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[isthisthingon]

After further review, I think it's a witch hunt with a routine slab of sensationalist copycat reporting.  The media has become so terribly empty of substance and so totally focused on their financial bottom line that any free, sensational story gets parroted over the wire like the world is ending.

I think after a certain number of OJ Simpson like stories we've become hopelessly hooked on having a single "big" issue to discuss mindlessly at the water cooler 

[daviator]

The brake "problem" on the hybrids DOES exist.  I notice it every time I drive my Lexus hybrid on a slippery surface.  There's a lag when you push the pedal, a fraction of a second when the brakes aren't there.  I think it only happens when you're going slowly enough that the electric motor is in play.  But it's not what I'd call a significant problem -- I've had my current car (Lexus RX400h) since 2006 and have noticed the brake issue from the very first week, but it's more of a quirk than a problem, in my book.  I've never felt it was significant enough to impact safety.

That said, I've read complaints from other Lexus hybrid owners in the owner forums over the last few years, but I always thought the people complaining were being ridiculously picky.

Nothing that's happened up until now has changed my (very positive) impression of Toyota a bit.  I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.  I think they've responded responsibly and I hope all of this has blown over six months from now.

[deregular]

Toyota are the best and most reliable cars.

Well from all of the ones that I have owned in my short years anyway.
But then again, I have had more cars than years, and I tend to play with second hand cars alot, so I may be a little biased
toward them a little.

Rather than witch-hunt I'm in more of a mind of thinking that they are using it as a 'red herring' to avoid the focus on the other manufacturer bailouts.

The continuing campaign to encourage people to "buy american" comes to mind also.

[isthisthingon]

A red herring in witches clothing.  Man, that just stinks.

[perkiset]

@ buy American - I think you're spot on. That said, the manufacturers of the east have a different philosophy on business than we do: they see it as war (I'm being hyperbolic here: they actually see both war and business as nationalistic imperialism and totally their right). The way that entities in the east are supported by their governments to execute "war" against the west is functionally illegal here in the US. So there's a built in leg-up they've got selling their goods here - to say nothing of much lower cost of employees and lower environmental standards.

So although I believe that this is a witch hunt, I am somewhat OK with it, because IMO we (the US) will need to reevaluate the way we execute "war" with other countries in the future. We find this thing repugnant at first, because we are a relatively fair natured and fair bargaining country. So we don't like to see anyone getting the witchhunt. But flip this just a titch: if Ford had a problem with brakes in Japan or China (particularly if people'd been killed), there'd be such an uproar and perhaps even outright bans - not for the benefit of the people killed mind you, but as a tactical move in the war.

[isthisthingon]

Agree completely perks.  In fact, I'd love to hear anyone argue against demanding a level playing field for business.  Got 10 year olds knitting clothes killing local competition?  Bye bye.  Got government artificially propping up a business to beat an American business who doesn't have the same support?  Tariffs or similar support to level the playing field.  I've read a bit about the dangers of isolationism and how imposing tariffs can actually damage the economy they were intended to protect.

But FFS if it's 20 times cheaper to buy a shirt that was made on the other side of the world and sent to the US by boat, I think it's reasonable to reevaluate the rules and empower international business referees to enforce them 

[perkiset]

Zactly. But then there's this whole, "sovereign nation" thing that makes it so very difficult to force them into doing our bidding.

[isthisthingon]

@ "sovereign nation" thing

Nothing a little famine can't handle 

[perkiset]

Paging Nestle.

[isthisthingon]

Nestle!  The original gangsters of "free." 

Well hello there uneducated millions of desperate unfortunates.  Here's some free formula to make sure your babies grow up to be healthy.  That's right.  At Nestle, we care.

[three months later]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, the promotional period is over and our formula has returned to full price.  We understand and have deep compassion for your lack of lactation you're now experiencing.  But enough about your responsibilities and being able to "man-up" and realize it's called "work" for a reason.  Pay up or watch your children die. 

I realize this sounds like a dramatic and perhaps paranoid itto concoction.  But yikes on a stick, what would you think if this actually happened and you saw the champions of capitalism defending the atrocity as some "buyer beware" Darwinian process of filtering out (killing off) the uneducated have nots. 

I'm working from home today kurdt so even if I am wasting my day watching Chuck Norris on YouTube it's all a part of the American dream! 

Namaste, bitches.

dammit im mad spelled backwards is dammit im mad

[perkiset]

Actually I was thinking of the formula problems of the 70s, and how that event ALONE made them the single most boycotted company in the world. There's a litany of other things for which they are despised and have caused a wake of death and disease in their path ... not the least of which is melamine recently found in Chinese milk.

They're a real piece of work, that company. And providing their food replacement products is an excellent way to thin out the local population.

[rcjordan]

>Toyota

Come to think of it, having a powerpoint presentation on "How We Save Money By Not Doing Recalls" might not have been such a good idea.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/21/autos/toyota_document/

[isthisthingon]

>"How We Save Money By Not Doing Recalls"

They did the expected thing and regulation should do its.  Trust no public or private company with proper prioritization when lives are at stake, along with other less critical issues that people agree to care about, such as pollution. 

Finding out that a manager was fired, for example, for doing the right thing when profits could have been maximized by doing the wrong thing should be grounds for massively corrective action on the company to ensure these things happen as infrequently as possible, imho.