I think the reason why Westerner makes shitty cars lies with their belief system. Most common Westerners treat their job only as a way to make money. Whereas the Asian counterparts take pride in their jobs. This alone can make a world of difference.

:werd:

Are Toyotas truly drive-by wire? The article mentioned the pedals were "mechanically sticking".

With that said, that's one heck of a recall.

I read in an article somewhere (I think Time Magazine? will try to find link) talking about the CEO of Toyota being afraid of something like this happening. Your company rises to the top then gets overconfident, only to start "tumbling" and get replaced by a competitor after a few years. Kind of like marathon athletes/cyclists who slow down when they think they're in first place, only to choke at the last second and fall to second as they pass the finish line.

I think it's racist bullshit to say that westerners do not take pride in their work, but asians do. In fact, I see more cheap 'made in china' garbage than I do see similar american stuff.

What do you mean by 'biggest'? Most sales? Most marques owned?

Toyota still trumps Volkswagen in global sales:

AND it turns out Toyota in europe is affected too:

Factory workers in China are paid pennies compared to what factory workers in America are paid... or did you forget? :haha:

Now made in Japan, on the other hand...

westerners = asian americans, mexican americans, african americans, italian americans. you get the idea.

hence why made in china shit are a joke

this incident is an inside job paid by GM



j/k

:haha::haha: lol nice, to boost up their sales and make toyota crash?

Did that idiot Iceman even read the actual facts of what happened?

Toyota's really fucked now:

When you start recalling in China, there's a big problem..

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...toryCollection

By MARIKO SANCHANTA
TOKYO—The crisis facing Toyota Motor Corp. deepened Thursday as the company said its large-scale recall, stemming from a faulty accelerator pedal problem, would spread to Europe and China.

The geographic reach and size of Toyota's recall has grown dramatically in recent days, raising questions about how many of its vehicles around the world are equipped with the defective accelerator pedal.

The Japanese auto maker said it will recall an unknown number of vehicles in Europe. But unlike the U.S. market, where production will be halted for at least a week, different parts are already being used in new vehicles in Europe and production will continue as normal, the embattled car maker said.

In China, one of Toyota's joint ventures will recall 75,552 RAV4 sport-utility vehicles, the country's quality watchdog said.

"Toyota is making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible," the auto maker said in a statement.

In the U.S., Toyota announced it was expanding a recall announced late last year involving pedals catching on floor mats. That recall originally affected 4.3 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles, making it the company`s biggest recall ever. Toyota added 1.1 million more vehicles to that recall on Wednesday, representing four models.

The move came as Fitch Ratings, the credit-ratings agency, placed Toyota's A-plus debt rating—two notches below a perfect triple-A rating—on a "negative" ratings watch.

The recent recalls and sales suspension casts "a negative light on Toyota's reputation for quality," said Jeong Min Pak, senior director in Fitch's Asia-Pacific Corporates team. "This could hamper the company's potential sales and profitability recovery, especially in the U.S. market."

Standard & Poor's and Moody's, rival ratings agencies which have Toyota rated at double-A and AA1 respectively, said they had no immediate plans to either downgrade Toyota's debt rating or put it under a ratings watch.

But S&P added in a statement that "the suspension may put downward pressure on Toyota`s earnings, which we believe have entered a recovery phase." Investors seemed to conclude the same. The auto maker's stock price continued to slide Thursday, falling 3.9% in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company's shares have fallen 15% over the past five trading days, since news of the latest recalls began to spread.

The markets appear to see Toyota's pain as opportunity for rivals' gain. Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co.'s shares both closed up nearly 3% on Thursday, outperforming the broader Nikkei 225 benchmark average.

Even so, Toyota's two biggest Japanese rivals firmly ruled out offering incentives to take advantage of their peer's woes, as they hope to gain sales without calling attention to what could be seen as a broader slip in Japanese quality.

"We will not undertake any sales activities that expressly target Toyota customers in the U.S.," a Honda spokeswoman said. A Nissan spokesman also said the company wouldn't embark on any specific sales of marketing activities, despite the recall crisis facing Toyota.

