So sOrRy...we dIDn't mEAn aNy(burp)THinG bY iT....
Posted on 02/08/2010 10:26:36 AM PST by Steelfish
Toyota Dealers Pull ABC TV Ads; Anger Over 'Excessive Stories' 'Punishment for Reporting' as Southeast Dealers Shift Commercial Money to Non-ABC Stations By JOSEPH RHEE and MARK SCHONE Feb. 8, 2010
Toyota dealers in five southeast states have pulled their commercials off ABC TV local affiliates, complaining about the coverage of Toyota safety problems by ABC News and its chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross.
Executives decide whether to recall the Prius over software glitch.The ad agency representing the 173 dealers told ABC affiliates last week that the shift was due to "excessive stories on the Toyota issues." The dealers shifted their commercial time buys to non-ABC stations in the same markets, "as punishment for the reporting," according to an ABC station manager.
ABC News and Ross began reporting on the problem of "runaway Toyotas" last November in a series of stories that preceded the large recalls ordered by the company, and apologies for quality shortcomings as well as misstatements about the extent of the defects. Toyota is now expected to add the 2010 Prius to its list of recalled vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Good for them.
Ditto - good for them. MSM & networks only trying to help gov motors.
How many different recalls are there a year by different mfrs. ?
I agree, this is abuse above and beyond concern for folks safety.
Maybe they are pushing this issue out of proportion. The question is, how can I tell?
I disagree. It is beginning to be seen that Toyota knew about these problems and deaths and dragged their feet. Just as Ford did with the Pinto and GM did with their trucks in the 80’s.
I had no problem with Toyota until these events. But when a company knows their vehicles (Throttle by wire) has a problem and they are too worried about their ‘reputation’ to do a recall, that is criminal.
The main reason I never buy new vehicles is because I always feel like I've been had.
Buy a ten-year old clunker that's in decent shape and you can't get had for more than a few thousand buck.
I agree, good for Toyota.
If ABC told the truth about HUSSEIN and his socialist ideas the same way they attacked the capitalists at Toyota, HUSSEIN's poll numbers would be in the mid-teens.
Kelly Blue Book announced today that they are cutting their resale value listings of Toyotas by 3%.
Higher resale value for Toyotas is a major factor in keeping them on top in market share.
What’s bad for Toyota is good for GM. And Chrysler...
One Marxist hand washes the other.
Hyundai’s cars are based on Toyota engineering. How many complaints are lodged against Hyundai?
Road and Track did an independent scientific study of the Audi 5000’s sudden acceleration in 1986, based on the stories featured in Consumer Reports and 60 Minutes. They concluded that driver error may have been the reason after they studied driver actions during the studies.
Another interesting fact they unearthed was that Audi 5000 had a exact copy design with its sister Volkswagon Passat unit. The reports of sudden acceleration was equal to the VW, and every other car maker’s vehicles using automatic transmission. So R&T reviewed complaints on the Audi 5000 before and after Consumer Reports/60 Minutes and found after the media reported the story consumer complaints skyrocketed. Further, as the media tired of Audi 5000 story then the complaints dropped to pre-story level.
Another interesting action was noted in the R&T report: Complaints against Audi 4000/ VW Quantum did not rise after Consumer Reports/60 Minutes reports. The cars were engineered identical to the Audi 5000.
The conclusion of R&T was that media-driven hysteria was the reason for rise in Audi 5000 complaints. It took a decade for Audi to recover from the whole event. No one ever took Consumer Reports or 60 Minutes to task; their reputations grew from their own media stories that glossed over doubt and set them on high.
So sOrRy...we dIDn't mEAn aNy(burp)THinG bY iT....
That very well may be true, but that doesn't mean that auto companies aren't complicit in cover-ups about defective products - see: Ford Pinto. While it might be too soon to tell if this Toyota problem is overblown, there are some disturbing signs that Toyota has been aware of the problem, at least for a while.
I think it's also important to point that many manufactures share common parts suppliers, common parts and even share technology amongst themselves, almost all of them write their own proprietary software that controls the automobiles systems. I doubt very much that Hyandai and Toyota are sharing software even though there might be some engineering elements shared amongst the two companies.
This whole un-intended acceleration story reminds me too much of the Audi story that 60 Minutes air 20+ years ago which really set Audi back at least in this country. What gives?
Time will tell.
I owned an early 90s Toyota and the accelerator stuck several times. Come to find out the cause was the rug moving forward over time and jamming into the accelerator. Volvo and others solved this problem long ago with a peg and eyelet to keep the rugs in place.
Wonder if Toyota rugs have this rug problem fixed?
Good for them. There are plenty of cable stations.
I had a reason to do similar research on the subject of tread separation, which is reported on a maker-by-maker basis. There was nearly a 100-fold increase in the rate of consumer reporting of tread separation following reporting of Ford/Firestone incidents.
Not to defend any of the design decisions, just to note that the rate of incident reports is media-driven.
From what I understand, not entirely. I read and saw a couple interviews with Steve Wozniak last week. Apparently, this phenomenon happened to him earlier this year. He's convinced it's a software problem. Wozniak is a bit a strange, but it's tough to discount the diagnosis of a man who holds a number of computer-related patents and who's a pioneer in the world of computing. If the Woz thinks it's software, that would be a safe place to make your bets.
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