This is not a tough question. The answer is false. False promises. False advertising. False prospects for the future. False information so people will continue to give Toyota the benefit of the doubt and time to fix the problem. Maybe at first, but not now. Not as problems continue to mount. Still think the majority of consumers believe the load of shit that Toyota is shoveling? Then how do you explain the fact that Toyota was the only major manufacturer last month that suffered a decline? Every other major manufacturer was up for the month of February: GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Mazda, Hyundai, BMW, Subaru, KIA, Jaguar and Porsche. You get the picture: everyone beat Toyota!
Toyota is losing…and losing bad!! Why? Because they were not committed enough to really fix the problem. They were more focused on making it LOOK like they were fixing the problem by showing testimonials of people talking about how much they love the brand and how safe they feel in their Toyota.
Obviously these are not the same people who have become trapped in their runaway Toyotas! Federal officials now report 60 post-recall complaints about unintended acceleration in Toyotas, seven of them over the last few days. Just the other day, a man in California found himself in a terrifying situation when the accelerator of his Toyota Prius became stuck. The man had just taken the car to a local dealership two weeks earlier and was turned away because he was told his car wasn’t on the recall list. He was actually turned away! A state trooper pulled up beside the vehicle and later made a statement that he could smell the brakes burning although the vehicle wasn’t stopping. The Prius reached speeds of up to 94 mph before the trooper was finally able to help bring him safely to a stop. And just yesterday, a housekeeper in NY crashed into a stone wall when her boss’ Prius accelerated out of control. She was on her way to a dealership to have the vehicle’s accelerator checked at the time of the accident. That’s two incidents just this week that we know about!
I called it when I was a guest on FOX Business News last month. And I got a lot of crap for it. People said I was being too harsh on the carmaker. At the time, I said that Toyota should get all recalled vehicles off the road immediately. I said that Toyota should cover all costs associated with righting the situation, including towing, car rental, parts and service – whatever it takes.
If Toyota had taken my advice, the brand might not be in the situation they’re in now – a situation that has only gotten increasingly worse. They would have protected themselves against further liability regarding these recalled vehicles. And more importantly, they would have done the right thing by protecting their customers at all costs and would have earned their continued respect and loyalty.
The problem is far worse than they care to admit. And in their world of lies and falsehoods, that is the only sad truth.
