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Toyota’s Recall of 3.8 Million Vehicles Proves Point: Toyota Still Builds Quality

Next week, Toyota will issue the biggest U.S. recall in its history.

For floormats.

Not engine problems, not transmission failures… but floormats that don’t quite fit just right.

Granted, those floormats can interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause uncontrolled pedal-to-the-metal acceleration, but still the flaw is in the floormat.

As far as serious issues go, this one’s about as minor as it gets. The fix? Take out the driver’s side floormat. I’m guessing there won’t be a flood of appointments at Toyota service departments on this one.

Let’s compare Toyota’s latest recall with some other recalls this year:

In April, GM recalled 1.5 million vehicles because of the possibility of engine fires.

In February, Chrysler recalled 13,350 minivans for risk of fire in an electrical circuit.

Also in February, Ford recalled over 11,000 2009 Rangers because the wheels could fall off.

Toyota had some bad floormats.

toyota_recall_floormat If anyone questions Toyota’s quality these days, I’m thinking a quick look at this should be convincing enough to prove that the company is still building the most reliable cars on the road.

The models affected are:

2007-2010 Camry
2005-2010 Avalon
2004-2009 Prius
2005-2010 Tacoma
2007-2010 Tundra
2007-2010 ES 350
2006-2010 IS 250 and IS350

Now, in all seriousness, should you ever encounter a stuck accelerator pedal, Toyota provided some suggestions on what to do:

First, if it is possible and safe to do so, pull back the floor mat and dislodge it from the accelerator pedal; then pull over and stop the vehicle.
If the floor mat cannot be dislodged, then firmly and steadily step on the brake pedal with both feet. Do NOT pump the brake pedal repeatedly as this will increase the effort required to slow the vehicle.
Shift the transmission gear selector to the Neutral (N) position and use the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine.

What company do you think builds the most reliable cars? If you own a Toyota vehicle that’s part of the recall, have you ever experienced a stuck accelerator?

-tgriffith

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Another Take on NUMMI and the UAW

A Pontiac Vibe comes off the line at NUMMI

The significance of NUMMI’s closing is not what it will do to the California economy, the Detroit Free Press to the contrary notwithstanding. Come on, guys, 4,600 workers losing their jobs is an old story in the auto industry. California, even with its deteriorating economy, can absorb them a lot better than Michigan could.

What the Freep got right yet didn’t stress enough was the importance of NUMMI as a grand experiment that indeed worked well for a time:

On the manufacturing side, GM did sustain much of what it learned from Toyota in its Global Manufacturing System, a standardized set of practices that literally choreograph workers’ jobs to maximize efficiency, minimize physical movement and focus on using inventory only as needed.
NUMMI enhanced GM’s understanding of quality and provided small cars that people wanted. For NUMMI’s first six years, GM took more than half the factory’s output. Since 1996, however, GM has drawn no more than 21% of the plant’s vehicles and that number dipped as low as 12% as recently as 2007.

NUMMI’s decline was a function of GM’s decline and a long history of management failure that we all know too well.

Now my compadre tgriffith is positively gleeful at the plant’s closing and sees it as an opportunity to bash the UAW. In that, he’s like a lot of people who think the UAW brought on the recent auto industry debacle, or that without the union’s insatiable greed the industry would be healthy. Well, gang, if you believe that, I’ve got a tooth fairy just waiting to give you more Novocain.

UAW worker in happier times

The sad story of the trade-union movement in this country is well represented by the UAW, forced to sell out years ago to the auto industry and now, of all things, the major stockholder in Chrysler and second-largest owner of GM. The union, as one writer puts it, has been “corporatized.” Clearly, unions can’t protect workers’ jobs any more, or there wouldn’t have been a NUMMI closing.

I love union-bashers. They know next to nothing about labor history and are always eager to see unions as holding a gun to the head of the oppressed industrialists. In this case, let us remember that the UAW, for all the noise it makes, has not only collaborated with the industry at least since 1979, but has made continued and sizable concessions regarding wages, working conditions, union power and influence—you name it. They have given away the store to preserve their jobs. Now the jobs are leaving them.

