Posted on 02/25/2010 11:26:56 AM PST by AJKauf
On Sunday, Toyota learned what it was like to be one of Detroit’s Big Three in the days before they hit upon hard times and Uncle Sam formally entered the car business.
Some are treating what Toyota is going through in its fight to deal with the gas pedal- and floormat-related sudden acceleration issues raised by consumers and the government as a bit of a justifiable payback. After all, they argue, the company received kid-glove treatment from car quality reviewers for so many years, perhaps well after they truly deserved it.
To a small degree, they may have a point. Even before Japanese transplants Honda, Toyota, and Nissan began making cars in the U.S., there seemed to be a bias against Big Three cars in magazines like Consumer Reports. Prodded largely by its Japanese competitors, Detroit had left the worst of its quality problems behind by the mid-1980s and generally began making very good cars, while quality reviewers occasionally seemed a bit over-enamored with foreign makers, particularly Honda and Toyota — companies which, despite their own very large size, were somehow perceived as underdogs to the big, bad Big Three.
I believe that Detroit has significantly narrowed the quality differences between its and others’ output to the point where in most cases it lags by so little that it’s virtually unimportant. However, the public’s perceived quality difference between Detroit and foreign makers, even of foreign makers’ U.S.-manufactured models, is far wider than it should be....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Yeah, its payback all right.
IMHO the UAW is one of the players behind the scene in this thuggery being committed by the Obama administration. Let’s see if one of the settlement points is to allow the UAW into Toyota’s USA plants.
Quite true. As a automotive (supplier) quality engineer, ironically, I have to emphasize to people that quality is no longer a major issue in vehicle purchases. Back 30 years ago the TGW (Things Gone Wrong) on some new car surveys was like 7/vehicle for the Big 3 and 2/vehicle for Toyota/Honda. That extra 5 TGW meant extra trips to the dealer for repairs, extra times stuck by the roadside, and significant time and money wasted.
Whereas now the numbers are more like .9 TGW for a domestic and .8 TGW for the best Japanese vehicles. That .1 difference just isn't worth bothering about. It certainly is not rational to spend thousands of $$ extra for it. I've gone from starting with a Toyota, to buying used Big 3 vehicles in recent years because of the great savings I thereby enjoy, courtesy of outdated misperceptions. (Granted, I love my Hyundai too, though their success is making them less of a value deal.)
This is most definitely orchestrated by the UAW. I noticed yesterday Chrysler has to recall vehicles because of a defect that would cause airbags to not deploy in a crash. Are they being raked over the coals for it? Nope.
This isn’t payback for past good press. This is just plain payback for non-union success.
Labor unions are just another form of organized crime. Period.
It is hard to believe that Toyota has sold millions and millions of cars and has been a quality leader for years & years. Then all of a sudden when Obama takes over GM, Toyota vehicles need Congressional scrutiny.
My Camry has 250K miles & still going strong.
Of course it’s a play by the union.
That's heartening to hear. When Obama is in irons somewhere with the union bosses, I have every confidence that American ingenuity and work ethic, liberated at last, will make the best cars in the world.
But in the meantime, the "quality" measure indicated doesn't address the bigger issue of design. We test-drove every conceivable make when we were looking for a sedan and an SUV. In terms of comfort, ease of driving, and handling for the price, there was simply no comparison. Toyota was the best of any make, foreign or domestic.
This gas-pedal issue seems like protection-racket stuff. "Hey, you got a nice little cah company. Too bad if anything happened to it. . . You an' me uh gonna be pot-nas."
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