Toyota Rejects "Planted" Story Claim - Whose Side Are YOU On?

Late last week accusations were flying about a recently published story discussing Toyota's latest headlines regarding its infamous recalls.

The Wall Street Journal story essentially came out and said that DRIVER error was to blame. Then, all hell broke loose.

And our very own Joe_Limon submitted a piece suggestion that Toyota's public relations department had "planted" the story in the WSJ.

To be honest I do not know what to make of this. It just seems like a lot of childish finger pointing and nobody stepping up the plate. This is the problem with stories that lacks a named source. The story's credibility gets hammered and what do you know, here comes the company's rebuttal. If the WSJ was not confident in its story, I doubt the legendary publication would have ran the story.

Let's all just hang back and see what the official NHTSA report says when it debuts. Just give it time.

What say you, Spies? Any thoughts on the mudslinging going down?


Toyota Motor Sales USA (TMS) has said it "strongly objects to allegations that Toyota 'planted' a news story in the Wall Street Journal regarding NHTSA investigations into unintended acceleration", as an NHTSA spokeswoman last week claimed in a telephone interview with just-auto.

In a statement emailed to just-auto, TMS corporate communications executive Scott Deyager said: "Toyota does not have access to NHTSA investigation data and the agency has not reported its findings to Toyota...

[Source: Just-auto]








2011 BMW X3 Photo Gallery

Fisker Karma VIP Sneak Photo Gallery

4th Of July SoCal Style Photo Gallery

2011 Panamera and Cayenne V6 Launch Photo Gallery

2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Photo Gallery

AutoSpies.com Photo Galleries

If you want to see your photos running on our homepage photo ticker, be sure to upload your photos on the go by sending them to Mobile@AutoSpies.com

Share on Facebook

Read Article

wins555 - 7/19/2010 11:09:12 PM

-1 Boost

If it wasn't official, then why did WSJ ran the "official" story ahead of the official statement? Which official did the WSJ reporter get the unofficial, official statement from? Bear in mind that newspapers need hot stories in order to sell.

darzav - 7/20/2010 5:27:26 AM

+1 Boost

Flame war started by the pathetic American car industry. I wouldnt really consider a Toyota unless I had to, but i would rather a Toyota over anything else. It seems that all these supposed problems only occur in the US. Toyota Australia only has to struggle with the stupid media but otherwise its fine. No sudden accelerations occur here. Definitely a planted story. Question is, who planted it?

SteedPub - 7/20/2010 11:39:40 AM

+3 Boost

When this near same issue happened with Audi in the late 1980's/earlu 1990's which killed the Audi 5000, it turned out to be human error all along.

truckman - 7/21/2010 3:51:10 AM

+2 Boost

I believe that there was some driver error in many cases, but not all, and I also believe that publications like consumer reports are influenced by $$ , All media is owned by the big corporations, us sheep are told what is good.