To think the UAW “desperately wants to spread its empire and organize labor at other Asian automakers,” as tgriffith has it, is to indulge in fantasy. To think it has a “stranglehold on the domestics” is, well, hogwash. The UAW, for all intents and purposes, is a shell that now functions primarily to serve government and corporate interests.

What a far cry from the glorious (and terrifying) history of the 1930s, when the union fought the good fight to defend its people from persecution, physical abuse, and domination at the hands of the auto barons. This is not fiction: Sitdown strikes happened at Chrysler, Ford, and GM in 1937, and people got injured and killed. Then the union was indeed something to be reckoned with.

I don’t think unions have much chance of surviving. I worked at a large international trade union in the ‘90s, and what I saw didn’t inspire confidence. The UAW’s wage concessions in the last few years have put its people on a par with nonunion workers, and now, irony of ironies, they have at last become management.

If the unions go, will you be glad to see them go? Why or why not?

—jgoods

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This Weekend: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

1934 Packard V12 Coupe-Roadster

It’s way too late to get a reservation now. So instead, we’re going to show you photos of some gorgeous cars and point you to websites that show even more, plus give you a sense of what you’re missing. Events began on Wednesday and will continue through this Sunday, August 16.

Pebble Beach is perhaps the world’s greatest outdoor classic-car show. It’s for certified old-car lovers, but puts all kinds of notable new and old vehicles on display. You can even see the 2011 Infiniti M, which has caused quite a stir, unveiled “virtually” in a live broadcast from the Concours. There will also be an auction, driving events, historic cars racing at Laguna Seca, tours of Pebble Beach and Carmel, and more events and attractions listed here.

Porsche is the featured marque this year. So you’ll see the Panamera and can join the complainers in discussing the just completed VW takeover of the historic sports-car firm.

Two major websites will give you most of the info: this one for the Concours and this one for Monterey. Even if you can’t get there, here are some photos that may tempt you to make the trip next year.

Best of Show 2008: 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C-2900B Touring Berlinetta

Lamborghini Reventon

Best of Show 2007: 1935 Duesenberg SJ Speedster

(I don't know what these are - do you?)

Have you ever entered (or thought of entering) a car in a concours? Tell us about it.

—jgoods

The Winner in Overall Quality Is…

2009_ford_fiesta

Quick, name the carmaker with the best quality in the land.

Honda would be my first guess. Many (if not most) of you will probably say Toyota.

No one in their right mind would say Chrysler. A couple folks might mention GM, but they’d be crazy.

And there’s a growing number of diehards out there who swear Ford builds the highest quality vehicles available. Toyota and Honda loyalists would scoff at such absurdity, but apparently, it’s those Ford people who are right.

The source for that information, conveniently enough, is Ford’s own company blog, where they cite a survey by RDA Group of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either, but evidently its survey compared issues per 1,000 vehicles in the second quarter of 2009.

Ford’s results showed 1,185 issues per 1,000 vehicles.

I’ll give you a moment to read that again.

I don’t know about you, but I look at those numbers and think that’s a pretty sucky outcome. How can Ford come out on top of the survey when out of 1,000 vehicles, all of them had at least one problem? Sure doesn’t seem like anything to brag about.

The same study, though, revealed 1,215 problems for Toyota, while Honda had 1,291.

I admit that, out of the domestics, Ford appears to have the highest quality, most relevant product line, most innovative technology, and best designed cars available. I’m actually dang impressed by the company’s current position and future outlook. I’m not convinced, though, that the cars Ford’s building today will prove in the future to be as reliable as the machines coming out of Honda’s assembly plants.

For the sake of the U.S. auto industry, though, I really hope I’m wrong.

Do you believe Ford produces the highest quality vehicles available right now?

-tgriffith

Battle of the Hybrids Begins

We suspected it would happen, and it has: Toyota dropped its price on the 2010 Prius for the Japanese market after Honda’s Insight (left) became the country’s best-selling car. The Big H sold 10,481 of these 1.3-liter, CVT cars in April. Toyota claims 80,000 preorders for the Prius while marking it down $3,100 to bring it in line with the Honda. So it looks like we’ve got a price war brewing.

