Riehl World View

Feds: Runaway Toyota Problem Due To Driver Error

So, the government bashed Toyota for months on end, now it turns out there is no problem with the brand? Must be nice to beat up on the competition like that when you and your union own half of an industry! All hail the new kapitalism, folks!

The government issued preliminary findings into reports of runaway Toyotas today and didn't find any evidence that pointed to problems in the car's computer systems.

That will come as a big relief to Toyota, which has insisted that its under-the-hood electronics are sound and are not to blame for cars that ran away on their drivers and crashed.

Did GM Violate Truth In Advertising Law?

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm unsure of how the argument might play out. The real problem might be conflict of interest given that the FTC and GM are subsidiaries of America's fastest growing corporation - the federal government. 

General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre seems to have told a big bold lie in order to deceive consumers and potential future investors in the car maker now owned by the Federal Government as to the financial stability of the company.

In television ads and billboards posted in General Motors show rooms around the country, Whitacre has deceptively given the impression that General Motors has paid back all the money invested in it by taxpayers in full, early and with interest.

Toyota Considering Corolla Recall

Man. The news just keeps getting worse and worse for Toyota.

Reporting from Tokyo and Washington - The top official at Toyota Motor Corp. said he will not appear before congressional hearings probing a series of massive recalls of the automaker's cars.

Speaking to the media in Tokyo on Wednesday, Akio Toyoda, said he had full confidence in Toyota's North American chief, Yoshimi Inaba, who he indicated will appear before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington on Feb. 24. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled hearings the next day.

Toyoda said Inaba has his "highest personal trust" and is "qualified to respond to the questions and concerns of congressmen. . . . We will give our full support to those at the hearings."

Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, also disclosed that the automaker was considering yet another recall -- this time of its popular Corolla because of after customer complaints about the car's power steering.

Toyoda's decision to avoid the House hearings drew the ire of legislative leaders.

Feds Demand Recall Docs From Toyota

Under normal circumstances this might be fine. But as long as the government has standing in competing automotive companies, these types of actions are subject to being seen through a politial lens. The government needs to get out of the private sector. And if the GOP takes over in the House in November, these actions are liable to invite distracting scrutiny the WH is not going to appreciate at all. Add in the administration's early IG troubles and this could prove to be a disaster for Obama. They aren't in Chicago, any more.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Transportation Department is formally demanding documents related to Toyota's massive recalls in the United States to find out if the automaker conducted three of its recalls in a timely manner.

The legal documents were delivered to Toyota on Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press. The documents demand that the company tell the government when and how Toyota learned of the safety defects in millions of vehicles.

Investigators are looking into whether Toyota discovered the problems during pre-production or post-production of the affected vehicles.

Obama Admin Ignored Toyota Issues Before Cracking Down

Interesting, as Toyota prepares for another recall, research indicates there may be good reason to question the Obama administration's crack down on Toyota after recently pumping big money into GMAC. They were aware of the issue back in October and decided it was no issue at all. Now, suddenly they are ordering Toyota to recall vehicles that might not even need to be recalled? Should we question the timing? Perhaps we should. Hmm.

Toyota is to recall the latest model of its flagship Prius cars because of a possible fault with the brakes, reports from Japan say.

The firm did not comment on the reports, but said it would be announcing soon what action it would take over problems with the Prius.

Toyota has already recalled about eight-million vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals.

A report by ABC's Brian Ross looks to be pointing a finger at former Bush appointees for Toyota's current problems.

Federal safety investigators agreed to exclude reports of the most serious cases of alleged "runaway Toyotas" after the intervention of a former safety official hired to be a Washington, D.C. representative of Toyota, an ABC News investigation has found.

But the issue was in the news back in October under the Obama administration and the ruling was that there was no issue at all. A more recent report here.

October 28, 2009|Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger Federal safety regulators have closed an inquiry into sudden-acceleration incidents involving certain Lexus ES models after concluding that a vehicle defect was unlikely.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's inquiry into the 2007 Lexus ES 350 and the 2002-03 Lexus ES 300 was triggered by a petition from Jeffrey A. Pepski of Plymouth, Minn.

So, why the reversal right after the Obama administration plucked down big bucks into GMAC? Are they mixing politics and profits, as Senator Session's suggests?

However, as Caruso-Cabrera pointed out, it was the Obama administration's Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood who determined that Toyota had to recall these vehicles over reports of sticky acceleration pedals.

"Ray LaHood is on the record saying that he told them they had to do this," Caruso-Cabrera said. "They had to stop selling. Are you looking into whether or not that was absolutely necessary? Are you convinced this was necessary?"

Sessions expressed his concern over that possibility and noted the amount of money the federal government had recently pumped into GMAC, the auto financing arm of General Motors.

"Well, you know - we were in until late last night and I hadn't heard that," Sessions said. "I worry about those kind of things. I worry about Ford working hard and having to compete against the federal government. With an unlimited - they just gave $3 billion more to GMAC. The President's got to be careful here. He can not be playing politics and union politics or regional politics with the economy of this country."

Detroit Auto Show: Cold Enough For A Tea Party

Not a huge turn-out, but some Tea Party folks had the determination to show up despite Detroit's well below freezing temperatures during the auto show, other groups did, as well. Pictures and some video here. Two interesting, possibly even troubling items of note - a black LaRouche supporter with poster of a Hitler-mustached Obama, how's that for diversity? And the Tea Party folks that gathered outnumbered the number of Detroit Muslims who showed up at a previous anti-terror event. The latter is both surprising and disappointing to me.

The temperature was in the teens,the wind chill was at zero, yet dozens of tea party protesters showed up regardless of the harsh conditions to exercise their free speech right and demand a redress from Congress.

So considering the weather and driving conditions, not a bad turnout at all, and far better than the 12 Muslims that showed up for a terrorism protest under much better weather and driving conditions.

Car Art

The creative instinct in its, well, in some form. Pics at link - The Mobile Masticator.

It started with a row of dentures just above the grill. Then another denture on the trunk, a used-up toothpaste tube, a toothbrush. ... Rex Rosenberg couldn't stop.

"I decided I wanted to glue something to some car," he said.

More Cash For Clunkers Fail

Well, this is special. The government all but owns GM. In effect, they took our tax dollars and used them to further erode GM and other domestic car maker's market share, as they might not yet be as competitive in the specific market the spending program targeted. These are the types of below the radar bad decisions to be experienced from a bunch of political hacks controlling an industry. Get used to them.

They used our tax dollars to give a bump to the foreign competition, as if they needed it. 

The Obama administration has declared the wildly popular 'Cash for Clunkers' program a success, saying it has revived the country's ailing auto industry and taken polluting vehicles off the road. But the data shows that the program, which ends Monday, has apparently benefited foreign automakers more than their U.S. counterparts. Smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles like the Toyota Corolla are top sellers, while buyers are trading in SUV's like the Ford Explorer to be scrapped, turning the already dwindling number of American car owners into the growing ranks of foreign car drivers. Toyota vehicles accounted for 19.2 percent of the 489,269 sales, while General Motors had the second spot at 17.7 percent.

Why are conservatives so against Big Government? Gee, I don't know. You tell me. 

Oh man. Meanwhile, Obama is vacationing in a $28k a week paradise? Um, yes, he can. But no, you can't!

The Regulatory President

what I really don’t get is, why bailout the industry with billions of taxpayer dollars, only to saddle them with this? If one didn’t know better, one might think re-distributing taxpayer dollars and regulating industry were goals in and of themselves. Hmm

More via Ace, as well.

The sickly condition of US automakers is well known. In fact it looks like GM will be out of money by the 1st quarter of next year.

One would think the last thing the government should do is impose expensive new mandates on failing manufacturers. Except that's exactly what might happen if President Hope and Change has his way. He's promised to reverse a Bush Executive Order and allow California to regulate carbon dioxide emissions for automobiles.

Is Amerika Here To Stay?

Troubling news from small government, free market perspectives. Will Washington get into the car business next?