Leaderboard

I have a Toyota with an auto (not a Prius! ), and it is easy EP to shove the transmission into neutral if such an emergency should arise. There is also this thing called the emergency brake that will slow the car down if the brake system fails for any reason. All of this reminds me of the Audi problems of the late 70s/early 80s; but I am also very suspicious of the government witch hunt against Toyota considering that the company is the number one competitor of the US auto industry which the government just spent $24.9 billion to bail out ($17.4 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, $6 billion for GMAC, and $1.5 billion for Chrysler Financial (source). Toyota also refuses to unionize in the US. Those two factors make the intensity of the government and media very suspect. The biggest rub is that there was nowhere near as much coverage in 2008 when Ford had to recall 12 million vehicles due to a cruise-control switch catching fire. As a matter of fact, the top six recalls of all time were American-built cars. The 2.3 million cars affected by the Toyota recall doesn't even make the top ten list of recalls! #10 is the 1987 Ford recall of 3.6 million vehicles, which affected 1.3 million more vehicles than the Toyota recall! Plus, despite a torrent of high-profile recalls that have tarnished Toyota's once stellar reputation, a study published a few weeks back revealed that Toyota still actually gets fewer customer complaints per car than the majority of its competitors (source). I normally shun conspiracy theories, but in the case I will make an exception. Everything I have seen indicates this is a deliberate effort by the US government to eliminate Chrysler and GM’s competition! Cheers! M2