Toyotas Recalled, Fixed, Blamed Again

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Legions of Toyota owners have brought their automobiles to their dealers to have their carpets zip-tied and their pedals shimmied. But did that end the customer complaints? You guessed it: It did not. The NHTSA has already received 10 complaints that the fixes were for naught and that cars still have a mind of their own. Understandably, do-nothing-NHSTSA, having received congressional tongue lashings about lackadaisical attitudes, is on it like sonic.

Reuters says that NHTSA “is reviewing reports that have been received since mid-February and are interviewing vehicle owners. The regulator said the allegations were unconfirmed.”

Stealing LaHood’s lines, David Strickland, the NHTSA administrator, said that the agency wants to “get to the bottom” of the matter and ensure that Toyota is doing “everything possible” to address the situation. “If Toyota owners are still experiencing sudden acceleration incidents after taking their cars to the dealership, we want to know about it,” Strickland said.

If you have a shimmied or zip-tied Toyota and you want some attention, or a new car while the old one is being investigated, now is the time to speak up.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Crash sled Crash sled on Mar 04, 2010

    All I can say is, when Toyota finally does come out with those EDR readers, they better not turn up an SUA event on a complainant's vehicle. If they do, then Toyota is in deep doodoo. I mean deep doodoo. So sometime in April or so, NHTSA and Toyota better get together and instrument one of those alleged SUA vehicles, and see if they can recreate this fault. And it'd be really smart for Toyota to put out a workhorse fleet, say 100 or so vehicles, and collect that data as well.

    • See 5 previous
    • Crash sled Crash sled on Mar 05, 2010

      THe target date for full implementation of EDR readers is 2012. That's the only firm milestone you can go by. NHTSA hasn't complained about Toyota's cooperation to this point, and I don't think I'd be too concerned about what a few trial lawyers are yelping about in an MSNBC article. THey have their agenda, same as Toyota. I think you're assuming that the all the other OEMs are "coming clean" on what they allow to be recorded, and I doubt that's a valid assumption. I think we had a small discussion about this last week, and I mentioned that I can think of no more suitable firm to act as the Blocker of Data Flow than Bosch. Plus, Ford has some type of adapter on their PCM reader, and I wonder how that adapter is "adapting" their data? If you think the other OEMs are any less litigation shy than Toyota, I think you're mistaken. And we know good and well they're no more likely than Toyota to quickly fess up to their recall issues, as too many times over the years we've seen them prove otherwise, despite massive body counts not nearly approached in this case, and for recalls far more traceable and provable than this one seems to be.

  • Brettc Brettc on Mar 04, 2010

    Sometimes I get behind Toyotas (recent Camrys especially) and wish they would suddenly accelerate because they're going so GD slow. (Yes, I am aware that I'm going to hell.)

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    • Robert.Walter Robert.Walter on Mar 04, 2010

      "Sometimes I get behind Toyotas (recent Camrys especially) and wish they would suddenly accelerate because they’re going so GD slow. (Yes, I am aware that I’m going to hell.)" If your life was a Greek tragedy, based on your experience, you would pray to go to hell in a Toyota (so as to get there slower), but the Gods (as was their wont) would grant you half of your prayer (this case getting the Toyota), then add their own snazzy little sadistic twist (this case, giving your Toyota a case of SUA) so you get what you want, but not what you were expecting!!

  • Baabthesaab Baabthesaab on Mar 04, 2010

    "Idiot proof the cars" A waste of effort. This is a competitive world, and someone will just make a better idiot!

  • Odomeater Odomeater on Mar 04, 2010

    How scary is this for Toyota? Their cars have a major problem AND THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIX THEM! And everybody knows. They in big heap of trouble.

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