Toyota Boasted Savings $100 Million Dodging Recall

[OceanAnnie]

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/22/autos/toyota_subpoena/index.htm?hpt=Sbin

Toyota hit with a Grand Jury Subpoena

by Peter Valdes-Dapena, senior writerFebruary 22, 2010: 11:24 AM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Toyota said Monday it has received a federal grand jury subpoena for documents relating to the unintended acceleration of its vehicles and braking systems in the Toyota Prius.

The carmaker also received a request and a subpoena for similar documents from the Los Angeles office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The subpoenas and request were revealed in an SEC fililng.

Toyota (TM) has recalled more than 8 million vehicles related to possible unintended acceleration. The 2010 Toyota Prius was the subject of a separate recall involving problems with its brakes.

The federal grand jury subpoena was from the Southern District of New York. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District declined to comment on the matter, saying "It is our office's policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation."

Toyota intends to cooperate with the investigations, the automaker said in its filing.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda and other company executives are expected to testify in Washington on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee. The committee is looking into how the automaker and federal auto safety regulators dealt with concerns over unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

Internal documents leading up to the hearing show Toyota executives boasting of the cash saved by negotiating down the severity of the recall related to acceleration.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/21/autos/toyota_document/index.htm?postversion=2010022208

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I think a day of reckoning has come.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

This is pretty standard. Not saying that Toyota's management shouldn't be excoriated for this, just pointing out that it happens all the time. The manufacturer of your favorite things has probably done this, or something very much like it, at some point in the past...

 

[wdwfan16]

This is pretty standard. Not saying that Toyota's management shouldn't be excoriated for this, just pointing out that it happens all the time. The manufacturer of your favorite things has probably done this, or something very much like it, at some point in the past...

Sadly this is done all the time. They find that paying off X lawsuits is cheaper than making the repair.

That problem for Toyota is that they are trying to keep their image and the ones where they claim they did this recall on their own for safetly reasons. This proves that the later is not true and may tarnish the former.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Sadly this is done all the time. They find that paying off X lawsuits is cheaper than making the repair.

That problem for Toyota is that they are trying to keep their image and the ones where they claim they did this recall on their own for safetly reasons. This proves that the later is not true and may tarnish the former.

Yeah. Big disconnect.

 

[N.Bailey]

I found it highly disturbing that in Tennessee not too long ago, they charged an amusement park manager with murder (not manslaughter, homicide etc) after a woman fell from a roller coaster and plummeted to her death. I most definitely am not arguing the manager's negligence. He was absolutely at fault.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/12/earlyshow/main694728.shtml

But by that same standard (at least in Tennessee), how do those who assess the solution between paying out X amount in lawsuits vs. how much a recall would cost, not meet the same standard of murder, when they know deaths will ultimately result from those decisions? They are just as negligent, IMO. No they aren't, they are MORE negligent because they KNOW deaths will result if the issue isn't properly dealt with. Yet, this gives them a license to kill and if the courts are involved, it will be a civil matter rather than a criminal one. Is that justice?