Why pick on Toyota?

The news has been full of the "sudden acceleration" problem with some of the Toyota cars. Their president has been summoned to Congress and lambasted by any congress critter that wanted to make the local news back home.

Let's consider a moment. All of the US auto makers, GM, Ford, Chrysler have been plagued with the same problem. Leaving for a moment, the assessment of the National Transportation Safety group that most of these accidents were caused by the driver hitting the gas instead of the brake, what is it about Toyota that makes it the target of so much wrath? Is it because they have been the most successful car maker in the United States for a couple of years? Is it because they are Japanese owned?

People, myself included, were buying foreign due to the abysmal record of American car manufacturers in responding to buyer complaints. Even the line employees of these big three were warning friends not to buy cars made on Mondays or Fridays because the quality control simply disappeared then. How the devil could we know on which day the car we were buying was made?

Now think about how we have been treated by Japanese companies. When the battery on my Nissan froze solid one cold winter's day, the battery maker responded to my letter with an apology and a check for the cost of towing the car to the dealer. That worthy had replaced the battery at no charge, with no questions. How many of us have had anything close to that experience with one of our own?

It is almost axiomatic that any complaint about an American made car would be treated as cavalierly as a feather in the wind. So what prompts this avalanche of diatribe against Toyota?

I suspect that it has two root causes. First, Toyota has been the watch word of quality for the past ten years. We're disappointed that they are fallible. Next, we have watched our automobile industry sink the same way our steel makers did. Their executives concentrated on power and glamor and pretty much ignored quality. We're the home team. Finally, Toyota has been guilty for the past few years of ignoring complaints, treating them as incorrect or inconsequential. Those three things go a long way in changing our perception of a product.

As for me, I drive a hybrid. It gets excellent gas mileage for an SUV and has proved itself reliable over the past 75,000 miles. I have no intention of changing cars. And Toyota will be among the top contenders for my business when, at last, my present motor gives me more trouble than a new car is worth.