The Prius will go on sale in the U.S. in about two weeks at $21,750 MSRP, $1,000 cheaper than the 2009 model. Honda grabbed the edge in Japan because it basically copied the Prius, used a cheaper (some would say inferior) hybrid system, and jumped into a market hungry for cheap, fuel-efficient cars.

However, not everybody loves the Insight. Jeremy Clarkson crucified it, calling the car

terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.
The biggest problem, and it’s taken me a while to work this out, because all the other problems are so vast and so cancerous, is the gearbox. For reasons known only to itself, Honda has fitted the Insight with something called constantly variable transmission (CVT).
It doesn’t work. Put your foot down in a normal car and the revs climb in tandem with the speed. In a CVT car, the revs spool up quickly and then the speed rises to match them. It feels like the clutch is slipping. It feels horrid. And the sound is worse.

He goes on: That sound is like sitting “a dog on a ham slicer.” The car feels like it’s been “made from steel so thin, you could read through it.” And so on. The rant continues, with Jeremy properly questioning, I think, the whole hybrid mentality. In the quest for every last mile per gallon, have we overlooked the considerable costs of production? The battery problems? The fact that we can get comparable mileage from a Golf diesel that’s built better and performs better should give the tree-huggers pause.

And look at this dippy commercial from Toyota:

Sure, there are trade-offs in all this controversy, and some of this hybrid pie in the sky is being baked by the government. Ford today announced a partnership with Xcel Energy to bring 66 electrics and hybrids to the Twin Cities. The project would require federal stimulus money to set up charging stations.

Similarly, hybrid sales are being fueled by government incentives in Germany, France, China, and Japan—some in the form of clunker trade-in bonuses, which have happened in the U.K. and maybe will here. So some of this interest is coming from artificial demand and industry supports.

A buoyant view of our green, plug-in future was also part of Fritz Henderson’s pitch in his last press conference. “I promise you,” he said, “that we have new vehicles that will blow you away,” and he mentioned some. Well and good. Let’s hope GM doesn’t get blown away before they can produce them.

Would you consider buying a new Prius or Insight? Are you hot on the hybrid concept, or do you share some of our skepticism?

—jgoods

The 5 Sexiest (and Affordable) Cars

Our list of the 10 sexiest sports cars ever was a great way to fantasize about the kinds of cars most of us will never drive, much less ever own. Today we wanted to throw a little sexiness at you that might actually have potential to show up in your garage. Here are the 5 sexiest cars you could find and buy tomorrow:

Oh sure, you can easily drop a quick hundred grand on a brand-new one, but step back to 2002 and you can find your own 911 for the price of a new Honda Pilot! Even better, Porsche’s sleek, sexy curves don’t change that much over the years. Few cars, even those costing tens of thousands more, have a higher sexy factor than the 911.

Sometimes a car is sexy just because it’s fairly rare. Lucky for the Exige, she’s semi-rare and has looks that’ll give folks whiplash from the head-turning as you drive past at over 100 mph (on the track, of course). Add speed and gorgeous sheet metal to mid-20s fuel economy and a price around $30K, and the sexiness just oozes!

On first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking someone slapped a Toyota logo onto a 911. While it would never hang with a Porsche on a 0-60 run, at least the MR2 Spyder has the handling to make drivers look forward to twisty mountain roads. All this sexiness runs around $15K. Where else will you find a deal like that?

2004-lexus-rx330

What!? A luxury little sport-ute made the sexy list? You bet it did! On the outside she’s sleek and shiny with no shortage of bling. On the inside, though, is where this Lexus really seduces. Supple leather, ambient lighting, and a backseat perfect for… well, it’s big and comfortable!

2005_audi_tt

The TT is one of those cars that’s sexy mostly because her sisters are. It’s too bad she’s a little too heavy to enjoy full performance, but she still looks good and has a price under $20K, which is good enough to win a place on this list!

What’s the sexiest car you can pick up for less than $30,000?

-tgriffith

Geneva Auto Show: Expect new models even as sales plunge

Fiat 500 Cabrio

With the latest news about the continuing free-fall of auto sales, the Geneva Auto Show is happening at a time of definitive change in the worldwide auto industry.

