Looks like Kevin might have been a bit premature when he gave Toyota credit last week for finally pulling the long overdue andon cord. It actually took civil servants from Washington to go to Japan and pull it for them.
"While Toyota is taking responsible action now, it unfortunately took an enormous effort to get to this point. DOT officials flew to Japan in December to remind Toyota management about its legal obligations and followed up with a meeting at DOT headquarters in January to insist that they address the accelerator pedal issue," Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said.
This is beyond a mere lapse in judgment – a human mistakethat anyone could have made. This is nothing short of wholesale abandonment of their founding principles. This ain't Kiichiro Toyoda's car company any more. "Since questions were first raised about possible safety defects, we have been pushing Toyota to take measures to protect consumers," LaHood said. The company we have so long admired would not have had to be pushed by the government into doing right by its customers.
Nothing short of shameful. As I wrote way back in September, "Ohno and Shingo must be spinning in their graves at what boils down to sheer apathy." It seems we have yet to find exactly where Toyota's rock bottom is.
Kevin says
I agree – that’s pretty phenomenal. Another point was a story I just read where the DOT is now investigating potential electrical/computer causes of the acceleration problem. So… did Toyota really find the root cause that is supposedly being fixed with the hardware being shipped to dealers? If so, why are investigations continuing? If it turns out that the supposed fix really isn’t a fix and was a shallow ineffective band-aid, then it will be a very long time, if ever, before Toyota regains public trust. That would be devastating. Deservedly.
Matt McKnight says
Good points, but I don’t believe a word that comes out of LaHood’s mouth. I think this is going to turn out to be a weird case where the consumer crying wolf that has occurred so many times with acceleration issues and the difficulty in replicating the problems gave them a false sense of security.
Until you can replicate the failure conditions in a test environment, it’s very difficult to even confirm the existence of a problem. An override from the brakes is too hard to apply as a repair. So, we get this partial solution to a symptom with multiple causes.
Grooved floor mats are very bad. My 92 Saturn SL2 had an accelerator pedal get stuck in a groove in an aftermarket mat my wife put in there.
I’d like to see an analysis comparing this pedal design to other pedals. Why is it losing spring recoil such that the spacer is needed? The spring mechanism is certainly one layer further down the stack towards a root cause, but it is probably very difficult to repair.
In fact, I was just thinking of how my 06 Prius has had no mechanical issues whatsoever. Just standard maintenance for four years- except that once the dealer knocked the car out of alignment when rotating the tires. It was ridiculous. If the dealer can’t change tires, can I trust them to replace a mechanism inside a manufactured component part from a supplier?
Sigh.
Bill Waddell says
I agre with you vis a vis LaHood, Matt, but actually Toyota has confirmed his version of events. The accelerator problem, it turns out was not floor mats but was apparently caused by the shaft on the accelerator pedal. Toyota ramped up a second supplier (counter to their partnership principle) who was given a slightly different (and bad) spec. The accelerators from the old supplier are good – those from the second supplier are bad. The shafts are being redesigned and the recall is to install new shafts. So the problem is very real, and while LaHood deserves your criticism in general, Toyota was in the wrong on this one.
Matt McKnight says
I agree Bill, they were in the wrong, and I worry about the fix. Here’s a link to the best explanation of the shim solution that I could find.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/ttac-does-the-toyota-pedal-shim-fix-temporary-solution-at-best/
Charles Johns says
Can anyone remind me of which and when a Toyota family member complained that the company had lost sight of its original purpose? It seems like the comment was very prescient.
Scott Dailey, C.P.M. says
Toyota is surely the whipping boy lately, not only with the 5+ million recalled vehicles, but now with the Prius. Seems that the Prius brake software was updated in January for all new production, but a recall was not initiated to update the software in existing vehicles.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/04/autos/prius_timeline/index.htm?hpt=T2
If you believe the article, drivers can experience up to a 1 second delay in brake function. The way I drive, 1 second is about 90 to 100 feet, which would be a bit disconcerting in city driving.