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A peerless reputation for quality and safety has helped Toyota become the world’s largest automaker. But even as its sales have soared, the company has delayed recalls, kept a tight lid on disclosure of potential problems and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects.
The automaker’s handling of safety issues has come under scrutiny in recent months because of incidents of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles, which The Times has reported were involved in accidents causing 19 fatalities since 2001, more deaths from that problem than all other automakers combined.
After Toyota this fall announced its biggest recall to address the sudden-acceleration problem, it insisted publicly that no defect existed. That drew a rare public rebuke from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which chastised the automaker for making “inaccurate and misleading statements.”
In the wake of Toyota’s announcement of the massive recall, The Times examined some of the ways the automaker has dealt with safety problems in recent years and found that:
* The automaker knew of a dangerous steering defect in vehicles including the 4Runner sport utility vehicle for years before issuing a recall in Japan in 2004. But it told regulators no recall was necessary in the U.S., despite having received dozens of complaints from drivers. Toyota said a subsequent investigation led it to order a U.S. recall in 2005.
* Toyota has paid cash settlements to people who say their vehicles have raced out of control, sometimes causing serious accidents, according to consumers and their attorneys. Other motorists who complained of acceleration problems with their vehicles have received buybacks under lemon laws.
* Although the sudden acceleration issue erupted publicly only in recent months, it has been festering for nearly a decade. A computerized search of NHTSA records by The Times has found Toyota issued eight previous recalls related to unintended acceleration since 2000, more than any other automaker.
* A former Toyota lawyer who handled safety litigation has sued the automaker, accusing it of engaging in a “calculated conspiracy to prevent the disclosure of damaging evidence” as part of a scheme to “prevent evidence of its vehicles’ structural shortcomings from becoming known” to plaintiffs lawyers, courts, NHTSA and the public.
This story would be interesting if it wasn’t so aggravating. For years, American companies have been dinged on their car quality while Honda and Toyota were held up and revered as the model by which all car companies should be functioning.
Well, if they were, we’d have even bigger problems.
It’s just another in a long line of examples of how the media (both the mainstream media and the automotive press) have a bias toward foreign cars and foreign car companies because the fact that these kind of stories aren’t appearing way more regularly is, at the very least, an affront to the media’s responsibility to inform the public.
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Fox is near a deal to order more seasons of “American Idol” — with or without its most popular judge, Simon Cowell.
The network’s current contract with “Idol” producer 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia extends through the end of the 2011 season. But the network is working on a new deal that includes three seasons of “Idol,” though that number could still change.
The announcement is expected to demonstrate Fox’s commitment to its top-rated series, even as “Idol” faces its biggest challenge yet.
The “Idol” franchise has been rocked by rumors that Cowell will depart the show after the upcoming season as he prepares to bring his hit UK music competition series “X-Factor” to the states. Cowell’s brother Tony announced Tuesday on his weekly podcast that Simon will leave “Idol” at the end of 2010. The move could have a double impact on “Idol” — the loss of a key personality to the series, and the addition of another music competition program on Fox that may result in fewer “Idol” viewers.
I’m absolutely devastated wondering what Idol would be without Simon Cowell. I’d hazard a guess that it wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as it has become if it were only Randy and the now-departed Paula.
Either way, I’m still looking really forward to the first episodes of Post-Paula Idol, which gets underway in a few weeks.
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They wait on the city’s streetcorners, often shivering in the cold, hoping someone will drive by and offer them a job. Soon, they will be able to come indoors.
Beginning next month, day laborers will be eligible for job training and social service programs in three Queens neighborhoods under a new $1.2 million initiative paid for with federal stimulus dollars.
But advocates say they won’t be satisfied with anything less than full-fledged immigration centers.
“The city is doing a great job trying to create these kinds of services for our community,” said Ligia Guallpa of the Latin American Workers Project, a Jackson Heights-based nonprofit. But, she added, “the city needs to consider creating real, sustainable job centers.”
Sure! Let’s create all kinds of benefits for people here illegally!
Look… I understand it’s a touchy situation and it’s hard to figure out how to deal with it, but let’s be honest. If put to a vote, I don’t know a single American who thinks that the tax money they ponied up, which has already been abused to levels we can’t even comprehend in the real (ie: non governmental) world should be spent to further benefit illegal aliens who shouldn’t be here in the first place.
It’s one thing to allow them to have driver’s licenses and medical care if they’re sick, but to actively train them for free with taxpayer money? Sorry; that I can’t go for.
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I’ve never wanted to be named Christmas more in my life.
Some of the city got hit harder than others, but this storm was hyped to be way more than it was. I was going to make a part two to the video I shot yesterday, but there was really no point. When Beth and I head out to get our groceries, we’ll probably shoot some stuff just to prove the point, but there really isn’t a lot to talk about.
