Toyota just can't stand the truth. Now that some of the Recall King's lousy products and obscene attitudes toward customers has been exposed, there's an air of desperation as this sorry excuse for a business seeks to recapture those good ol' days when consumers were less wary of the brand. And mainstream media, from industry giants to those less notable, are rushing to Toyota's aid. Coverup is the name. Censorship is the game.
Things are really heatin' up now that Toyota has partnered with Subaru in an effort to produce another sports car. The last thing Toyota needs is publicity about all those MR2 Spyder engines that suddenly disintegrated and Toyota's determination to stonewall the matter hoping it would eventually go away. So what if customers lost - and continue to lose - thousands of dollars on engine replacements? So what if the things fall apart at speed in heavy traffic? "So what?" says the Recall King. We got a new effort goin' now. A new model we've been callin' the FT-86 which we're now callin' the GT 86 (Scion FR-S). Definitely the time to keep it quiet about all those engine failures in MR2 Spyders.
Just think of the embarrassment it would be if Toyota had to recall a whole slew of MR2 Spyders just when they're tryin' to introduce another sports car. Not to worry. Its mainstream media to the rescue. To begin with, I noticed a flurry of "articles" singin' the praises of the GT 86 (formerly FT-86) but no comments were permitted. One of those "articles" came via Bloomberg, and I sent an e-mail to the reporter and the editor expressing my displeasure. Then I noticed the same article had also appeared in Bloomberg's BusinessWeek section, comments were allowed, and a comment I submitted had been published. So I fired off apologies. But alas. I spoke too soon. Wouldn't ya know it? My comment was removed, and a second entry was also removed.
Apologies to Bloomberg retracted, but here's the deal. I really hit a nerve when I started commenting about the GT 86 and referencing engines disintegrating in MR2 Spyders. After a mere handful of auto news websites published my comments, visits to this blog literally soared, topping 85 hits almost immediately. That's the deal, and here's the question: Instead of censoring comments, why haven't mainstream media giants such as Bloomberg - not to mention Consumer Reports - exposed all those engine failures in MR2 Spyders?
Its time for Recall King Toyota and their cohorts in mainstream media to clean up their act.
Update 11/28/2011 - Facebook has blocked a link to this post from appearing in real-time Public Posts, and apparently Facebook is also playin' games with the excerpt from the article that ordinarily appears when links to articles are posted on one's page. The excerpt section was inoperable for this blog post, but still appeared for an article I drafted linking to another media source. Note also that real-time Public Posts on Facebook are searchable via other venues such as Openbook and Bing, so Facebook's censorship tactics in this regard are more sinister than one might think.
Monday, November 28, 2011
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