DRAMAFEST: LA Times HAMMERS Toyota, And They Respond - Who's Side Are YOU On?

The only reason this is even a story is because Toyota has a high-quality reputation. Where is the LA Times's questionnaire for Ford or GM? They've been making crappy cars for decades.

Who's reading LA Times anyway? Old man?

The fact that Toyota choose to go on the "attack" rather than address the issues and facts brought up by the LA Times piece smacks of desperation.

Instead of responding by acknowledging there have been issues and announcing that they are working to address them, they demonize the messenger. Notice how they did not refute one IOTA of facts that the news story reported based on information obtained through the NHTSA?

This signals that Toyota's brass knows that their brand's reputation is on the down slide and are flailing about desperately like little mice rather than correcting their quality problems.

Pathetic.

Maybe they didn't refute "one IOTA of facts" because Toyota is an honest company? Why is it that we attack people for not refuting facts? Are we supposed to refute facts? That's called lying there buddy.

I never had any unintended or sudden acceleration in the Toyota's I've driven, which doesn't mean much. On the old ones, the injectors had to be cleaned to improve acceleration. The floor mat problem can be issue for any car. Once had a Oldsmobile with Chevy mats and they would slide forward - I just got in the habit pulling them back when ever I drove. I think the verdict is still out on this issue...

on every car i've ever had...the floormats move forward...except the driver's side, because it's anchored with a plastic clip...not very complicated.

You are referring to Dan Neil.

This investigative piece was written up by two guys, Ken Bensinger and Ralph Vartabedian.

"Why is it that we attack people for not refuting facts? Are we supposed to refute facts? That's called lying there buddy."
— Anthony
The only "attack" that is happening is the one that Toyota has initiated against the reporter who wrote the story about Toyota not doing the right thing.

If Toyota believed the report had no merit then yes, they should have refuted them but they choose a verbal counter attack instead against the reporter not the actual content in news story.

Toyota needs to come clean and acknowledge their mounting quality and safety issues, rather than start kicking and screaming while their bare feet are being dragged to the opened flames.

It was not long ago that GM was rightly being called out for their past quality and safety issues. Strange, why Toyota can't see the damage they are doing to their own brand by their arrogant holier than thou denials.

No, the reporter with the newspaper initiated the attack on Toyota. Of course Toyota would respond. Why would a rich-ass company like Toyota let some measly newspaper say stuff about them and not respond?

It's simple: Liberal papers like the LA Times, Washington Post and NY Times highlight negative news about the import brands while the more conservative papers do the same for the domestic brands.

Toyota might not be innocent in this case, but this stuff happens with all car makers, and none of them want to come right out and admit their problems.

I am a huge fan of this only because this is exactly what Toyota asked for when they 'wanted' to be the #1 automotive manufacturer in the world. You get all of the problems of the biggest guy on the block, the scrutiny, the failures and successes are all magnified. The reality is that Toyota is making more mistakes than ever and the Camry is NOT a Consumer Reports Best Buy for the first time in like a zillion years...that is a good indicator of the challenges Toyota is facing today. The growing pains of being #1 and forgetting where you came from, letting quality slip on your best selling vehicle to chase truck profits and the ultra-rich (LF-A). Not very Kaizen. I am sure Toyota will emerge from this but for now they look like they are going to have to take their lumps since no one wants the biggest guy to win. Ask Goliath.

Unless the newspaper industry gets a government bailout, their days are numbered.

Toyota will have the last laugh.

Not saying Toyota is innocent here. But Journalist's do make money to write stories. Like all companies Toyota makes mistakes to and tries to cover them up. But that doesn't mean they are a evil company or something. I don't think they purposely build cars with problems in them. Automobiles are complicated equipment and in any vehicle problems are going to arise.

Journalist's on the other hand will write anything they feel will make them money also.

I see it this way. Toyota is at fault, and have had engineering & quality lapses and they should/have admit to it. But they are not some evil car company that is out to get people killed. The Journalist for the LA times is correct in questioning Toyota. But I'm sure as with most journalist's, there is some truth bending and a personal bias that plays into his articles against Toyota. And he's looking to make his *stories/articles* as juicy as possible to get the maximum amount of readers.

After reading through the questions and Toyota's answers, even I think the questions were very harsh. However, I found it strange that only a few of the questions Toyota reps answered straightly. I found Questions 2, 3, 4 to be inadequately answered, question 5 was answered however I don't agree with the process of making only one data retrieval tool, no matter how willingly you lend it to law enforcement. In question 9 I found it weird that the EDR box could distinguish between a stuck pedal and one being held down by a foot. And finally, in question 10, why would they make a policy not to use it? It seems that it would be useful to use such data, even if it was deemed questionable due to the prototype nature of the tool.

Toyota is building crap lately, there isn't any way around it other than build better cars.

Crap? The Camry, the Corolla and the Matrix. Throw in the Yaris and the Avalon while we're at it. They might not be crap, but they come very close.

"Crap? The Camry, the Corolla and the Matrix. Throw in the Yaris and the Avalon while we're at it. They might not be crap, but they come very close."
1. They are not good on the eyes.

2. They are not fun to drive.

3. They are over priced for what you get.

4. Many many many recalls now in the million mark this year. (rust, sludge, brake and acceleration problems)

looks like crap to me.