. Here’s Allen with an overview of the mechanics:
via EconomicPolicyJournal.com: It’s Time to Get an “Obama Discount” On a Slightly Used Toyota.
Anyone living in the US, who has not been living in a deprivation chamber for the past few weeks, is likely aware that Toyota has had its problems the past few weeks. Toyota, a company known for fanatical customers, and ultra reliable automobiles has had to deal with issues related to several models that still seem not to be completely resolved. And this following on the heels of the floor mat debacle….
Looks nice sitting in your driveway...
So how does a modern day company defend their actions and reputation against an unrelenting news media, the US Congress, and late night talk show hosts? Toyota apparently thinks the answer is Twitter.
Well, I certainly give them points for trying.
Use of the venue, in conjunction with TweetMeme has social media apostles all over the world drooling with joy. I’m not so sure. First off on TweetMeme. Toyota is tracking comments related to Toyota on Twitter: Good! It has also been alleged (TechCrunch and others) that Toyota has sanitized the postings and/or is only tuning into the more favorable comments: Bad! This is not the time to place your head in the sand and tune out the negative.
My second concern with this media is that Twitter, until you have a tremendous following, can only be largely reactive. You just can’t tweet to people who don’t follow you, and Toyota only has 17,753 followers as of this writing. Not nearly enough to launch a retaliatory response to overwhelming negativity.
In fairness, Toyota also has a Facebook page, with 80,000 plus fans (I wonder if this has grown recently) where they post videos (from their YouTube page) about Toyota safety issues, and link to their recall site (Toyota Recall ), and provide a toll free number. They have posts from fans, that are both positive and negative on the FB site, but don’t host a discussion page.
The time has come for Toyota to wade in to these waters and weigh in a little more prominently.
Common Name: Crown
Driver: -
Make: Toyota
Model: Crown Majesta Patrol Car
Engine: -
Drivetrain: FR
Horsepower: -
Torque: -
Color: White
Dimensions: 4800 mm x 1750 mm x 1440 mm
Wheelbase: 2730 mm
Weight: 1620 kg
Brand: Tomica
Year: 1992
Model Number: 036
Scale: 1:64
Made In: China
The Crown Hardtop and all-new Crown Majesta models were built on the 140-series platform. The rebodied Crown Sedan and Wagon still carried S130 model codes, although the exterior is rounder, and the nose is similar to S140 Hardtop. Styling was largely influenced by the newly created Lexus LS, which was later sold in Japan as the Toyota Celsior.
Trim levels for Sedan are Standard, Deluxe, Super Deluxe, Super Saloon, Royal Saloon, and Royal Saloon G. Engine choices were 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 liter gasoline, and 2.4 liter diesel. The 4.0 liter was offered for Royal Saloon G and Majesta.
The Crown Majesta is a car related to the Crown but is bigger, more luxurious and has a V8 engine shared with the Lexus LS and has many expensive electronic options. The Crown Majesta has been produced since 1991.
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Over the last month, Toyota’s brand has taken a big hit. It’s February sales in the US moved to 3rd place behind Ford, and GM. Who would have believed such situation just 6 months ago? Apple late last week had to admit some of its contract manufacturers were using child labour in the making of iPhones and iPods. There quick admittance probably saved their brand.
Both those examples demonstrate the importance of understanding what happens throughout your supply chain (and I use the term here in the widest sense, from raw material to end customer).
Combining three initiatives helps addressing the risk of brand damage. These are gaining an in-depth understanding of the Supply Chain, understand what the market is saying and supply chain audits/controls. Let me develop each of those in some more details.
We have already talked about how we could gain a better understanding of the Supply Chain. First we need to gain an understanding of the topology of the supply chain. Who are the companies participating. Tier 1 partners are easy, but it is moving up the tiers that become increasingly complex. But that’s where the danger may come from. In the Mattel case from a couple years ago, the problem was not a supplier, nor a supplier of a supplier, but a tier 4 supplier. Unfortunately, as the products were branded Mattel, they took the hit. Once the community is understood, one may want to put information sharing, communication and collaboration tools in place to facilitate the transfer of information at all levels. Obviously this requires collaborative suppliers and trust. Using a business exchange or cloud computing based solutions the collaborative network can be monitored and potential issues and strange behaviours identified.
Understanding what the market is saying would have helped Toyota understand their issues earlier.A vast amount of information is communicated on the internet and on social networking site, that it becomes mandatory for a company to monitor what happens. But to my greatest amazement, many well known brands don’t do this. I would start with three very simple steps. First, I would create a Google Alert with the name of the brand. This would provide me with a daily report of what is being said on the internet and in the blogosphere. I would make somebody responsible to read what is being said and look for potential clues. Second, I would create a Twitter and Facebook account. Besides being a mechanism to communicate with customers, I would also look at what they tell me. In Twitter in particular, I would closely monitor the #Brand tag to see what people say. In Facebook, I’d look for “friends”, and see what they tell me. And third I would search for forums on my brand or my products, subscribe to those (with an RSS feed to ensure I am not missing anything) and then listen and interact. Many customers are dying to tell something, why not encourage that dialogue.HP for example spotted a contrast issue with the camera of their TouchSmart when a YouTube video treating them as racists, turned up on Twitter. They very quickly intervened and addressed the problem.
But not everything can be addressed through remote monitoring. You need to go and see for yourself. And that is where audits and controls are playing a role. Many companies have a supplier code of conduct, describing what the suppliers may or may not do. Some of those requirements are not obvious for suppliers as it differs from their cultural heritage, so making them understand the importance of the requirement and why it is there is key. And then, doing actual controls (planned and unplanned), helps identify issues. The Apple example is a good one here. It is during one of those controls they found out. Now we talked about the tiers of suppliers. You may want to work with the tier 1 suppliers to have them auditing tier 2 etc. But here again, as your brand is on the product, you want to make absolutely sure the audits are performed seriously and completely. Maintaining the results and identifying the suppliers that are borderline helps you focus on the weak links in your supply chain.
Last but not least, dialogue with your suppliers and ask them where things can be improved. You will be astonished about the quality of the information that comes back, and I’m sure you will implement some ideas straight away. Collaborating with your supply chain, listen to suppliers and customers and continuously analysing what is happening are a great insurance to avoid trouble. Because the last thing you want is your brand name with bad news printed on the front page of the main publications. Take the necessary precautions ahead of time.
Before you hit the road to run, make sure your feet are covered with the best running shoes for YOU. Your running shoes are the only thing separating your feet from the asphalt, so it is important that you take the time to get the right pair for your feet.
Not only can the wrong shoes or worn down shoes expose your feet to the elements, they could cause unnecessary soreness or injury as well.
Every pair and every brand can feel different to each individual, so make sure you choose the right shoe for your specific needs. Here are 4 tips that will help you find the best running shoes you’ve ever worn!
Before you buy, ask yourself the following questions:
How old are your current running shoes? If you cannot remember the last time you replaced them, they are too old! You should be able to get about 300-400 miles out of a good pair of shoes. Write down the date you get your new shoes and keep track of the approximate weekly running mileage so that you will know when they need to be replaced.
How did you pick out the pair that you are wearing? You should buy your shoes from a specialty store that focuses on running gear. A good store will take the time to watch you run, either in-store or on a treadmill, and then suggest several pairs for your foot strike. Your foot might land differently than your running partner’s, so don’t just get the pair of shoes your buddy recommends. Go and have your form evaluated by a trained professional and get the right pair for you.
Where will you be running? If you are a trail runner, you should buy a shoe specifically made for running on trails. The same goes for street running. Each shoe is designed with a specific purpose, make sure you get the right kind.
How much can you afford to spend? You can get a quality shoe for less, but do not expect to pay less than $60. Quality running shoes will absorb the majority of the ground impact when you are running which will help keep your feet, shins, and knees happy. Once you are fitted with a great pair of running shoes, preserve them by only using them when running.
Now that your feet are covered, go out and enjoy your run!
What brand of running shoes are you currently wearing?
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As everyone is no doubt aware, Toyota has recently recalled over 2 million vehicles for an issue with gas pedals and 3.8 million vehicles over floor mats. Toyota’s CEO, Akio Toyoda, was also called to Washington for questioning over the recalls. It has been all over the media; a very high profile issue for Toyota which prides itself on safety.
But there’s something that doesn’t seem right: why is Toyota getting so much attention for this? In October 2009, Ford had to recall 4.5 million vehicles due to the fact that they could catch fire (faulty cruise control switches). This recall is linked to 550 separate incidents and it’s not a new problem; Ford, over the past decade, has recalled over 14 million vehicles in 8 separate recalls related to cruise control switches catching fire. Since 2008 alone, Ford has recalled over 14 million vehicles for various issues. But the media mentions next to nothing about Ford’s safety problems and recalls.
Where are the congressional hearings for Ford? It’s quite clear that Ford has a problem with cruise control switches and the results aren’t pretty. But a few floor mats and (made in USA) pedals in Toyotas and we have a media storm.
Of course, the US Government owns a large portion of American car companies and also happen to now be a good source of bad press for Toyota. An opportunity has arisen! Coincidence? Your call.
American car manufacturer General Motors, resurrected by a government bailout after going broke, is recalling 1.3 million cars in North America because of a power steering problem, which has been linked to more than a dozen crashes. Four models were affected – the Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac G5, Pontiac Pursuit and Pontiac 4.
The company said the fault meant that at low speeds “greater steering effort may be required”, but that the cars could still be “safely controlled”.
General Motors was quick to blame the fault on a supplier partially owned by the Japanese car giant Toyota. GM’s vice-chairman Bob Lutz told the BBC at the Geneva Motor show: “This is a case where, yes, we would blame a partially Toyota-owned supplier.” Lutz said the supplier had not met “all requirements for reliability and durability”.
“So we will have to see who takes financial responsibility,” he said. “But this is a risk you sometimes take when you buy a complete system from a supplier.”
Astonishing!
Here is a US firm that almost died because it made poor quality, very inefficient and expensive cars for decades and was then resurrected by the federal government. Within months, GM is claiming to be the champion of quality and blaming Toyota. Is it an act of revenge or part of America’s economic war against Japan?
We should bear in mind that the new government, led by the Democratic Party of Japan, wants to loosen its alliance with Washington. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama advocates a policy of detachment from America and its foreign conflicts, while repairing relations with neighboring countries. For example, Japan ended its naval refueling mission in the Indian Ocean that had supported the US-led war in Afghanistan since 2001.
Yesterday was an oppotunity for me to do something which doesn’t happen enough, read the Sunday paper cover to cover. Whilst I was a little cheesed off that Morrison’s apparently doesn’t stock the Observer at its petrol stations, my second choice, The Indy was available.
Whilst slowly digesting the paper, there were many things to comment upon:
The reported cuts to the Tory lead, a storm in a tea-cup really given every other poll has had them on 6% all week (apart from a Ipsos which said 5% on friday).
The fact that the Olympics are apparently going to come in under budget, an absurd suggestion given that the original budget was forecast at £2.4bn and it is now expected to be between £8.8 and £8.9 billion.
But no, the thing which most caught my eye, perversely, was an advert. A full-page Toyota advert to be specific.
Now everyone will know of the troubles facing Toyota recently and I would be lying if I said that they hadn’t brought any of it on themselves. The Director has already admitted many of the recalls are the result of too fast and aggressive expansion, however, this is not what I want to take issue with.
Toyota have recently recalled millions of their cars
A few weeks ago I was asked (as part of an application form) to analyse what I thought was one of the worst PR failures of 2009, this is what I wrote:
“Toyota, have had a few years of massive ups and downs in terms of their public relations. Over the last half decade they have built up a strong reputation for creating good, environmentally friendly cars. They did this through good advertising and wide media coverage and reviews, as well as encouraging prestige names to drive their cars. With some of the world’s top celebrities endorsing the Toyota Prius as a good but environmentally friendly car, the public’s perception of Toyota was extremely positive. All of this strong brand building and the trusting relationship between the consumer and Toyota was washed away in one swoop in 2009 when Toyota dithered in announcing a recall of millions of its cars which it feared may have technical difficulties.
Whilst being in the situation of having to recall cars was never going to be a positive development for Toyota’s image, it could have been handled much more effectively so to limit the damage done to the companies long-term reputation. Toyota’s phased recall decision, announcing, one at a time, the different models of its cars which were to be withdrawn was a mistake. Even today it is widely believed that tomorrow Toyota intend to recall some of its flagship Prius range. The problem Toyota have created for themselves is that they have prolonged the story. Every time there is a new model recalled it is front page news, serving to remind the public of Toyota’s unreliability. In addition to this there has been very little in the way of a defence of Toyota’s decision. If Toyota really wanted to improve their PR situation I would have encouraged making the point that they are recalling these cars as a precaution and that they didn’t expect many, if any, of the cars to be dangerous, but were withdrawing them because the safety of their customers was paramount. Whilst this may not have stopped all damage to Toyota’s reputation it would have greatly improved the situation which we see now with anyone with any make of Toyota car wondering whether or not it is safe to drive. Unfortunately for them, however, Toyota decided to hide in the bunker and not to address the concerns of the media or of their customers, and for this, their hard-earned reputation now lies in tatters.”
Toyota apologizes for the Recalls
Today I was happy to see that Toyota had finally accepted that they needed to make a mends with their customers and to apologise for the massive failings on their behalf. In all honest they deserve quite a bit of credit, firstly for doing so (even if it is a few months too late) and also for resisting the urge to dress it up instead of dealing with the issues themselves. Whilst not the sexiest advert in the world by a long shot, Toyota have gone a long way in redeeming themselves in my opinion after seeing this apology.
Most view social media as a two-way dialogue between companies and customers. This means of communication is great for gaining valuable customer feedback. In the case of Toyota, it also serves as a great way to hurl insults and complaints at a company.
I think Toles has hit on something here. We shouldn’t be talking about global warming, we should be talking about climate change. You can’t mock climate change by pointing to snow in Dallas because that’s just reinforcing the fact there’s a problem.
It’s Time to Get an “Obama Discount” On a Slightly Used Toyota
