> Update 3/1/2015 - GREAT VIDEO by NBC's WRC-TV: Dealer Jack Fitzgerald says that in the past, auto manufacturers have punished him financially for speaking out.
> Update 3/10/2015 - In this article published yesterday, Jack sums things up admirably: "People have lost lives on the road because manufacturers have hidden safety problems by delaying recalls, and forcing dealers to withhold critical information."
> Update 3/11/2015 - Toyota, GM, and Ford are being sued for concealing the fact that their vehicles are susceptible to hackers wresting control from drivers, and Toyota has announced another recall involving defective software and electronics - this time raising safety issues about transmissions and steering. Wonder if dealerships were ordered to keep quiet about these issues.
One of the auto industry's most appalling practices involves refusing to inform customers about known defects. Generally speaking, it falls under the heading "secret warranties," and Jack Fitzgerald, president of Fitzgerald's Auto Malls in Maryland is speaking out against the practice. Refusal to divulge defect information to customers is a racket that's been going on for decades.
Mr. Fitzgerald is uniquely qualified to address the issue since his dealership is massive in size and handles all brands. As one would expect, his efforts to promote free speech and full disclosure are being opposed by the auto industry.
Of course, the larger point is that keeping defects secret amounts to fraud, and should have been outlawed long ago at the federal level. The fact that automakers can get away with such crookedness further evidences the fact that our current system of government - local, state, and federal - is controlled not by the people it deceitfully claims to represent, but by powerful special interests such as those associated with the auto industry. Meanwhile, the blood-spattered scandals of murderous corporations like Toyota, GM, Takata, etc. ad nauseum continue unabated as the "Just Us" Department keeps watch to make sure no auto executive winds up in prison.
Were it not for public safety implications, it would be laughable that an auto dealer must ask government for permission to warn customers about manufacturing defects. Mr. Fitzgerald is to be applauded for daring to speak out against such a pervasively corrupt system.
Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
SECRECY: the hallmark of crooks like Toyota
Update 11/1/2014 - A few hours ago: Takata says a new flaw was discovered for airbags it made from 2008-20014.
I just love it when the public is suckered by "proposed legislation" that stands no chance whatsoever of passing after elected officials (don't blame me - I quit voting years ago) are bribed - er I mean educated - by lobbyists. Buys time until well-entrenched business interests can do their thing with America's two-headed, one party sham of an electoral system.
Admitted-crook Toyota is perhaps the most notorious of all when it comes to those "confidentiality agreements" Senator Blumenthal says he wants to outlaw. The Coverup King has been rushing into such agreements like crazy ever since embedded systems expert Michael Barr spilled the beans on the auto industry's unintended acceleration scam about a year ago in that landmark case in Oklahoma. Electronic defects galore were exposed in Toyota's throttle control, ushering in a barrage of settlements structured to keep things quiet the "Toyota Way."
Really, folks. By what convoluted reasoning are crooked corporations like Toyota allowed to purchase the public's right to free speech as part of "settlements" involving deadly defects? It's a bullying tactic that's been going on for many years, Mr. Blumenthal, and never should have been allowed in the first place.
Toyota is still in tantrum mode because word of defects in their throttle control is spreading, thanks to that landmark lawsuit the Coverup King lost in Oklahoma last October. Lately, the admitted crook and first-class bully has been targeting whistleblower Betsy Benjaminson - a single, unemployed mother of four - with a slew of pricey, court-sanctioned actions aimed at intimidating Benjaminson - and anyone else - from daring to exercise free speech. Crooks like Toyota are outraged that in this age of the Internet, bloggers, trade journals, and shrewd use of social media can play havoc with the efforts of bigshot "news" organizations and auto-industry stooges like NHTSA to keep safety issues quiet. Note the graphic - a blood-spattered Toyota emblem - featured in today's update about Benjaminson.
Meanwhile, the latest scandal - exploding, shrapnel-laced airbags that injure and kill - leaves consumers at the mercy of auto-industry thugs, propped up by a corrupt, corporate-controlled government that has "no comment" when truth is exposed.
Update 10/31/2014 - Amidst scandals and recalls galore, the airbag fiasco may be the straw that broke the camel's back. Marketing research shows that consumers are finally getting wary of Toyota's never-ending safety problems now that fundamentals such as airbags and seatbelts are making headlines.
I just love it when the public is suckered by "proposed legislation" that stands no chance whatsoever of passing after elected officials (don't blame me - I quit voting years ago) are bribed - er I mean educated - by lobbyists. Buys time until well-entrenched business interests can do their thing with America's two-headed, one party sham of an electoral system.
