AL, KY, IN, MS Governors are crying out for Toyota
02-11-2010, 06:18 AM
#16
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 1998
Location: Knoxville, TN
Posts: 3,252
No I'm not saying its a conspiracy. Did you read what I wrote, or what you wanted to read?
My concern....again....is that with the government owning a large portion of GM and Chrysler (whether they are actually running anything or not), the potential for conflict of interest, or appearance of conflict of interest (and perception is reality in the eyes of the perceiver) is a valid point.
IMHO, if the situation were reversed, some of ya'll would be crying bloody murder at whatever gov't (which owned a majority stake in one or more of that countries car makers) was handling a hypothetical safety-related recall of American-made cars in whatever country it was in. Or course, that is easy to deny, as it isn't happening, but I digress.
Disagree if you wish. I'm fine with that.
Bob
My concern....again....is that with the government owning a large portion of GM and Chrysler (whether they are actually running anything or not), the potential for conflict of interest, or appearance of conflict of interest (and perception is reality in the eyes of the perceiver) is a valid point.
IMHO, if the situation were reversed, some of ya'll would be crying bloody murder at whatever gov't (which owned a majority stake in one or more of that countries car makers) was handling a hypothetical safety-related recall of American-made cars in whatever country it was in. Or course, that is easy to deny, as it isn't happening, but I digress.
Disagree if you wish. I'm fine with that.
Bob
02-11-2010, 07:04 AM
#17
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Albany, NY
Posts: 10,287
Even if the US Treasury didn't hold shares of GM it would still be to Americas advantage that the Japanese car companies don't do well in the USA and vice versa.
Japan, China, Korea, Germany, UK all have conflicts of interest. The only way to remove them is to have a 3rd party (another country?) handle one countries safety and emissions standards. Obviously this is not practical and infringes on the sovereignty of that nation.
Japan, China, Korea, Germany, UK all have conflicts of interest. The only way to remove them is to have a 3rd party (another country?) handle one countries safety and emissions standards. Obviously this is not practical and infringes on the sovereignty of that nation.
02-11-2010, 07:08 AM
#18
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Pewee Valley, KY
Posts: 4,600
On the same point, conflict of interest can easily be seen on the governers behalf. Toyota has fairly large scale manufacturing plants in all of these states, correct? Toyota likely contributes to political campaigns in those states and isn't it about time for these states to have elections for the positions next year?
I would wager that Toyota will be receiving some of these media tidbits when time comes to start financing those campaigns.
02-11-2010, 09:37 AM
#20
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 118
the Japanese auto manufactures deserve all the bad press, they earned it. i have listened to jerks like that senator shelby make untrue comments about american auto makers for a long time, making untrue comments about quality and fuel economy. so now its toyota's turn for bad press. they have been building crap.
02-11-2010, 10:33 AM
#21
Registered User
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 93
Emperor Hirohito must be spinning in his grave. How many Japanese died trying to gain supremacy over the United States when all it took was flooding us with subsidized products, clever marketing, and paid-off politicians. Osama bin Laden should design a car and hire a PR firm. Within a generation he'll have our elected officials kissing his backside too.
02-11-2010, 10:40 AM
#22
Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Ohio
Posts: 8,504
On the same point, conflict of interest can easily be seen on the governers behalf. Toyota has fairly large scale manufacturing plants in all of these states, correct? Toyota likely contributes to political campaigns in those states and isn't it about time for these states to have elections for the positions next year?
Ding!
02-11-2010, 10:40 AM
#23
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Newhall, CA USA
Posts: 1,023
"Destroyed our industrial base for the sake of softer dashboards," would be a terrible epitaph for the USA.
But I can think of two worse:
"Destroyed our industrial base, because we were too selfish, too blind, and too lazy to look at our own products first."
or
"Destroyed our industrial base, then discovered Toyota was just another car company after all."
02-11-2010, 01:51 PM
#25
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: All around
Posts: 2,154
Japan didn't kill our manufacturing and industrial base. China did. Make no mistake about it. The goal for saving pennies on every little detail and white boxing consumer goods moved *everything* to China. Even food processing.
Originally Posted by paul463
Emperor Hirohito must be spinning in his grave
Originally Posted by Bob Cosby
No I'm not saying its a conspiracy. Did you read what I wrote, or what you wanted to read?
But when the morons in Congress wanted to hold legel hearings to decide what should happen - I took offense. That is the function of a totally separate branch of government and has NOTHING to do with their jobs. The government appointed the NTSB to handle these things on its own without wasting the time of everyone else. They [Congress] just wanted to get in on the action (and infront of the Camera). Clowns.
It isn't a conspiracy. The NTSB would have handled it the way they always do without issue, relatively quietly, and it would have been of the same magnitude [volume of vehicles] but without the sensationalist media. Congress overstepped their bounds.
02-11-2010, 04:22 PM
#26
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 3,123
I must say that I find the comments from those politicians absolutely abhorrent and that's putting it mildly. 
What is it with politicians and the way they turn on people when they favor the side with more money? Don't forget, the dead people they turned on were exactly the people that voted these non-sympathetic leaches into power! Yet these leaches take the side of a multinational always before that of their country men who died through Toyota's conscious inaction of a faulty product.
Sad reflection on society as a whole. Those politicians would stand down if they had any nobility.
What is it with politicians and the way they turn on people when they favor the side with more money? Don't forget, the dead people they turned on were exactly the people that voted these non-sympathetic leaches into power! Yet these leaches take the side of a multinational always before that of their country men who died through Toyota's conscious inaction of a faulty product.
Sad reflection on society as a whole. Those politicians would stand down if they had any nobility.
Last edited by SSbaby; 02-11-2010 at 04:47 PM.
02-12-2010, 11:39 AM
#27
Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Toronto, ON Canada
Posts: 2,402
02-12-2010, 02:47 PM
#28
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Pewee Valley, KY
Posts: 4,600
I understand this but the US operations appear to the public to be entirely independent and the company is perceived as American. As always appearances mean everything.
02-12-2010, 06:04 PM
#29
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Southeast, USA
Posts: 174
02-12-2010, 06:11 PM
#30
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Southeast, USA
Posts: 174
Superbly written 99SliverSS!
Anyone who looks over the information related to this Toyota recall and still thinks the NHTSB somehow acted excessively harsh in some kind of twisted conspiracy to protect the US Treasury’s investment of taxpayer funds in certain car companies is delusional.
This is the same US Government that can’t get the terrorist do not fly list correct between the TSA, FBI, CIA and Justice Dept. And yet somehow there are powerful and cunning rogue forces in the same said government departments capable of coordinating an elaborate plan to bring Toyota down. What motive; sales, ROI? GM and Chrysler haven’t benefited thus far. Hyundai/Kia, Ford and Honda might be guilty of prospering in this post recall automotive economy except that the US Treasury didn’t bail them out or issues loans. So if these claims are true and there is a conflict of interest and subsequent conspiracy to protect the US Governments’ monetary influence in bailed out car companies then their diabolicalness is only matched by their incompetence as the plan hasn’t worked.
IMO the NHTSB should be brought in front of Congress to explain why it took so long to force Toyota to issue the recall and why it took more needless fatalities before this was taken seriously. IMO Toyota was given a pass like it has in the past that the information (false) that they gave the NHTSB was accurate and the problem wasn’t as serious as the complaints and statistics say it is. In the NHTSB’s defense it doesn’t have the funding or manpower to do the full testing for these claims and does rely on the car manufactures for help. In this case secretive Toyota and their decisions to save face misled the agency.
The only conflict of interest I find plausible in this article is the governors of the states that just so happen to have wooed and won Toyota factories in their states questioning the decision to recall vehicles. Some of which are built in their states. They say the US Government isn’t being fair and acting hysterical. They should go talk to the families of the 19 people who died from causes attributable by investigation to one kind of defect by one car company that admits knowing of the issue 6 years ago if they want to see hysterical and then let them call for fairness.
This is the same US Government that can’t get the terrorist do not fly list correct between the TSA, FBI, CIA and Justice Dept. And yet somehow there are powerful and cunning rogue forces in the same said government departments capable of coordinating an elaborate plan to bring Toyota down. What motive; sales, ROI? GM and Chrysler haven’t benefited thus far. Hyundai/Kia, Ford and Honda might be guilty of prospering in this post recall automotive economy except that the US Treasury didn’t bail them out or issues loans. So if these claims are true and there is a conflict of interest and subsequent conspiracy to protect the US Governments’ monetary influence in bailed out car companies then their diabolicalness is only matched by their incompetence as the plan hasn’t worked.
IMO the NHTSB should be brought in front of Congress to explain why it took so long to force Toyota to issue the recall and why it took more needless fatalities before this was taken seriously. IMO Toyota was given a pass like it has in the past that the information (false) that they gave the NHTSB was accurate and the problem wasn’t as serious as the complaints and statistics say it is. In the NHTSB’s defense it doesn’t have the funding or manpower to do the full testing for these claims and does rely on the car manufactures for help. In this case secretive Toyota and their decisions to save face misled the agency.
The only conflict of interest I find plausible in this article is the governors of the states that just so happen to have wooed and won Toyota factories in their states questioning the decision to recall vehicles. Some of which are built in their states. They say the US Government isn’t being fair and acting hysterical. They should go talk to the families of the 19 people who died from causes attributable by investigation to one kind of defect by one car company that admits knowing of the issue 6 years ago if they want to see hysterical and then let them call for fairness.