<VV> No brochures-no corvair

[Tony Underwood]

At 10:36 PM 5/30/2010, kenpepke at juno.com wrote:

>Amen to that ... In spite of anecdotal evidence to the contrary we 
>see that at the junkyard on a daily basis.  Clearly the quality in 
>these vehicles is added by their advertising departments :-(
>
>Ken P
>
>****************
>"John Kepler" <jekepler at amplex.net> wrote: [in part]
>
>Yeah?  My son was a tech at a Toyota dealership...you should drop by our
>shop sometime for a little "1-on-1" about some of Toyota's OTHER
>design/production defects that they have quietly and conveniently swept
>under the rug!  Toyota owners.....probably like BMW/VW owners, have 
>invested so much in the "quality" mythology that they'll put-up with 
>crap that'd have a GM or Ford owner screaming for/at his lawyer 
>and/or Congress-critter!
>It's just a car....a VERY ordinary and unexciting car at that!





Remember, Toyota has been Hell-bent on taking that top spot away from 
GM for almost two decades now and would stop at nothing to get 
there.   Automotive analysts have discussed Toyota's "run for the 
money" numerous times, along with their cut-throat business practices.

It's no surprise to me that a DOT study released last week stated 
that Toyota accidents involving equipment failures (such as sticking 
throttles, anti-skid brake errors, and other problems some of which 
caused recalls etc) have resulted in approximately 1000 fatalities 
that otherwise wouldn't have happened.   Several analysts have stated 
that they were surprised it took this long for all this to finally 
come to light...

That's 10 times as many people burned to death in Ford Crown Vics and 
30 times as many people burned to death in Pintos.   But ALL we hear 
about is how "dangerous" the Pinto was, and lately that Crown Vics 
might also be "susceptible" to fires.   Likewise Mustangs... lots of 
people died in mustangs, more so than Pintos.

However... these are US made cars bearing US brand names.   And we 
all know that "Toyota quality" always outstrips any US car maker's 
quality... don't we...?   Americans can't build good cars like 
Toyota, or any other Japanese maker...    To this day I still 
remember that consumer magazine that critiqued cars, calling a 
Mitsubishi marque a bargain and well made and condemning a Dodge 
marque for sloppy construction and poor handling etc ad nauseam, 
evidently forgetting the then-partnership between Chrysler and 
Mitsubishi and the two cars in question were identical except for the 
upholstery and paint colors... yet it was the "Japanese" car that got 
glowing commentary while the "American" car got slammed.

Consumer Reports (and its sycophants) lost all credibility after that 
fiasco... already in dutch with the likes of me after they condemned 
home electronics (in this instance VCRs) with US brand names yet the 
Japanese branded machines which were IDENTICAL got glowing 
reviews.   I suppose the review gang at CR didn't realize both 
machines were made by Matsushita in Japan...

  There have been other examples...  I don't pay any attention to CR 
anymore.


The only way Toyota could overtake GM (even with the General's 
problems over the last decade) was to cut corners.   And they 
did.   Now they're paying for it... although their PR campaign of 
late has actually gotten some people to feel *sorry* for Toyota and 
its "troubles" which they brought on themselves.


I'm still surprised it took this long.   Toyota had it coming well 
over a decade ago.


Corvair content?   I'd like to see any Toyota out there that has 
lasted as long as the Corvairs in the fleet here which are still 
running after all the years and in the case of my '60, over 50 years 
now and still serving as daily transportation to and from, and my '60 
has plenty of life in it yet.





tony..