Admitted-crook Toyota is perhaps the most notorious of all when it comes to those "confidentiality agreements" Senator Blumenthal says he wants to outlaw. The Coverup King has been rushing into such agreements like crazy ever since embedded systems expert Michael Barr spilled the beans on the auto industry's unintended acceleration scam about a year ago in that landmark case in Oklahoma. Electronic defects galore were exposed in Toyota's throttle control, ushering in a barrage of settlements structured to keep things quiet the "Toyota Way."
Really, folks. By what convoluted reasoning are crooked corporations like Toyota allowed to purchase the public's right to free speech as part of "settlements" involving deadly defects? It's a bullying tactic that's been going on for many years, Mr. Blumenthal, and never should have been allowed in the first place.
Toyota is still in tantrum mode because word of defects in their throttle control is spreading, thanks to that landmark lawsuit the Coverup King lost in Oklahoma last October. Lately, the admitted crook and first-class bully has been targeting whistleblower Betsy Benjaminson - a single, unemployed mother of four - with a slew of pricey, court-sanctioned actions aimed at intimidating Benjaminson - and anyone else - from daring to exercise free speech. Crooks like Toyota are outraged that in this age of the Internet, bloggers, trade journals, and shrewd use of social media can play havoc with the efforts of bigshot "news" organizations and auto-industry stooges like NHTSA to keep safety issues quiet. Note the graphic - a blood-spattered Toyota emblem - featured in today's update about Benjaminson.
Meanwhile, the latest scandal - exploding, shrapnel-laced airbags that injure and kill - leaves consumers at the mercy of auto-industry thugs, propped up by a corrupt, corporate-controlled government that has "no comment" when truth is exposed.
Update 10/31/2014 - Amidst scandals and recalls galore, the airbag fiasco may be the straw that broke the camel's back. Marketing research shows that consumers are finally getting wary of Toyota's never-ending safety problems now that fundamentals such as airbags and seatbelts are making headlines.
Monday, April 14, 2014
NASA physicist warns of unintended acceleration risk in '02-'06 Camrys
"A case of a Toyota with galloping acceleration — but not a fully open throttle — was attributed to tin whiskers. And Leidecker pointed out that Toyota redesigned its pedal sensor in 2007 and again in 2008, expressly to eliminate the risk of tin whiskers. Why would it do that if tin whiskers were never a problem? he asked. Toyota did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Leidecker said he believes the tin whisker risk remains for Toyotas in model years 2002-2006. While the risk is small, it increases with time. 'It’s a game of Russian roulette,' he said."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/5/2014 article, "A Carbondale professor, runaway Toyotas, and the hunt for 'tin whiskers'"
So you'd think Toyota, NHTSA and the Department of Justice would be anxious to learn more. You'd think Toyota would be concerned enough to advise Camry owners accordingly, and issue a recall for those models to update the pedal sensors.
But you'd be wrong.
Instead, our tacky little corporate-controlled government and its good friend Toyota are trying to keep things quiet about any electronics involvement in the unintended acceleration scandal. So when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch repeatedly asked Toyota to comment on Dr. Leidecker's remarks, the Recall King - in typical, highhanded, "Toyota Way" fashion - smugly refused to respond. Reminds ya of the "Department of Justice" e-mailing a curt "No comment" when trade journal EE Times' freelance writer David Benjamin asked 'em if they'd ever heard of embedded systems expert Michael Barr finding bugs in Toyota's electronic throttle control. Congress has done no more than display some grand theatrics, and NHTSA (No Help To Solve Anything) had the unmitigated gall to bow out of the unintended acceleration issue by broadcasting the now-obvious lie that NASA had ruled out electronics.
"No comment" indeed. Not to mention lies.
People's lives are at stake. Compelling evidence of defects in Toyota's electronic throttle control has been produced. How dare this corporate-controlled slob of a government - Repukes and Demagogues alike - and its good friend Toyota remain aloof. Refuse to even acknowledge the issue, and have its mainstream-media stooges do likewise. In what sense do we have a free press when consumers have to depend on trade journals to reveal the facts? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is to be commended for daring to take a step in the right direction.
The scam regarding '02-'06 Camrys is apparent in this interview with the owner of a 2005 model, justifiably unhappy with the chump change she got in Toyota's much-ballyhooed billion dollar, class-action economic loss settlement. Toyota (!) "never determined that sudden acceleration was the reason her vehicle crashed." Never mind, of course, that '02-'06 Camrys have an exceptionally high rate of unintended acceleration complaints.
Talk about a racket.
BIG BUCKS for attorneys. CHUMP CHANGE AND BALD-FACED LIES for consumers, who never shoulda had to file lawsuits in the first place. Worse yet, much of Toyota's "settlement" money is earmarked for "safety research" that blames drivers for unintended acceleration. Settlements the "Toyota Way" cleverly promote the myth of driver error, while creating a database of misleading information that the Recall King can blabber about in future cases of runaway Toyotas.
It's about time consumers demanded a bit of fundamental fairness outta dishonest corporate slobs like Toyota, GM, and their government mouthpieces.
Update 4/18/2014 - The '05 Camry case referenced below targeted "tin whiskers" and software. No wonder the Recall King reached a settlement :-)
Update 4/17/2014 -
> This just in: "Attorney: Family of dead motorist, Toyota reach settlement in Flint sudden acceleration suit." As word of Dr. Leidecker's concern leaks out, Toyota is probably in a BIG hurry to settle as many lawsuits as possible involving '02-'06 Camrys. NHTSA, where are ya?
> Found some background on the above case. One of the victim's children summed things up quite well: "The 2005 Camry should have been one of the first ones to be in the recall," said Lilia Alberto. "How many more deaths do they want to have before they have to put it in the recall?"
> This 2/8/10 article shows that Toyota's electronic throttle control was blamed from the get go. "Eric Synder, a lawyer for the family, told the Times, 'We think Toyota has a safety problem with the electronic throttle control system in Camrys and other Toyota models."'
> One more background article - from 6/1/12 - aptly titled "Toyota Owners Forced to Continue Driving Ticking Time Bombs"
Update 4/15/2014 - A German firm has published some interesting revelations about tin whiskers: http://www.dguv.de/ifa/Praxishilfen/Zinnwhisker-auf-Leiterplatten/index-2.jsp
Leidecker said he believes the tin whisker risk remains for Toyotas in model years 2002-2006. While the risk is small, it increases with time. 'It’s a game of Russian roulette,' he said."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/5/2014 article, "A Carbondale professor, runaway Toyotas, and the hunt for 'tin whiskers'"
So you'd think Toyota, NHTSA and the Department of Justice would be anxious to learn more. You'd think Toyota would be concerned enough to advise Camry owners accordingly, and issue a recall for those models to update the pedal sensors.
But you'd be wrong.
Instead, our tacky little corporate-controlled government and its good friend Toyota are trying to keep things quiet about any electronics involvement in the unintended acceleration scandal. So when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch repeatedly asked Toyota to comment on Dr. Leidecker's remarks, the Recall King - in typical, highhanded, "Toyota Way" fashion - smugly refused to respond. Reminds ya of the "Department of Justice" e-mailing a curt "No comment" when trade journal EE Times' freelance writer David Benjamin asked 'em if they'd ever heard of embedded systems expert Michael Barr finding bugs in Toyota's electronic throttle control. Congress has done no more than display some grand theatrics, and NHTSA (No Help To Solve Anything) had the unmitigated gall to bow out of the unintended acceleration issue by broadcasting the now-obvious lie that NASA had ruled out electronics.
"No comment" indeed. Not to mention lies.
People's lives are at stake. Compelling evidence of defects in Toyota's electronic throttle control has been produced. How dare this corporate-controlled slob of a government - Repukes and Demagogues alike - and its good friend Toyota remain aloof. Refuse to even acknowledge the issue, and have its mainstream-media stooges do likewise. In what sense do we have a free press when consumers have to depend on trade journals to reveal the facts? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is to be commended for daring to take a step in the right direction.
The scam regarding '02-'06 Camrys is apparent in this interview with the owner of a 2005 model, justifiably unhappy with the chump change she got in Toyota's much-ballyhooed billion dollar, class-action economic loss settlement. Toyota (!) "never determined that sudden acceleration was the reason her vehicle crashed." Never mind, of course, that '02-'06 Camrys have an exceptionally high rate of unintended acceleration complaints.
Talk about a racket.
BIG BUCKS for attorneys. CHUMP CHANGE AND BALD-FACED LIES for consumers, who never shoulda had to file lawsuits in the first place. Worse yet, much of Toyota's "settlement" money is earmarked for "safety research" that blames drivers for unintended acceleration. Settlements the "Toyota Way" cleverly promote the myth of driver error, while creating a database of misleading information that the Recall King can blabber about in future cases of runaway Toyotas.
It's about time consumers demanded a bit of fundamental fairness outta dishonest corporate slobs like Toyota, GM, and their government mouthpieces.
Update 4/18/2014 - The '05 Camry case referenced below targeted "tin whiskers" and software. No wonder the Recall King reached a settlement :-)
Update 4/17/2014 -
> This just in: "Attorney: Family of dead motorist, Toyota reach settlement in Flint sudden acceleration suit." As word of Dr. Leidecker's concern leaks out, Toyota is probably in a BIG hurry to settle as many lawsuits as possible involving '02-'06 Camrys. NHTSA, where are ya?
