Forbes.com
Toyotas Kipling Moment: The only good news for the automaker is that its detractors are among the most disliked institutions in the nation.
Forbes.coms Jerry Flint reports that Toyota electrical glitches are unlikely and that drivers error is more likely. Additionally, he reports, that in Toyotas favor is the fact that the opposition is extremely untrustworthy in the eyes of the American public.
Quotes from the story:
If it finds an actual problem, Toyota can fix it once and for all. But if they can't find a problem, if no one can find a problem, if it seems to be driver error--stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake--then the questions go on and on. People in accidents will continue to believe they did nothing wrong, lawyers will continue to file suits, the press will continue to regurgitate the same stories day after day and Toyota will stay in the hole.
The other day I had a chat with a car tester, one of the best known car testers in the world. I guarantee he's not in Toyota's pocket, or anyone else's. I asked him about the unintended acceleration complaints against Toyota. He said he believed that for the most part they were drivers' errors. Why? He had never run into them in all his testing. But more important, he said that if there were an electronic glitch, it would have shown up in many other ways: headlights flickering on and off and radios going on and off. That's because the electronics are interconnected. If this isn't happening, and we don't hear such reports, then the premise that unintended acceleration is being caused by an electronic glitch is questionable, he said.
But Toyota has this going for it: the question of who people will trust more, the automaker or its detractors. The detractors are Congress, trial lawyers and the press, three of the most distrusted groups in the nation, while the car company has millions of satisfied owners out there. We know because they keep turning in their old Toyotas and buying new ones.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/14/toyota-lexus-prius-business-autos-toyota.html?boxes=businesschannelsections
