plus 3, Toyota chief apologizes for massive global recalls - San Francisco Chronicle |
- Toyota chief apologizes for massive global recalls - San Francisco Chronicle
- Toyota CEO Apologizes For 'Crisis' Over Car Issues - CBS 2 Chicago
- Toyota chief apologizes from 'bottom of my heart' for recalls, stops ... - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
- James Corlew takes over Saturn service repairs - Leaf Chronicle
Toyota chief apologizes for massive global recalls - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 05 Feb 2010 02:53 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Akio Toyoda, appointed to the top job at Toyota Motor Corp. last June, promised to beef up quality control, saying, "We are facing a crisis." Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, said he personally would head a special committee to review checks within the company, go over consumer complaints and listen to outside experts to come up with a fix. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart for all the concern that we have given to so many customers," said Toyoda, speaking at his first news conference since the Jan. 21 global recall of 4.5 million vehicles. Toyota's failure to stem its widening safety crisis has stunned consumers and experts who'd come to expect only streamlined efficiency from a company at the pinnacle of the global auto industry. "Toyota needs to be more assertive in terms of providing consumers comfort that the immediate problem is being addressed ... and that it can deal with these crises," said Sherman Abe, a business professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. It took prodding from the U.S. government for Toyota to recall the vehicles, about half of them in North America, for gas pedals that can stick and cause sudden acceleration. Asked if he should have acted more quickly, Toyoda replied in hesitant English: "I will do my best." Also on Friday, Safety Research and Strategies Inc. of Rehoboth, Mass., issued a report saying that Toyota and the government must look closely at vehicle electronics for a cause of sudden acceleration. According to the report, there is evidence that Toyota and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have not identified all causes of the problem, which they have blamed on sticky accelerators and floor mats that can bend on top of gas pedals and press them down. NHTSA earlier this week began studying whether automobile engines could be disrupted by electromagnetic interference caused by power lines or other sources. Safety Research and Strategies, which has received funding for research on Toyotas from five law firms, said the report released Friday was not paid for by attorneys with interest in the Toyota problems. "Absent a mechanical cause, the automaker and the regulators must look more closely at the vehicle control systems, including the electronic throttle control design and the the associated sensors," the report says. Toyota has said it investigated for electronic problems and failed to find a single case pointing that direction. The company says its systems have failsafe mechanisms. Toyoda was the second successive Toyota president to offer an apology for defects in the company's cars. The first, Katsuaki Watanabe, shocked a news conference in 2006, bowing low to the group before promising to improve quality. Toyoda bowed as he greeted reporters, but not in apology. He told the hastily called news conference that the company had not decided what to do about problems in the braking system of the Prius gas-electric hybrid. The high-mileage, low-pollution car is a leader in its field and a symbol of Toyota technology Toyoda and Shinichi Sasaki, who oversees quality control, offered no new explanations for the braking problem. Prius drivers in Japan and the U.S. have complained of a short delay before the brakes kick in — a flaw Toyota says can be fixed with a software programming change. The lag occurs as the car is switching between brakes for the gas engine and the electric motor — a process that is key to the hybrid's increased mileage. Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said Friday the company continues to weigh options on how to handle repair of the problem, and it is communicating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Among the options are a service campaign in which Toyota would notify owners to bring their cars in for repairs, or a full-fledged safety recall. Michels said he could not say when Toyota would make a decision. The automaker said it fixed the programming glitch in Prius models that went on sale since last month, but has done nothing on 270,000 Prius cars sold last year in Japan and the U.S. The lack of action has raised questions about whether there is a bigger problem. Sasaki denied any cover up. "We have nothing to hide. We have just been investigating," he said. Sasaki said complaints were climbing by the day. The company was checking into them, one by one, and test-driving customer's cars that had developed problems, he said. But he appeared to view the problem as minor, occurring only at slow speeds. "We don't see it as critical because if you push on it a bit, then the car will stop," he said of the brake pedal. Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, said Toyota may be trying to avoid the large costs involved with a recall. The automaker has already said repairs for the gas pedal recall and lost sales will cost it $2 billion. "Toyota is saying ... there is no real problem yet also announced they fixed the problem as of January," he said. "Odd, given that there is no problem to fix." There is also high level government concern in Japan about Toyota's quality fiasco. Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, who oversees auto regulation, has urged Toyota to consider a recall for the brake problem. In the past, the world's No. 1 automaker has moved quickly to address problems and the handling of its most recent problems has experts puzzled. "There's a sharp contrast with previous times in terms of handling these kinds of situations," said Koji Endo, managing director of Advanced Research Japan. "I really don't know why — if it was the change in management or if the PR office was responsible or what." Some experts speculated a degree of arrogance or corporate insularity may have clouded the company's judgment this time around. "Toyota is the top of the totem pole," said Kenneth Grossberg, a marketing professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. "They don't have to learn from anyone else." Grossberg noted that Japanese companies "have a problem with rapid decision making." "Until they get everyone to sign on, it takes forever," said Grossberg, who has spent 16 years in Japan, including several years as a Citibank executive. Toyoda said the company was cooperating with the U.S. investigation into the Prius problems and moving as quickly as it could to repair the gas pedals on a wide-range of models. The NHTSA's safety database includes several hundred complaints from 2010 Prius drivers. Most of the reports, which date back to May 2009, detail problems with brakes that are slow to respond or sudden lurches of acceleration when the vehicle goes over potholes or other rough spots in the road. "This is asking for accidents to happen and something must be done to fix this problem," wrote one driver, who described four cases of loss of braking power and acceleration on bumps. All the complaints in the database are anonymous. Sasaki told the news conference he was grateful that LaHood had pressed Toyota to go ahead quickly with the gas pedal recalls in the U.S. "It would have become even harder to win back the trust of customers, and the damage to the Toyota brand would have been greater," Sasaki said solemnly. "It was hard but in hindsight I am grateful to Mr. LaHood." ___ Associated Press Writers Tom Krisher in Detroit and Stephen Manning in Washington contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. 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Toyota CEO Apologizes For 'Crisis' Over Car Issues - CBS 2 Chicago Posted: 05 Feb 2010 02:10 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Toyota CEO Apologizes For 'Crisis' Over Car IssuesCompany Head Akio Toyoda Announces Quality Control CommitteeSpeaking at a hastily announced news conference that lasted an hour, a stern-looking Toyoda promised to beef up quality control. "We are facing a crisis," Toyoda said, publicly confronting the automaker's safety problems for the first time since a global recall affecting 4.5 million vehicles was announced Jan. 21. He bowed in customary Japanese-style greeting at the start of the televised news conference at Toyota's Nagoya headquarters but did not bow deeply when offering an apology as some executives, including his predecessor Katsuaki Watanabe, have done when under fire. MORE
Toyoda, 53, said the company is setting up a special committee he would head himself. It would review internal checks, go over consumer complaints and listen to outside experts to come up with a solution to the widening quality problems. "I offer my apologies for the worries," he said. "Many customers are wondering whether their cars are OK." Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, has been criticized for not coming out sooner to answer questions about the flood of quality problems that have hit Toyota. Masaaki Sato, an auto industry expert who has written books on Toyota and its Japanese rival Honda, said Friday's appearance was the company's last chance to keep the situation from worsening. "He should have come out a week ago," Sato said of Toyoda during an appearance on a popular late night news program following the press conference. "After all the foot dragging, he was pushed into a corner." Sato also criticized Toyoda for having to be prodded into action in the U.S. by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who called the Toyota president for talks. "The issue is a huge problem in the U.S., far more serious than you might think," Sato said. "Those who are driving Toyota cars must be worried, and as Toyota CEO he has a responsibility to address their concerns and provide an explanation to the U.S. government." There is also top level government concern in Japan about Toyota's quality troubles. Transport Minister Seiji Maehara has urged Toyota to consider a recall for the Prius brake problem. The transport ministry oversees recalls and other auto regulation. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada expressed concern about the impact of the gas pedal recalls on Japan-US economic ties. "Diplomatically, it's not an issue of a single company," Okada said, Kyodo News agency reported. "The issue is about trust in Japan's entire auto industry and Japanese products overall." Toyoda said the company was moving quickly on the global recalls covering 4.5 million vehicles for sticking gas pedals, about half of them in the U.S. Dealers are scrambling to make repairs on the gas pedals, which need a new steel part to solve the sticking problem. Toyota would fully cooperate with the investigation by U.S. federal authorities into Prius problems, Toyoda said. There have been nearly 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. of drivers experiencing a short delay before the brakes kick in a problem that can be fixed with a software programming change. The automaker has fixed the programming glitch in Prius models that went on sale since last month, but has done nothing yet on 270,000 Prius cars sold last year in Japan and the U.S. The remodeled third-generation Prius went on sale in May last year. A less-than-perfect Prius, the vehicle of choice for Hollywood movie stars like Leonardo Dicaprio, threatens to be an even more serious blow for Toyota's image than the gas pedal recalls. The hybrid is a symbol of Toyota's technological prowess and ambitions to lead the auto industry in green, low-pollution cars. Toyota is also investigating possible brake problems with its luxury Lexus hybrid and the Sai compact sedan, both of which use the same brake system as the Prius. Toyota has not received any complaints about the Lexus HS250h and the probe is to ensure safety, it has said. The Sai is not sold outside Japan. Shinichi Sasaki, executive vice president overseeing quality control, told the news conference he was grateful that LaHood had pressed Toyota to go ahead quickly with the gas pedal recalls in the U.S. Toyota did not have a fix for the problem at the time, and it is relatively unusual to announce a recall without a plan for a remedy. Toyota did not come out with a fix for more than a week, further frustrating customers. It also suspended sales and production on eight models in the U.S. "It would have become even harder to win back the trust of customers, and the damage to the Toyota brand would have been greater," Sasaki said solemnly. "It was hard but in hindsight I am grateful to Mr. LaHood." U.S. officials have blessed Toyota's solution to the gas pedal problem, a small piece of steel designed to eliminate excess friction in the pedal mechanism, but have criticized Toyota for being too slow in responding to customer complaints. (© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Posted: 05 Feb 2010 02:10 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. TOKYO (AP) — Toyota's president emerged from seclusion Friday to apologize and address criticism that the automaker mishandled a crisis over sticking gas pedals. Yet he stopped short of ordering a recall for the company's iconic Prius hybrid for braking problems. Akio Toyoda, appointed to the top job at Toyota Motor Corp. last June, promised to beef up quality control, saying, "We are facing a crisis." Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, said he personally would head a special committee to review checks within the company, go over consumer complaints and listen to outside experts to come up with a fix. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart for all the concern that we have given to so many customers," said Toyoda, speaking at his first news conference since the Jan. 21 global recall of 4.5 million vehicles. Toyota's failure to stem its widening safety crisis has stunned consumers and experts who'd come to expect only streamlined efficiency from a company at the pinnacle of the global auto industry. "Toyota needs to be more assertive in terms of providing consumers comfort that the immediate problem is being addressed ... and that it can deal with these crises," said Sherman Abe, a business professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. It took prodding from the U.S. government for Toyota to recall the vehicles, about half of them in North America, for gas pedals that can stick and cause sudden acceleration. Asked if he should have acted more quickly, Toyoda replied in hesitant English: "I will do my best." Also on Friday, Safety Research and Strategies Inc. of Rehoboth, Mass., issued a report saying that Toyota and the government must look closely at vehicle electronics for a cause of sudden acceleration. According to the report, there is evidence that Toyota and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have not identified all causes of the problem, which they have blamed on sticky accelerators and floor mats that can bend on top of gas pedals and press them down. NHTSA earlier this week began studying whether automobile engines could be disrupted by electromagnetic interference caused by power lines or other sources. Safety Research and Strategies, which has received funding for research on Toyotas from five law firms, said the report released Friday was not paid for by attorneys with interest in the Toyota problems. "Absent a mechanical cause, the automaker and the regulators must look more closely at the vehicle control systems, including the electronic throttle control design and the the associated sensors," the report says. Toyota has said it investigated for electronic problems and failed to find a single case pointing that direction. The company says its systems have failsafe mechanisms. Toyoda was the second successive Toyota president to offer an apology for defects in the company's cars. The first, Katsuaki Watanabe, shocked a news conference in 2006, bowing low to the group before promising to improve quality. Toyoda bowed as he greeted reporters, but not in apology. He told the hastily called news conference that the company had not decided what to do about problems in the braking system of the Prius gas-electric hybrid. The high-mileage, low-pollution car is a leader in its field and a symbol of Toyota technology Toyoda and Shinichi Sasaki, who oversees quality control, offered no new explanations for the braking problem. Prius drivers in Japan and the U.S. have complained of a short delay before the brakes kick in — a flaw Toyota says can be fixed with a software programming change. The lag occurs as the car is switching between brakes for the gas engine and the electric motor — a process that is key to the hybrid's increased mileage. Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said Friday the company continues to weigh options on how to handle repair of the problem, and it is communicating with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Among the options are a service campaign in which Toyota would notify owners to bring their cars in for repairs, or a full-fledged safety recall. Michels said he could not say when Toyota would make a decision. Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
James Corlew takes over Saturn service repairs - Leaf Chronicle Posted: 05 Feb 2010 01:13 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. James Corlew Chevrolet has been designated as the service, warranty and parts provider for the defunct Saturn automobiles line of General Motors. The local dealership now has a service area devoted to Saturns, including a qualified mechanic that worked for Saturn for five years, said Brock Daly, general manager at Corlew Chevrolet. "Since Saturn went out of business, General Motors sent us a letter and gave us the warranty, service and parts facilities for Saturn," Daly said. "We are now the authorized service providers." In late 2009, GM announced it was going to discontinue the struggling car line, which led to the former Saturn plant in Spring Hill being placed on standby status in November. Saturn of Clarksville also closed. "I really feel for those people," Daly said of Saturn owners. "Somebody could have bought a Saturn in September and by October, there was nowhere to get their car serviced." He said James Corlew, who has owned the Chevrolet dealership for 40 years, did "due diligence" for Saturn owners and bought service equipment from Saturn of Clarksville. Daly said as far as he could tell, Corlew Chevrolet is the only authorized Saturn warrant service provider between Cool Springs in Nashville to Paducah, Ky. Today, the local dealership should be posted on Saturn.com and GM.com as a Saturn service provider. Also, area Saturn owners should soon receive letters informing them of Corlew's services. While any auto repair shop can work on Saturns, Daly said only authorized dealers can do work covered under the vehicles' three year, 36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, or the five-year, 60,000-mile powertrain warranty. Saturn owners have already begun bringing their cars to the Corlew dealership for service, and some area body shops recently have been buying Saturn body parts to repair wreck damage. For more information, customers can call 1-800-685-8728 or 245-3240. Service is available 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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