This is not about Toyota’s engineering. This is about getting UAW workers from dead GM and Chrysler into Toyota’s non-union (transplant) factories in the USA. This is about the UAW getting in ALL the transplant factories - Nissan, Honda, BMW, Hyundai, etc etc.
People are so dumb because they cannot see what is really going on.
Excuse my naivte, but how do you get from a massive recall to the UAW organizing foreign car builders with plants in the USA? Can you illuminate the intermediate steps for me?
Actually, the only thing Toyota is doing is making a physical fix, adding a small shim at the end of the accelerator pedal. However, the famous case that brought this to public attention (the horrifying incident involving the CHP member and his family) was actually a result of the fact that the car, which was a loaner they had never driven before, had a keyless ignition and they didn’t know how to turn it off once the mat, an extra long one that had been added by the dealer, got stuck under the pedal. They were calling for help in turning it off, but nobody knew the answer.
So the complexity is a problem for the user, although I’m sure once keyless ignitions become common, we’ll all know how to manage them - or perhaps a safety switch of some kind will be installed.
That said, this is a combination of Bambi’s desire to attack Government Motors’ biggest competitor, combined with total ineptitude on the part of the Japanese when it came to handling publicity. Toyota should not have kept silent but should have been out there immediately trying to handle this and prove its integrity. Instead, they dallied and let Obama seize the moment.
This is not about Toyota’s engineering. This is about getting UAW workers from dead GM and Chrysler into Toyota’s non-union (transplant) factories in the USA. This is about the UAW getting in ALL the transplant factories - Nissan, Honda, BMW, Hyundai, etc etc.””
My wife and I were discussing this very issue 5 minutes ago.