Toyota, beating a dead horse?

What gives with the Toyota issue? Does anyone else think that the media is beating a deadhorse? I personally do not own a Toyota but belive they are the best quality vehicle on the market. I strongly feel that Toyota has taken action on their throttle issue much more seriousley and quickley that any other auto manufacturer ever has or would. I have NEVER before heard radio or tv ads from a car mfgr. when there is a recall.
How many of us have never heard of recalls on our vehicles untill we take them in to get serviced? Granted, it is a serious issue but what could Toyota have done better in taking action to resolve a problem, in my eyes they have done a much better job that any other mfgr. would have or ever will do. I will proudly make our next vehicle a Toyota. -Mark

absolutely. chevy and ford are making strides in car quality (most of fords lineup is actually decent now and chevy gets better the more and more they incorporate opal and holden) but as far as retail value goes, honda and toyota without brakes still beat most of the domestics.

i have no problem buying toyota products. we went with the honda minivan just because we liked both and the pricing on thevan was right.

to things most people don’t understand about toyota :

1. the bad parts were manufactuered in Indiana. more parts on toyota vehicles are manuf in the states than those of chevy or ford.

2. while toyota’s top management is all still taken care of in Japan. most of toyota’s ownership is obviously their shareholders, who American companies and individuals make up of almost half. so “the profits still go back to japan” that you so often here is actually wrong.

I used to own a Highlander wonderful car. Had a Toyota pickup that got over 35 a gallon still wish I had it.Dad has a 4 Runner, Grandpa has a Highlander, Aunt and Uncle have a 4 Runner and a Prius.

Great cars and trucks in my opinion not buying itno the hype.

The horse is dead time to put it to rest.

The media continues to beat anything they can at all possible points in time. I try my best to not pay any attention to them at all. If it was not the Toyota thing, all we would hear about is some stupid golfer who cheated on his wife

I don’t think they did anything that any other manufacturer would not have done. A major safety concern, start a major recall and hit the advertising hard to show how great you are. Realistically every major vehicle company has done something like this in the past, and will do something like this in the future. A no brainer on their part.

Toyota being of a higher quality…. personal preference. I would not drive one myself, but to each their own. Quality is a very difficult thing to quantify, and each person has their own opinions. If you choose to buy one, I hope it is a great vehicle for you

quality is directly related to resale value.

It could be worse. Anyone remember the Ford Pinto?

I’ve held the opinion for some time that the reason this is such a media issue as well as all over the gear head forums, is that the anti-foreign/pro-Detroit people are trying to hype this up. I question their agenda.

We have from what I read, at least 3 million being recalled, also Toyota admitting they were slow to respond, also at least one death and probably more, add the news looking for ratings and if I believe right, a grand jury (??) looking into all this.
That might be some of the reason its still on the airways.

btw there was a pretty good press coverage of Ford and their cruise control issues to, if I remember right.

Pinto?
Ya like the exploding trucks the study had to rig to get them to explode, or how dangerous the Corvair was….ever look at the latest smart car?

Not sure about you, but I’d hate to see a head on with a full sized car and one of them cracker boxes.

Right or wrong, till the next big ratings event happens, you’ll hear more about Toyota imho

Al

Love the older Toyota’s pre-2004 and earlier. I don’t think Newer Toyota’s are any better than the averagely built vehicles that U.S. auto makers are putting out. You can can get the same exact engine and drive train that Camry’s use in an American vehicle if you want.

I don’t blame the media at all for Toyota’s problems I blame Toyota for the recent myriad of Toyota problems. Call me old school on that one.

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I’ve held the opinion for some time that the reason this is such a media issue as well as all over the gear head forums, is that the anti-foreign/pro-Detroit people are trying to hype this up. I question their agenda.

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I think there is little doubt the flames are being fanned by Detroit. Detroit will become a waste land without the auto companies there.
Ford again is back in the hunt. GM again is playing catch up.
And the foreign makers are carving up whatever they can of Detroit’s formerly Big 3.

Buy what you wanna buy, pay what you wanna pay. My advice is do it soon while your taxes aren’t yet reflecting the smoking printing presses at the Federal mint.

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I’ve held the opinion for some time that the reason this is such a media issue as well as all over the gear head forums, is that the anti-foreign/pro-Detroit people are trying to hype this up. I question their agenda.

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I said the same thing to my wife yesterday. I think they are trying to gain a little more of the lost market share with the media hype.

Very satisfied Toyota owner here.

At one time a couple years ago I owned a 2005 Camry, 2004 RAV4 and a 2003 4Runner. I since have sold the Camry, but the fact that between all three in the past several years, none of them has had anything fail is enough for me.

I too am SICK of hearing about it every day on the news. It’s like c’mon. Now I just heard this morning about someone who might be wrongly imprisoned because his 1996 Camry might be to blame for his crash that killed someone. These viral media stories are scary.

I would not be afraid to buy or own a Toyota.

That said, acceleration problems resulting in deaths is a bigger story than an electrical switch being recalled. Audi, who had much fewer cars on the road, was nearly put out of business in the late 80s, early 90s when the Audi 5000 had an acceleration problem.

I am not generally one to defend the press, but when the top car seller in the US has a major safety issue, even in an extremely small % of vehicles, it deserves a lot of attention.