Still, expect to see around 30 exciting world debuts, including the long-awaited Mercedes-Benz E-class coupe, Fiat’s 500 Cabriolet, Audi’s TT RS (with a stunning 2.5-liter, 300-hp turbocharged engine) and the BMW 5-series GT.

Porsche will show their new 911 GT3 and Cayenne diesel SUV.

Ford Ranger diesel

We’ll finally get a good look at the intriguing Aston Martin V12 Vantage, while Ford plans on showing their new European Ranger; which will offer fuel-efficient 2.5- and 3.0-liter turbo diesel engines.

Perhaps my early favorite is Maserati’s new GranTurismo S, which is equipped with a 4.7-liter V8 engine with a six-speed automatic transmission. iPod interface included.

If that’s not enough extravagance or luxury for you, keep an eye on the 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports, the 2.5-ton beast that’ll run to 60 in 3.6 seconds.

Yeah, the auto market stinks. But seeing new models and feeling the excitement that goes with them provides a glimmer of hope that things will turn out OK.

Are there any debuts at this year’s Geneva Auto Show that excite you?

-tgriffith

Get laid off, get a new car!

These guys could lose their jobs - and get rewarded with a new car

I’ve been laid off before, and no one ever gave me a car as a parting gift.

Heck, I’ve had to SELL my car after a layoff so I could balance my budget.

That’s why my reaction bordered on fury when I read this article, stating that most of GM’s hourly workers are being asked to leave the company in return for lucrative incentives. Ready for your blood to boil? Ready for fits of jealousy to take over your body? Ready to realize why GM is bankrupt?

The automaker will give most of its 62,000 U.S. hourly workers $20,000 to leave the company, as well as a voucher good toward the purchase of a GM car worth $25,000.

I’ll give you a second to read that again.

Yes, friends, that’s $2.8 billion GM is offering to employees who won’t even work there anymore. And they have the gall to ask the government, to ask U.S. taxpayers, to fund that? I can understand a company wanting to express gratutude to employees for a job well done, but seriously, hand out Starbucks cards and call it good.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to buy $25,000 cars for former GM employees. I’d love to buy MYSELF a $25,000 car, but that’s not a wise financial choice for me right now. I suppose that’s why I’m not bankrupt, though, and GM is.

Chrysler’s offer is even more astounding: $50,000 to virtually all of its 27,000 U.S. hourly workers, along with a voucher good for up to $25,000 on the purchase of a vehicle. Some employees could receive payments of up to $115,000 in addition to the voucher.

To tell you the truth, I’ve supported limited government funds to help the struggling automakers recover and rebuild. This news is changing my mind. If this is how they’re spending money, I’m out. Let them fend for themselves.

Do any of you readers know anyone receiving these lavish buyouts? If so, please send them my way; I want to keep an open mind and hope they can justify this, because right now I’m feeling like I don’t care if another new car ever rolls out of Detroit.

Do you support the autoworker buyouts, or do they outrage you?

-tgriffith

Lincoln Limos for the Chief

As we celebrate the birthday of our 16th president, Mr. Lincoln would be appalled to learn that Barack Obama rides in an overweight Cadillac called “the Beast.” The long tradition of Lincoln presidential limousines was broken in 1989 with Reagan and Bush the Elder. Cadillac has reigned since—probably because of Secret Service requirements, like rear-wheel or all-wheel drive, that Lincoln cars couldn’t fulfill.

The company was the first to provide specially built cars for presidents, beginning in 1939 with the “Sunshine Special” (above) used by FDR. Truman and Roosevelt used both this car and a 1942 limo (below), the first with protective armor, and Truman’s later transport was a 1950 Lincoln which looked pretty ridiculous with the bubble top in place. Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson used it too.

The 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible (later given a top) was the car in which President Kennedy was shot. This is the most affecting ( I shudder to say “popular”) of all the presidential limos because of that event and the car’s beauty and style. We associate it to an era, and its classic lines convey power and confidence.

Lincoln created a totally new car in 1969 (above) which was used by Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, and did so again in 1972 (below). That limo remained in service for more than 10 years.

