The Today show featured an interview with Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Company, regarding the automaker's suspension of sales and recent recall of eight vehicle models. He stayed cool and collected under Matt Lauer's questioning, which included queries regarding not only what the company is currently doing to solve the problem, but also about when they knew the problem existed. Lentz stated that Toyota is shipping pedals to dealers starting today, and that the company had no knowledge of this issue until last October.
Anyone watching this interview would agree that Lentz was setting the stage for deniablility once the lawsuits start coming, which they will. Lents neglected a few issues here, such as the fact that the recall was the result of pressure from the Obama administration; that Toyota had, previously to today, only shipped new pedals to the factories, while dealers cooled their heels waiting for parts to fix the scores of cars coming in off the streets; and the fact that the LA Times has reported 19 deaths attributed to the "sticky" pedal problem.
When Lauer mentioned accelerator problems occurring over the last decade, Lentz replied that the first problem with sudden acceleration was due to "car mat entrapment" and not the current issue of sticky pedals. He said the first problem is now "fixed" and Toyota only learned of the second issue last October. Yet a November 12, 2009 article by Jim Motavalli details the experience of a man whose 2007 Lexus suddenly accelerated on the highway. Luckily, he kept his cool and was able to bring the car to a halt. He filed a complaint with the National Highway Safety Administration, who, as it had in five previous cases, returned a verdict of "no fault" on the part of the automaker. This incident occurred in March of 2009, and there was no mention of "mat entrapment".
How, then, could Toyota have no knowledge, if it had to answer investigative questions from the NHTSA? The answer is, of course, that they must have known. If the company spent as much time and energy admitting to and fixing these serious problems as it does trying to deny accountability and ready itself for lawsuits, perhaps its reliability would not be in question right now. It is unfortunate that one of the best automakers around has fallen victim to the "protecting the bottom line" mentality, instead of stepping up as it did when the frame failure issue became apparent on Tacoma trucks. Toyota denies that its rush to grow and expand is to blame for its current woes. Lentz denied that the company ever had as its goal to become the biggest automaker. Maybe it was just attempting to become "too big to fail".
Anyone watching this interview would agree that Lentz was setting the stage for deniablility once the lawsuits start coming, which they will. Lents neglected a few issues here, such as the fact that the recall was the result of pressure from the Obama administration; that Toyota had, previously to today, only shipped new pedals to the factories, while dealers cooled their heels waiting for parts to fix the scores of cars coming in off the streets; and the fact that the LA Times has reported 19 deaths attributed to the "sticky" pedal problem.
When Lauer mentioned accelerator problems occurring over the last decade, Lentz replied that the first problem with sudden acceleration was due to "car mat entrapment" and not the current issue of sticky pedals. He said the first problem is now "fixed" and Toyota only learned of the second issue last October. Yet a November 12, 2009 article by Jim Motavalli details the experience of a man whose 2007 Lexus suddenly accelerated on the highway. Luckily, he kept his cool and was able to bring the car to a halt. He filed a complaint with the National Highway Safety Administration, who, as it had in five previous cases, returned a verdict of "no fault" on the part of the automaker. This incident occurred in March of 2009, and there was no mention of "mat entrapment".
How, then, could Toyota have no knowledge, if it had to answer investigative questions from the NHTSA? The answer is, of course, that they must have known. If the company spent as much time and energy admitting to and fixing these serious problems as it does trying to deny accountability and ready itself for lawsuits, perhaps its reliability would not be in question right now. It is unfortunate that one of the best automakers around has fallen victim to the "protecting the bottom line" mentality, instead of stepping up as it did when the frame failure issue became apparent on Tacoma trucks. Toyota denies that its rush to grow and expand is to blame for its current woes. Lentz denied that the company ever had as its goal to become the biggest automaker. Maybe it was just attempting to become "too big to fail".
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