> Found some background on the above case. One of the victim's children summed things up quite well: "The 2005 Camry should have been one of the first ones to be in the recall," said Lilia Alberto. "How many more deaths do they want to have before they have to put it in the recall?"
> This 2/8/10 article shows that Toyota's electronic throttle control was blamed from the get go. "Eric Synder, a lawyer for the family, told the Times, 'We think Toyota has a safety problem with the electronic throttle control system in Camrys and other Toyota models."'
> One more background article - from 6/1/12 - aptly titled "Toyota Owners Forced to Continue Driving Ticking Time Bombs"
Update 4/15/2014 - A German firm has published some interesting revelations about tin whiskers: http://www.dguv.de/ifa/Praxishilfen/Zinnwhisker-auf-Leiterplatten/index-2.jsp
Thursday, April 3, 2014
March sales DOWN for Toyota brand cars
"Toyota brand cars, which make up nearly half of all company sales, saw a 2.9 percent drop to 103,888 units." (Not that mainstream media would bury this whoppin' one line disclosure, but to find it, ya gotta scroll down to about the 14th paragraph.)
I figured all was not well for the Recall King's March sales when I didn't see a barrage of blaring headlines about the numbers. Kinda embarrassin' - 'specially that 16 percent drop in Prius sales - for those who claimed the public wasn't payin' any attention to Toyota's recent guilty plea to a federal criminal charge, its admissions of wrongdoing, and the $1.2 billion payola to the feds lest things get even worse. If any model has made headlines regarding sudden unintended acceleration, it's the much ballyhooed Prius.
Despite mainstream media efforts to whitewash the Recall King, focus on floor mats, sticky gas pedals, and driver error - while ignoring electronic issues - the public may be catchin' on to the scam. As I emphasized in my immediately preceding post, word has leaked out about electronic issues. The Oklahoma case, where 150 feet of skid marks from the plaintiff's tires corroborated the findings of a world-renowned embedded systems expert and put the Recall King in settlement mode, has not been ignored. Michael Barr's peers continue to do a superb job of publishing his findings in trade journals, amidst support from bloggers and consumer advocates. The Internet can be a powerful tool for exposing facts. Mainstream media's news blackout didn't go as planned.
Not that everyone is now aware of Michael Barr's findings, but people are hearing about them, and government's mainstream media stooges - wary of egged faces - are nervously dropping inane hints about the involvement of electronics. Consumers may be starting to realize that Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Department of Justice are little more than mouthpieces for crooked corporations. Stay tuned as the gang faces further public scrutiny, not only about Toyota, but also GM.
As things now stand, informed consumers are more justified than ever before in not trusting Toyota and wondering if there's a problem in the Recall King's electronic throttle control. Nobody should be surprised that Toyota brand cars has suffered a decline in sales, especially since complaints of sudden unintended acceleration are continuing.
Frankly, I won't believe regulation of the auto industry has changed for the better until folks are reimbursed for all those engines that disintegrated in MR2 Spyders.
I figured all was not well for the Recall King's March sales when I didn't see a barrage of blaring headlines about the numbers. Kinda embarrassin' - 'specially that 16 percent drop in Prius sales - for those who claimed the public wasn't payin' any attention to Toyota's recent guilty plea to a federal criminal charge, its admissions of wrongdoing, and the $1.2 billion payola to the feds lest things get even worse. If any model has made headlines regarding sudden unintended acceleration, it's the much ballyhooed Prius.
Despite mainstream media efforts to whitewash the Recall King, focus on floor mats, sticky gas pedals, and driver error - while ignoring electronic issues - the public may be catchin' on to the scam. As I emphasized in my immediately preceding post, word has leaked out about electronic issues. The Oklahoma case, where 150 feet of skid marks from the plaintiff's tires corroborated the findings of a world-renowned embedded systems expert and put the Recall King in settlement mode, has not been ignored. Michael Barr's peers continue to do a superb job of publishing his findings in trade journals, amidst support from bloggers and consumer advocates. The Internet can be a powerful tool for exposing facts. Mainstream media's news blackout didn't go as planned.
Not that everyone is now aware of Michael Barr's findings, but people are hearing about them, and government's mainstream media stooges - wary of egged faces - are nervously dropping inane hints about the involvement of electronics. Consumers may be starting to realize that Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Department of Justice are little more than mouthpieces for crooked corporations. Stay tuned as the gang faces further public scrutiny, not only about Toyota, but also GM.
As things now stand, informed consumers are more justified than ever before in not trusting Toyota and wondering if there's a problem in the Recall King's electronic throttle control. Nobody should be surprised that Toyota brand cars has suffered a decline in sales, especially since complaints of sudden unintended acceleration are continuing.
Frankly, I won't believe regulation of the auto industry has changed for the better until folks are reimbursed for all those engines that disintegrated in MR2 Spyders.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