Then the 1989 car, last of the Lincolns, was used in the Reagan and Bush years. Note the two presidential seals inside, as if the occupants had to be reminded whose car this was.

The Lincoln presidential limousine history is well told here, and you can buy some nice die-cast models here.

Which of these would you like to have for your ride?

—jgoods

Exports, Imports, and Bringing It All Back Home

It might be a great time for U.S. car companies to think about the export business. That is, if any importing countries have money to buy. It’s an even better time for them—Ford and GM in particular—to start thinking about importing the good, fuel-efficient cars they already produce in Europe. Why not Mondeos and Opels for us in the U.S.?

Mondeo

Why, you may ask, can’t the successful European cars simply be imported and rebadged here for our consumption? The main obstacle seems to be our regulatory, safety, and emission standards which vary, sometimes in minor details, from the European rules and from state to state. Certification here is expensive, and the red tape extensive. In a time of crisis, one might think, the government should be able to set aside some of these barriers.

The other alternative is to make them here. Ford has been working hard to get its next-gen small cars here and retooling its truck plants here and in Canada. Cars like the Mondeo, which won the European Car of the Year award, are better built than our counterparts and better suited to the burgeoning U.S. market for smaller, more efficient Euro-styled cars. In fact, we hear the Mondeo will provide the platform for the new Fusion, plus other Ford, Mercury and Lincoln products.

Ford also has a successful recent history of exporting its cars to China, namely the Escape and the Lincoln Navigator, as well as the Mondeo, S-Max and the Transit. Ford Motor China sold over 90,000 vehicles there last year, 47% more than in 2007. Chrysler? Forget it.

Buick Regal Née Opel Insignia

So Ford has gotten the message and recently decided, as we reported, to import the new Fiesta, a good car that Chrysler and GM can’t match with their product lines.

What is GM doing? Well, with the convoluted genius that only this company can muster, they are rebadging their award-winning Opel Insignia and sending it to China as a Buick Regal. We know the Chinese love Buicks, so it’s another excuse for GM to indulge its addiction to rebranding and rebadging. They now have a product line of maybe 9 cars with 180 names. The Insignia may also be coming here as the Saturn Aura (if Saturn is still in existence).

If this administration really believes in the global marketplace, now would be the time to ease the overly fussy restrictions on imports and provide incentives for exporting our cars to China, India, and wherever the market will take them. Yes, we can.

Which of the Big Three’s cars currently available overseas would you consider purchasing if it went on sale in the U.S.?

—jgoods

Hydrogen, natural gas and ethanol (in its many forms) are top contenders ...

Grow corn for food or fuel?

Oil prices are in a free fall right now.

While it’s a refreshing change at the fuel pump, it’s not a free pass to forget about alternate fuel sources. Hydrogen, natural gas and ethanol (in its many forms) are top contenders right now.

We’ve all heard about the much hyped Honda GX and FCX Clarity, the company’s dip into natural gas and hydrogen-powered vehicles. What’s a little less known is their work on ethanol-powered vehicles.

In 2006, Honda announced that they’d be releasing vehicles in Brazil able to run on either gasoline or a 100% bioethanol, derived from sugar cane.

Ethanol as a fuel source is nothing new. For a number of years now, Ford has offered vehicles with a cute little leaf icon on the front fender, symbolizing that the vehicle can run on E85, a corn-based ethanol fuel. There’s been a pretty heavy PR push behind that leaf, but it seems a pitiful attempt at claiming to be at the forefront of the alternative fuel race.

The controversy with E85 is that it means growing corn for fuel rather than food, resulting in soaring prices. Plus, E85 delivers fuel economy that’s about 30% less than gasoline. (Honda’s ethanol vehicles deliver equal MPG to gas.)

Compare with Honda, who has stepped up and brought hydrogen, natural gas, hybrid and bioethanol to the table. The U.S. automakers have given us: corn.

It’s tragic, really. I’d like to see ethanol as a fuel source abandoned, and focus our collective resources on more promising long term solutions, such as hydrogen and electricity.

Have you driven an E85 vehicle? What do you think?

-tgriffith

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