All manu’s have recalls. Not all manu’s have internal memos, bragging how they saved $100 million by telling NHTSA that the problem was floormats…

big G

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All manu’s have recalls. Not all manu’s have internal memos, bragging how they saved $100 million by telling NHTSA that the problem was floormats…

big G

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How much are they saving with the supposed shim fix?

They grew to big and to fast in the US and the quality control went down the tubes.

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Very satisfied Toyota owner here.

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Sequoia here Next one will be a Sequoia, too, if I can afford it

I own a Toyota Tundra and a very happy owner. I called my dealer to set up an appointment to get the truck in for the recall. I thought it would be a couple of week wait to get in. Nope got in in 2 days. The guy running the show for maintenance thought the media was crazy. He said recalls happen then get taken care of. I had to wait an hour for the repair to be completed. My truck was washed, vacuumed, windows cleaned on the inside, the dash and instrument panel were wiped down. They apologized for taking so long. Plus I got a $25 gift certificate. Which I can use on my next oil change. Amazing service. When’s the next recall!

Now it has turned into a Toyota Lovefest… Which is it ???

big G

Horse is dead buried & turned to glue

I think it’s pretty funny that some of you conspiracy theorists think Detroit is behind all the attention. There are multiple recalls, and if you have one of the problems with your car you might die. Do you think Toyota was behind it when the Firestone tire problem hurt Ford about 10 years ago? You guys make me smile.

And the memo from Toyota saying that they saved $100 million by hiding the accelleration problems from the government? That’s what I’d call news worthy. We learned about that, what, a few days ago? Maybe if Toyota hadn’t screwed up so badly it wouldn’t be on the news anymore.

Would this be all over the news if it was Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler? Absolutely. And we’d have to hear all about how we taxpayers bailed out a bunch of killers. Instead we’re hearing that Toyota’s reputation for quality wasn’t well deserved. It is what it is.

The Media “BLOWS” they don’t have anything to sensasionalize about and their out of a freakin job………

My My, I still think that dead horse is eating my grass.

I guess you’re right. We’d all be better off if that nosey media would stay out of such things.
What we don’t know will never hurt us.
Those who’ve been killed or injured, the guy sitting in prison convicted of vehicular manslaughter, has to have been due to operator error.
Then again maybe we can blame the workers in Indiana who assembled the parts. Even though they were doing what they were told to do and making parts according to engineered specifications and said parts did pass final inspection.

I can’t wait to run out and buy the next copy of consumer reports…..

big G

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I think it’s pretty funny that some of you conspiracy theorists think Detroit is behind all the attention. There are multiple recalls, and if you have one of the problems with your car you might die. Do you think Toyota was behind it when the Firestone tire problem hurt Ford about 10 years ago? You guys make me smile.

And the memo from Toyota saying that they saved $100 million by hiding the accelleration problems from the government? That’s what I’d call news worthy. We learned about that, what, a few days ago? Maybe if Toyota hadn’t screwed up so badly it wouldn’t be on the news anymore.

Would this be all over the news if it was Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler? Absolutely. And we’d have to hear all about how we taxpayers bailed out a bunch of killers. Instead we’re hearing that Toyota’s reputation for quality wasn’t well deserved. It is what it is.

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X2!!!

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I can’t wait to run out and buy the next copy of consumer reports…..

big G

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Those stupid monkeybutts still considered the 2010 Prius a consumer’s best buy. Too bad consumer reports is so biased.

For those who are sick of Toyota being bashed. Simply put, Toyota keeps having these problems arise. Its too bad so many folks were fooled into thinking they are great vehicles, the truth is they are ok, just like anything else. If GM, Ford, and Mopar had this problem, it too would be all over the news.

Its kind of funny because Toyota owners want to defend them and the “buy U.S.” crowd wants to seize the opportunity to get a share of Toyota.

Somehow, in America we are all quick to defend what we personally use and get so defensive if someone doesn’t agree with us. Start a thread on the best boat, fishing reel, fishing rod, etc… and the same comments would come up.

Back to topic. I have owned a toyota car for over 4 years now and it has over 80k miles. I have never had a problem with it and have been extremely satisfied. I also own a 99 Sierra that I have had since college in 2003. Besides replacing two hoses this year, it has 150K plus miles and still running great, despite some rusting.

I will admit that the recent news is starting to deter me a little from Toyota, but Im not sure if its enough to sway me from looking at a Tundra, Sierra or F150 in the next year or 2.

All these companies have gone through these problems like mentioned above, and I think Toyota will come out of it in time and continue to make quality vehicles.

Come on you know what they say about driving a Toyota, once you start driving them you can’t stop!

We have a non affected Rav4 (2007) I’m not sure I’d say it’s the best quality best made I’ve owned, I can say they cut some corners and cost cutting efforts, in options and features, and in some aspect performance.

I’ll agree I don’t think they are much different than American companies in pretty much any aspect, I think all companies had ignored and passed off some pretty bad and deadly things in the past, Surely that doesn’t make anything right.

Accountablilty I think is increasing and I think it’s a good thing, China F*#!ed us a couple times with some pretty serious safety issues, hopefully the American (and world) starts holding people and companies more accountable for blatant violations of health and safety.

All in all we’ll buy whatever fits our needs best next time, be it a Toyota or not.

Here comes the lawsuits.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35589163/ns/business-us_business