It\u2019s time to update my earlier blog on the Toyota situation. By now we\u2019re all familiar with James Sikes, the California driver who alleged uncontrollable acceleration with his Toyota Prius.<\/p>\n
I was highly suspicious of Sikes when I first heard the story. The setup was just too clean\u2014nobody else in the car, acceleration on a relatively open stretch of road, his inability to shift the car into neutral, and a Toyota dealer that supposedly \u201cturned him away\u201d when he requested a fix several days earlier. I hesitated then (and still do now) to say that he fabricated the incident. I don\u2019t know for sure, but I\u2019d certainly bet on it, and I rarely gamble.<\/p>\n
This case might seem d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu to some of you. The 1986 Audi sudden-acceleration scare turned out to be baseless. Audi, however, suffered staggering sales declines during the period because of the hype.<\/p>\n
The number of formal complaints to the NHTSA about uncontrollable acceleration has skyrocketed since Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood targeted Toyota for national disgrace a few months ago. In other words, dozens of cars that have been driven for months or years without incident now accelerate on their own. Unless we believe that the cars are responding to our government\u2019s desire for turmoil at Toyota, then we must conclude that most of these claims are probably unfounded.<\/p>\n
The feeding frenzy on Toyota is in full swing. Dana and Douglas Weller of Seattle are now suing Toyota for excessive depreciation of their 2009 RAV4. Following that logic, homeowners should be able to sue Congress for excessive housing depreciation as well.<\/p>\n
What role has our government played in this scandal? A big one. Before all\u2019s said and done, Toyota will suffer massive losses in sales and its brand image far beyond what the market would have dealt out without LaHood\u2019s intervention. Opportunists in our country know they will find a sympathetic government if they join the bandwagon of complaints against this evil company whose greatest sin has been to produce affordable, quality vehicles without union control.<\/p>\n
Toyota recently issued a statement challenging Sikes\u2019 claims. Sikes, however, says he \u201cjust wants to be left alone.\u201d I\u2019m happy to see Toyota fighting back. If I ran the company, I\u2019d give Sikes two choices\u2014retract his story or face a defamation lawsuit from Toyota. Sikes\u2019 story has contributed to massive losses for the company. If he\u2019s right, then Toyota should bear the responsibility. If not, then the company has every right to set the record straight.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this is what you get when our government owns major stakes of two failing competitors. LaHood and others have a perverse incentive to beat down Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and the rest of the pack. Let this be a lesson. If you don\u2019t like government bullying, then consider what would happen to private insurance companies if healthcare reform included a \u201cpublic option?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s time to update my earlier blog on the Toyota situation. By now we\u2019re all familiar with James Sikes, the California driver who alleged uncontrollable acceleration with his Toyota Prius. I was highly suspicious of Sikes when I first heard the story. The setup was just too clean\u2014nobody else in the car, acceleration on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}