Toyota, in Today's News 02.05.10

Toyota. Toyota's recall of 4.5 million vehicles because of sudden acceleration problems is like a dream come true for the leaders of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. They are thinking something like, 'at long last, comes an opportunity to pay Toyota back for taking away the American auto manufacturers' preeminence.' 

And so, GM and the others are pulling out all the stops to influence Washington to initiate all manner of investigations against Toyota. As a result, congressional investigators expanded their view of Toyota to include the new Prius hybrid. And lo and behold, Toyota announced a recall of 270,000 of the Prius.

The House Oversight Committee plans a hearing on Toyota's recalls which will focus on whether Toyota failed to properly deal with safety complaints.

Today's Wall Street Journal, page B5, "One Democratic lawmaker who will lead a congressional grilling of Toyota, Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan [read 'of the American auto industry'], predicts the Toyota hearing could surpass the Ford/Firestone uproar of a decade ago -- largely, he said, because Toyota appears to have dodged questions about problems with its accelerators for years." Gee, now where could he have gotten the idea to make the hearing a whiz-bang event?

Yep, there must be high-fives up and down the corridors in GM's and Ford's headquarters. But, it is dubious that all this manufactured concern will convince the American public that GM's vehicles are better quality than Toyota or other foreign brands.

The task before GM, especially, is to put together a vehicle that the American public will want. GM can't solve there declining sales by better promotion or by government-appointed new management or by jumping on Toyota. GM can only increase its sales by putting out a car that speaks for itself about good quality.