Either we dodged a bullet, or the meteorologists got it totally wrong.
The amount of fun you’re having at a party is inversely proportional to the number of times you’ve tweeted about it.”
Last week, I tweeted these deeply profound words to my 4,844 followers. The vast majority took the proper course of action and ignored them. But there were a few exceptions. SGN CEO Shervin Pishevar responded that this should henceforth be known as Kincaid’s Law.
I’d like to append Ferrari’s law to that…
“The amount of tweets you make from a party is inversely proportional to the amount of joy you contribute to the party and the amount of welcome you have at said party.”
There. Never let it be said I miss an opportunity for a good piggy-backing.
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Driving past the White House the other day, my eye was caught by the bumper sticker on the shiny black Toyota Prius in front of me. It read: “We love you Hillary – Clinton for President, 2016″.
A year ago, I’d have snorted at the slogan and kept my distance from the vehicle – judging the driver to be a delusional Clintonite diehard still desperately fighting the reality that the former First Lady’s presidential aspirations were history.
Now, the person behind that wheel seems to be on the money. Having elected Barack Obama amid near national euphoria, America is experiencing something akin to buyer’s remorse.
Obama’s popularity is the lowest of any American president at the end of his first year in office since polling began. Yet as his approval ratings have nose-dived, those of his Secretary of State have curved elegantly upwards.
I don’t care how much you hate Hillary; you’d be hard-pressed to point out any area in which she would have done a worse job than our current President. I didn’t get her for President, which was what I wanted, but I can take at least a small measure of satisfaction in knowing that the people who voted for President Obama while laughing at Clinton clearly got it wrong and picked the wrong candidate, and the country has suffered quite a bit because of it.
Nothing has changed, Washington is even more polarized than it was when he got there, and by every measure, year 1 of Obamatopia has been a flop of epic proportions.
I had my thumbs in my ears and I was wiggling my fingers as I wrote that.
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Utter insanity. Go ahead… Watch it. It’s worth it.
For this amazing Youtube video, the director earned himself a movie contract. Not too shabby, right?
I’d love to see this story fleshed out a bit. I can only imagine what this guy will be able to do with a budget and a studio behind him.
Last night, before I went to bed, I stepped outside and shot some video of the snow that was piling up in my neighborhood.
It looked like it was gonna be really bad, but this morning when I woke up, it was a bit of a disappointment. There’s barely an inch and a half on the ground despite news reports saying we got anywhere from 8-12. The track of the storm seems to have pushed the most intense snowfall way South of the Bronx because there are quite a few parts of Long Island that got more than twenty inches.
I’ll probably jump out with one of my cameras at some point and get some shots of the ‘hood but I don’t think there’s gonna be much to see. In fact, I may just wait until Beth and I go grocery shopping later because Im not convinced that anything within walking distance is going to be all that interesting.
How about you guys? Snowed in or overrated? How’d you do?
This year Chrysler is practically avoiding the hubbub entirely, in that it will have no press conference at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. It won’t be for lack of cars: they’ll have items from all four brands, including some limited-edition models. Chrysler’s head of marketing, Olivier Francois, said that after the big event last month to reveal the long-term plan, “We presented our plans and the next step is to present the cars.”
Understandably, industry observers seem to think that it’s a bad idea for Chrysler to go mum in Detroit. Chrysler’s a private company and no outsider knows what the real situation is inside the castle walls. If Chrysler does go for the splash of a press conference, with no new models to show or even talk about they’ll be ripe for charges of “All that’s great talk now show us the cars!” That makes it sound like a case of being damned either way.
Well isn’t that spayshul? So far this week we learned:
1. Chrysler will not be paying back millions of dollars in bailout money it received before “Chrysler” went out of business and was renamed “Old Carco.”
2. “New Carco,” neé Chrysler, will not be presenting a press conference at the largest and most important auto show in the United States. How does anyone look at that as anything but Chrysler “giving up?” Or better yet, not caring about putting on a good show because they’re doing it with taxpayer money?
Frankly, Chrysler is a disgrace. For all the negativity directed toward GM, they’re going to start paying their money back next year while Chrysler doesn’t seem to have any plans to do the same.
They deserve to go out of business.
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A judge in Oklahoma extended on Friday a temporary restraining order on a law that would post information online about women who get abortions in the state.
In extending the restraining order, Oklahoma County District Judge Daniel Owens denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case, putting the measure on hold until a February 19 hearing.
“We are very pleased with today’s ruling. This law is a profound intrusion on women’s privacy and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” attorney Jennifer Mondino of the Center for Reproductive Rights said in a written statement. The New York-based center had filed a suit on behalf of former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton and another Oklahoma resident.
