Toyota Recall, Reminds US Ford Is Number One

I felt bad the first time I bought a car that wasn’t made here in the US of A. But in 1999 I did and it was a Toyota. Maybe I was just tired of the high repair bills, or that everywhere I seemed to turn there was someone driving a Toyota or a Honda. Telling me how wonderfully made they were. I always vowed that no way would I drive a foreign made car. But the more I would read about American cars, the more I found out how much of it was made somewhere else but the US.

Well I got my Tundra and I was proud of it, drove well, ate gas like a hog, but that was well before crude oil jumped so high that we were paying $4 a gallon for gas. I also felt I did right because it was practically all built right here and in Canada. So when the gas bill got as high as heating my house,  I sold it and got my wife a new car and I ended up driving her old Chrysler. (I best not say old, because she has been driving like a champ.) American too, well was.

I can’t say it hurt my feelings when I heard that Toyota had this huge recall and how so many cars were put at risk. Sorry I just can’t by it when a car company tells me they are recalling a problem vehicle because of the safety of the driver.

Hell,  most car companies have what they call a Risk Assessment study done on cars that have faults in them and what that comes down to is this: If it cost more to recall and fix the problem as compared to how many people would be injured or killed because of the problem, whichever was cheaper is how they would proceed.

Basically your daughter or grand fathers life is worth so much and these huge car companies would rather pay to settle a death law suit then pay for the fix. IN this case we are talking a fucking gas pedal.  Sorry you 4 dead people in the Lexus that lost your life, because that was attributed to floor mats.   So you can’t tell me Toyota just decided this past week to recall cars that date as far back as 2005 that had these problems. Their too damn smart not to know they had a problem, but I am sure the risk assessment said keep them on selling them. I might also inject, all car makers do this assessment, not just foreign companies.

Let’s face it the last two decades have been hard on the US automakers and most if not all of it was their own damn fault. But to see the Japanese giant take a step back and bow their heads doesn’t bother me one damn bit. I am sure they felt bad for GM and Chrysler and Saturn and on and on as they fell by the wayside.

So I will be sitting right here now, as I see good news for good old Ford, seeing how their stock has been rising and their innovation finally taking off. But what drove it home more then anything else was this little commercial they put out. Not sure when it was but it made me damn proud. Thanks Ford I am sure it’s been a long time since you heard those words. Please watch:

FORD MADE QUALITY JOB ONE

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Posted by Glenn on Feb 1 2010 Filed under HEALTH, MONEY, NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry