Oh what a feeling: Toyota issues massive recall

My better half has a story today that looks at 25 of the 43 fatal accidents involving claims of sudden Toyota acceleration, including some stories no one else has told.

The claims are far from black and white, which is the most interesting aspect IMO. There are clear instances of DUI where they're blaming sudden acceleration. One that may be a suicide. Some very elderly drivers. Lots of shades of gray:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-03-14-crashes-involving-toyotas-raise-questions-victim-profiles_N.htm

 

NHTSA goes after Toyota for record $16 million fine:
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100405/CARNEWS/100409900

 

There is 1 bright side to all this and I mean this with all due respect to anyone involved with these incidents: you can get a frigging great deal on a Toyota right now.
I just leased a 2010 RAV4 for $219 a month, it's the basic model, not a lot of frills, but all I had to pay was the first month and $60 for DMV.
I was paying $356 for a Mercury Mariner, so when you add it up, I'm saving about $5 grand over 3 years.
Yeah, I'll take my chances.

 

Toyota settles for 1.2 bil.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/business/toyota-reaches-1-2-billion-settlement-in-criminal-inquiry.html?hp&_r=0

 

I liked this, from Boom's link:

IMHO, while a handful of design problems and/or manufacturing issues can cause car safety concerns, 99.9 percent of accidents — including several in this Toyota investigation — are caused by driver error and/or stupidity.

And yes, we have two Camrys in our garage (a 1995 and 2005 model).

 

Coco, that's what Toyota always tried to say. Kind of evaporated though with the CHP officer (highly trained as a driver, of course) called 911 and the fatal crash was audio recorded.

Also the $1.2 billion fine is a pretty high number, probably above the level that could be considered doing away with a nuisance. Looks like Toyota believed it had some real exposure here.

 

Interesting that while Toyota and Obama Motors are both involved in high-profile recall cases, Holder only feels the need to comment on the Toyota recalls,

 

A bit of a threadjack, but didn't want to start a new Toyota thread:

The company is moving its North America headquarters from Torrance, Calif., to Plano, Texas:

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-toyota-move-20140429,0,4511724.story#axzz30IODzK4y

Pretty big change for Toyota employees and their families. And that's 3,000 really good jobs leaving SoCal for the Big D.

 

That's a big get for Texas, which is actively recruiting California companies to move to a lower-tax state.

 

Companies have been moving jobs from California to Texas for 20+ years because of lower employee costs. Despite how Rick Perry might beat his chest, a move like that is nothing new.

 

http://gawker.com/rick-perry-is-a-domestic-financial-terrorist-1569225313?fb_action_ids=10152354226609710&fb_action_types=og.likes

"Domestic financial terrorist" may be a mite harsh, but I agree with the point that states and cities bidding against each other for jobs -- and willing to give away the store to get them -- is not good for the U.S. economy. Basically, it's a less-than-zero-sum game because you have governments -- tax dollars -- paying for the move. If Toyota believed Texas was a better environment and wanted to go there, fine, but to get $40 million in tax money for doing so doesn't do anyone, except Toyota, any favors.