“Women in Oklahoma should not have to jump through hoops to access legal medical care and the government has no business violating the state constitution to impose those obstacles,” Mondino said.
At first, I thought this was like an abortion registry or something similar. Basically, a “who got an abortion” list. Sounds pretty scary, actually. Of course, those against the bill are perfectly happy with you thinking that even though it isn’t even close to being true.
The law, passed in May, requires doctors to fill out a 10-page questionnaire for every abortion performed, including asking the woman about her age, marital status, race and years of education. In all, there are 37 questions the women are to answer.
Critics say the act would be harassment and an invasion of privacy.
State Sen. Todd Lamb helped draft the abortion legislation and describes it as “a common sense measure with bipartisan support.” He said the left has tried to skew the law’s intent through a campaign of misinformation.
“We’re not trying to embarrass anybody, hurt anybody or make anybody’s identities known. That’s not the purpose of the legislation,” the Republican lawmaker said.
“We want to collect hard data that can be a useful tool in helping prevent future unwanted pregnancies.”
The opposition to this law proves two things in my mind.
1. That the pro-abortion crowd has no interest in reducing the number of abortions or learning why they’re happening. Safe, legal, and rare, is bullshit. On-demand and at will are more like what’s really happening.
2. Fear mongering is alive and well. Nowhere in the law does it say individual profiles would be made available online to the general public. In fact, the survey wouldn’t even collect individual names. While you could argue that a profile could be built by people, there’s no indication that they’d have individual data. If the questions are vague enough, this concern is moot and can only be defined as a scare tactic.
Now, that’s not to say the law is all peaches and cream.
The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that the measure is unconstitutional and in violation of the state’s “single subject rule” because it covers different aspects of abortion. The law also bars women from seeking abortions solely because of the sex of the fetus, with fines up to $100,000 for doctors who “knowingly violate” it.
Now that is ridiculous. Not because I disagree with it, but because abortion is (unfortunately) legal. There’s no obvious intention here except to create a hurdle for a legal medical procedure (despite how awful it is). That, my friends, is wrong.
The questionnaires, however, should stay. They could prove to be a valuable resource in preventing abortions and unwanted pregnancies, and should stick around as long as very strict standards for how vague, anonymous, and identifying the information collected is. With those precautions, this law is a very good idea and should go a long way toward making abortion, in the words of Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama “Safe, Legal, and Rare.”
Unless, of course, that’s all buzzword bullshit.
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Those were the first words Jay Leno said last night as he welcomed FNC host Glenn Beck on the NBC show. Beck responded, “Me? I’m not a polarizing guy… I find myself just being a dad saying the things that have to be said. Beck’s tea party and 9/12 mentions got some cheers from the LA audience.
Ya know, with all due respect, Leno is a douche.
Everyone that has Beck on has to point out how polarizing he is. How unapologetic he is. How divisive he is. It goes on and on and on.
I’ve never seen similar things said to:
Al Franken
Janeane Garofuckingwhatever
Tim Robbins
Michael Moore (Nope, he’s just a documentarian)
Ed Schultz
Keith Olbermann
Chris Mathews
Need I go on?
I find none of them a great deal less polarizing than Beck, but that doesn’t fit the narrative, does it? We don’t call leftwing kooks kooks, we call them “activists.” We don’t call leftwing pundits pundits, we call them “analysts” or “journalists.” In some cases we call them anchors and reporters.
The perceptions of the right and left are very different in this country. The far left is never framed as the divisive class exploiting bastards that they are, but can you honestly say that about the right?
Hell, many on the left are still attributing a line about Sarah Palin seeing Russia from her house to her even though it was Tina Fey that actually said it.
I thought Jay Leno had a more original brain in his head, but I guess not. He’s just another schmuck with a mic, makeup, and a low-rated show.
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8-12 doesn’t sound so bad when you don’t have any place you need to be! 
Guy’s got stones; it’s pretty damn hard to get a table at Panera most of the time!
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The question was a very simple one. If the President’s and Congress’ plan for the health care system is going to make it tougher for insurance companies, and if it’s as consumer-focused as they say it is, why are insurance company stock prices climbing so fast?
The answer, which Schultz would never give, is that the insurance companies see this as a huge opportunity to get new customers while the government subsidizes them. You don’t have to be a stock analyst (as she says) to understand that, you just have to be honest and state what’s in front of your face. I think that part, the honesty part, is the one politicians always have and always will have trouble with.
We’ve started to receive a few e-mails from the International Star Registry saying the usual “name a star after you’re loved one for the holidays.” I just wanted to remind you that while naming a star after your honey bunny is cute and all, and may well make for a romantic gesture, you really ought to know that doing so is, in the eyes of the scientific community, not exactly official.
Oh well… So much for the announcement one day that a meteor that will destroy earth just swung past star Vincenzo-1.
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