Toyota has pattern of slow response on safety (Color me suprised!)

[DainBramaged]

Toyota’s recalls and disclosures in recent months are part of a lengthy pattern in which the automaker has often reacted slowly to safety concerns, in some instances making design changes without telling customers about problems with vehicles already on the road, an examination of its record shows.

Toyota received complaints from customers in Europe about sticking accelerator pedals as early as December 2008 and started installing redesigned pedals on new vehicles there last August. Then, last month, similar concerns in the United States led to a pedal recall of 2.3 million vehicles. The European cars have now been recalled, too.

In a Congressional committee meeting on Jan. 27, Toyota officials said they first learned of this problem through reports of sticking pedals in vehicles in England and Ireland in the spring of 2009. But Toyota later acknowledged it had received reports there as early as December 2008.

Three years ago, it recalled 2007 and 2008 Toyota Camrys and Lexus ES 350s because the accelerator could stick under floor mats, a precursor to a much bigger recall last fall.

And in early 1996, Toyota engineers discovered that a crucial steering mechanism could fracture on the Hilux Surf, which was sold as the 4Runner in the United States. Toyota started installing a stronger version on new models.

Yet it took Toyota eight more years to start recalling Hilux Surfs and 4Runners built before the 1996 design change, after an accident involving an out-of-control Hilux Surf prompted a police investigation. Toyota received a rebuke from the Japanese government and was ordered to overhaul its recall system.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35274857/ns/business-the_new_york_times/

[MindPilot]

1. Maybe you saw my post on one of the other Toyota threads

But I worked for a Japanese electronics company for the past decade and there was a very definite trend in the Japanese management style to allow quality to suffer in favor of lower production costs. That would have been unthinkable in previous decades where quality was everything.

[DainBramaged]

3. I spent the 80's and early 90's working for them

they created the disposable economy to reduce production costs. If it's cheap enough, people will replace it rather than fix it. That's why there are no more TV repairmen . Look at a phone book from the early 90's and you'll understand.

[Lint Head]

2. Corporations don't care if people die as long as it doesn't impact

their bottom line.