Hey, Let's Bash Toyota
By AL LEWIS
BP's Tony Hayward drove Akio Toyoda's runaway cars off the 24-hour news cycle. But now that BP's hole is plugged, it's time to start wailing on Toyota again.
Last week, Toyota revealed that a federal grand jury in New York has subpoenaed documents, potentially widening probes from stuck accelerators to snapping steering rods.
Don't you just love what we do to Toyota? Why can't we do this to everybody?
Drag the CEO all the way from Japan, shove him before Congress, and make him cry.
Slap the company with the highest possible fine. Sue it hundreds of times. Convince it to recall models by the millions. Make it apologize repeatedly. (Bow more fully for the cameras next time, Mr. Toyoda.)
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood once warned Americans not to drive Toyotas. Can you imagine the Treasury secretary warning Americans not to use Goldman Sachs? And why didn't Congress make Mr. Hayward cry? The closest he came to tears was when he whined, "I want my life back," and then got back on his yacht to sail the less poisoned part of the ocean.
So now it's time to beat on someone else. Remember Big Tobacco? How about Big Toyota?
Toyotas can take off as if possessed by Onibaba, the Japanese demon hag. OK, so as investigations continue, it's looking like many accidents were caused by drivers who don't know the difference between the gas pedal and the brake. But Toyotas may have other problems, too.
Toyota hasn't always been forthright. And it's illegal to mislead regulators about safety defects in cars. Not that other auto makers haven't done it. But there has never been a better time to pile on criminal charges.
Toyota bashing helps Americans forget GM's bumbling former CEO Rick Wagoner and Chrysler's former mis-manager Bob Nardelli. It also gets voters' minds off former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo's special loans to his friends, or Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's shrewd decision to have the bank settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $550 million. And the systemic fraud alleged at America's biggest banks, a mind-blowing national debt and double-digit unemployment after corporations shipped millions of jobs abroad.
Toyota bashing makes it look like our leaders are actually trying to save America.
"All the Toyota vehicles bear my name," Mr. Toyoda has repeatedly lamented, which is true except that I think someone in the marketing department misspelled it a long time ago and never fixed it.
"When the cars are damaged, it is as though I am, as well."
I don't know if Mr. Toyoda is contrite, or if he's just another grief-feigning narcissist whose grandfather gave him a car company. But I was heartened when he went before Congress in February and said this:
"I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick.... Toyota's priority has traditionally been the following: First, safety. Second, quality. And third, volume. These priorities became confused."
Why can't we make every company admit this? Isn't this the problem with every company?
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB128001605680520665.html
