Today, a very telling piece in the New York Times detailed how Toyota, time and again, was able push past potential safety problems even when confronted by U.S. regulators. Documents released by Toyota describe how the company negotiated with American regulators in order to achieve outcomes more favorable to the company. As a consumer, this upsets me big time. However, from the corporation's point of view, being able to work over regulators is big plus in terms of cost savings and public relations. However, I have to ask why did regulators fail? More importantly, why did regulators let Toyota push past them? In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, congressional representatives questioned the competency of regulators at the the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. I too am questioning their competency.
Internal company documents show that Toyota executives expected the NHTSA to become "more sensitive to public/Congressional criticism, resulting in more
investigations and more forced recalls." In 2007, the NHTSA considered a wide-scale investigation into reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. However, when Toyota questioned the merits of a wider investigation, the government backed down. The point of regulation is to protect the consumer and the public from practices that harm safety, competition, and choice for consumers.
At the same time in 2007, Toyota negotiated with the government for a smaller, optional recall. Company documents show Toyota saved as much as $100 million dollars through this type of recall. This recall also allowed Toyota to claim there was no defect in their vehicles.
Even after the Obama administration took over, Toyota claims the transportation department focused more on legal rather than engineering officials in regards to Toyota complaints. This occurred even as the company expected a tougher and "more challenging" regulatory environment from the Obama administration.
Time and time again, Toyota documents show the company "secured safety rulemaking favorable to Toyota." Considering that safety rules favorable to companies are not usually favorable to consumers, Toyota most likely saved a lot more than $100 million dollars. In fact, we know they saved more than that because from 1995-2004 Toyota was able to avoid investigations in Tacoma pickup trucks that had rust problems. The NY Times reports that the Toyota documents also show that the company "said it had saved millions of dollars by delaying federal safety rules
affecting other models." All of this, while federal regulators sat by and did not do a thing.
Olivia Alair, a transportation department spokeswoman, said, "Unfortunately, this document is very telling. We're going to hold Toyota's feet to the fire and make sure they do
what's necessary." Really? We are going to hold Toyota's feet the fire? Well, I guess it is about time to since the fire is already on its way out.
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Tags: auto, automotive, car, government, government regulators, recall, regulation, regulators, toyota
See this is the very kind of dumb shit those teabagging assholes are cosigning EVERY time the talk about "BIG government' A smaller government would be less able to look into shit like this. Thank Ronald Raygun. SPinack Kills! Oh and peep this, when they start that shit about tort reform, this is the kind of shit they are selling.