That is a contrast with Ford Motor Co. and General Motor Co., both of which have launched new incentives to snatch some market share back from the world's biggest car maker. Ford said it would offer new customers $1,000 cash to trade-in used or leased vehicles from Toyota, while GM detailed a similar program earlier Wednesday.

"Toyota is the standard-bearer for Japanese autos. If you are Honda and Nissan, it doesn't help to play it up because people would ask, 'Do all Japanese cars have problems?'" said Chris Richter, autos analyst at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. "U.S. makers have faced decades of share erosion because of Japanese cars—now they have a chance to say, 'Japanese cars aren't as good, so buy America.'"

Meanwhile, the recalls slamming Toyota in the U.S. and Europe don't appear likely to spread to its home market. The Japanese transportation ministry isn't yet considering a probe related to Toyota's massive recall in the U.S.

The ministry believes that the parts that have caused problems in the U.S. are made locally and aren't used in Toyota cars sold in Japan, said an official there, who asked not to be identified. "It is our view that there is no need for a specific action at this point," the official added.

If this was Ford they wouldn't do a thing because they'd figure it's cheaper to get sued on a handful of cases.

toyota definitely fucked themself up big time

Read the link I posted. Toyota did the same thing till they were actually forced to stop selling those cars.

Lets do a little comparison here.

2007 Ford Focus Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...&trimid=102644

2007 Toyota Corolla Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...&trimid=103634

2007 Ford Fusion Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...d&model=Fusion

2007 Toyota Camry Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...ta&model=Camry

2007 Ford F150 Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...rd&model=F-150

2007 Toyota Tundra Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...a&model=Tundra

2007 Ford Edge Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...ord&model=Edge

2007 Toyota Highlander Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...del=Highlander

2007 Ford Mustang Reliability
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Re...&model=Mustang



....... Oh yah Toyota doesnt build anything fun

Ford has learned from their PR mistakes from back in the 70s.

Check out their recent performance:

http://www.autonet.ca/autos/news/201...645246-ap.html

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford (NYSE:F), the only U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy court, clawed its way to a US$2.7-billion profit in 2009 and expects to stay in the black in 2010. It was the automaker's first annual profit in four years.

Not bad for a Us company that did not take any bailouts. I think Ford deserves another chance after the 1970 mess.

wow, lowered credit ratings. Good time to buy bonds

^or short the shit out of them :P

Ford is now caught up in the recall, since the Explorer uses CTS brand pedals. Their share price dropped today, and may continue to do so.

Ford was a nice story since they didn't take any money. I sold my Ford shares recently, and almost regretted it. But for those paying attention, it may be a good time to buy into a severely under rated company.

Long: Ford
Short: Toyota


On a side note, I just bought this a month ago.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/IMGP3849.jpg

Shit.
:lol

Dumb idea. ES350 has a push start which needs 3-4seconds of holding down for the car to shut off. In a panic situation, that won't work for you.

Also, do you really want to lose power steering, power brakes, and have a chance at the steering wheel lock up on you? (When you turn it about 1/4 turn, the steering wheel locks). Complete loss of control.


Much better idea is to shift to neutral, then brake.

I caught a piece on a Detroit channel that said the only Ford that had this issue was some commercial cargo van (think Dodge Sprinter style). If the Explorer is part of this then yeah, that sucks for them. In the same piece they said Ford turned a $2Billion profit in '09 and they were picking up.

:confused::confused:

to clarify:

The Ford Transit Classic made in China uses the same CTS accellerator that caused problems in the Toyotas. The Transit Classic has not had ANY issues with the accellerator pedals to date. The Transit Classic (made in China) is NOT the same as the Transit Connect (made in Turkey and sold in North America). Ford is not halting sale or production of any north american vehicles.

I'm not sure where you got your info about the Explorer using CTS pedals.. I can't find anything online...

but if the breaks worked the people that had sticky accelerator wouldn've crashed now would they?

^When your car's under WOT (that's essentialyl what happens with the 'sudden acceleration'), you lose all vacuum functions.. including your brakes... In some cars, when a brake signal is applied simultaneously with the gas pedal, the ECU would reduce the throttle.. Such safety mechanisms does not exist in a Toyota apparently..

Exactly.

And I don't know why I was failed for that post. :rolleyes: