Canadians not scared off by Toyota recall

Canadians are not as susceptible to media (political) propaganda. Now it's not all just propaganda, clearly there are some problems with some of Toyota's vehicles. Which Auto maker does not encounter these issues? It just so happens that generally speaking Toyota's quality exceeds everyone else's, readily and repeatedly - historically.

I drive a Toyota. I absolutely love it. There have been Toyotas in my family for many decades. Everyone I know that drives a Toyota/Lexus absolutely loves it.

I will buy a Toyota in the morning.

Mostly news hype down in the USA. They're taking this opportunity to blow Toyota's problems out of proportion, due to the American car industry's financial problems.
People don't remember all the Big Three recalls very well do they? Like SUV Rollovers , Exploding gas tanks (Pinto), Engine mounts coming apart and jamming the accelerator on full (GM), Automatic transmissions jumping out of Park into Reverse and running you over (Ford). Some of those recalls killed hundreds of people over many years.
Toyota appears to be serious about tackling the problem. . .

I think Nigel and Joe really hit it out of the park with this one. What company doesn't have re-calls?

The American/Canadian gov't in their witch hunt kangaroo court/ congress are really going out of their way to so call; protect people. Please! Sell that crap to the tourists or the naive.

I don't drive a Toyota but they are wonderful cars from what I hear. extremely reliable and have amazing re-sale value. Over-hyped nonsense and I'm glad the smear campaign didn't work? What's the alternative? buy a Gov't motors car(GM) no thanks.....I'd rather drive a Toyota without brakes.

I've only owned Honda, Toyota's since 2000 and by far they have a better product than any North American Product. GM just had ANOTHER recall....but oh no....lets just focus on Toyota!. In my opinion anyone who bad mot=uths the japanese cars are die hard Big Three owners that haven't owned a Japenese Auto. Note: Before 2000 I only owned North American auto and in my opinion they are nothing but JUNK!!!

Presently I do not own a Toyota but have purchased many over the years and I have too say lets get real this happened to Toyota maybe one other time in the last 40yrs and if it did I do not remember while GM, Ford and Chrysler have recalls every other year. Toyota still has the better product.

I own a toyota and before that I only owned GM vehicles. Hands down, toyota is by far the best vehicle and least costly maintainance as well.
Incidentally, I have a friend who is a mechanic. The reason he doesn't promote the toyota vehicles is because he can't make enough money on their maintenance. Interesting??

Lost your job yet?
Keep buying imports.
Yes people are employed in the Americas making these cars but the profits are exported.

Someone remind me....which car companies did the government just dump a whole lot of money into? ;) And now they are making a big deal out of Toyota! Is the government invested in Toyota? Oh ya...Toyota didn't need a bail out!

I is to bad that Toyota has had some major problems..... But I would buy a Toyota still any day over a GM vehicle. Its a shame that a couple of recalls would make people think twice. But you know what they say, " nobody ever recognizes the good in something, the minuite something bad happens it the end of the world and you hear about it".

Does anyone comment and talk about the fact that GM uses cheap off shore plastic parts to build their vehicles, they break easier. Dexcool antifreeze that will eat the aluminum parts and gaskets inside the motor, causing thousands of dollars in repairs that you have to pay for cause GM insists it is not and should not be a recall item, and there is nothing wrong.HMMMM

I would still buy a Toyota. But even that said all the manufactures should leave things alone. The whole electronic throttle that all companies use now days is garbage, there was nothing wrong with the throttle cable it has been used for 100 years.

You people are all morons, Japanese automakers do not I repeat DO NOT ever do recalls. They only do so when they are forced by your government or about to be forced by your government to issue a recall. They lied about the floor mats so that they can save $100 million. This is a company that makes over $1 billion US a month profit. Yes a month every month and can't find themselves spending $100 million to fix their product. Japanese only do service advisories and if you don't bring your car for service there then you don't get it. For example, a friend of mine recently bought a Nissan. He has gone in for warranty repairs twice. Both time he was told that there was a new recall on the car. Of course there was nothing in the media and he was really upset because on both occasions he did not receive any notice in the mail.

Besides jobs what else do they provide to North Americans? They have almost no engineers, with Toyota at least and maybe the rest of them as well, all the big shops are Japanese (as in from Japan born and raised). In 2009 they pulled out of the car show in Detroit because of lost car sales resulting in job losses to people who would have been working there.

One of Toyota's goals is to make Japan rich. During the down turn in Japan many foreigners were laid off. They were then offered $500 and a one way flight back to whatever country they came from and not allowed to come back for a minimum specified time so that they would not be a drain on the Japan government. Nice, come here and help us become rich but get out when you are not working. One cannot become a Japanese citizen (something about keeping Japan pure).
In Canada GM donates $1 million a year to and automotive engineering program to a local college even thought they have been losing money for years.
World aid? They donate next to nothing whenever a disaster strikes when compared to what other North American and European nations give.
Did you know that the Japanese own many of the biggest properties? In Toronto Canada, they own most of the office towers. They did this with our money. So now they have another revenue stream from us.
Every dollar that leave our country is bad news. Industry is what built North America. If you look at all the successful countries, they either have locally owned auto manufactures or a shit load of oil.
Listen folks, what I’m trying to say is that American made cars are not the crap that people think they
are.
I have never owned an import but from listening to what people say, that they are very good but I also know people that have owned Honda’s and other makes that say they are crap. I have owned 1 Ford and 3 GM’s and yes they break down every once in a while but I don’t believe for a minute that Japanese cars never break down. Since American cars can be $10,000 or more cheaper than the imports, this gives you some spending money if needed for repairs.
This is about our standard of living. Your children’s standard of living. Once all these good paying jobs are gone and we become poor these manufactures will leave. We have helped them build their factories educated their kids in our backyard. Soon there will be nobody in North America that has the experience and knowledge to build modern factories and I don’t think that the Asians will be so eager to come here and show us. I don’t think that as we begin to fall behind in advancements in technology and medicine that they will be very eager to have our kids in their school.
Every dollar you believe you are saving by purchasing foreign will cost all of us thousands in the future.

Ken, maybe WE should change OUR attitudes then??
One key line you said was "American cars can be 10,000 cheaper than the imports, this gives you more spending money for repairs." I"m in my mid-40's...noone I know wants to be bothered anymore with the many repairs of GM products. That takes time out of our already very busy weekends. It's that simple.
Now Ken, OUR country MUST learn to change their attitude in the workplace. Be willing to learn, work hard and maybe take a few lessons from toyota...which inicidentally, they might be doing.
My key point to north americans in general though is...we definitely need some attitude changes.

Ken, I worked for a company that made parts for Toyota and GM, we halted production and reworked 100,000 vehicles because of a part we thought *may* cause a problem, cost millions of dollars to airlift parts to NUMMI. We had a huge quality difference between parts, the rule was "If Toyota wont take it GM will", we as employees seen the safety concern with one part, the outer shell that was visible to the customer was completely fine, turn it around and it was short short (missing pieces) and had a piece that could potential block a vital part. GM did not care, they sent their quality control person to look at them and they told us that they would take them anyway (if not they would have had to of used all their safety stock while out mold was out for repair). We ended up running our blades over EVERY SINGLE PART to damage the outer shells so they would have to be rejected. The mold was sent out, we scraped 8000 parts that GM said were "good" and were willing to use and they had no chose to clean out their safety stock as while as ours (it was out for 2.5wks). After that they demanded we, the employees who damaged their parts, were punished, we never were our supervisors and plant manager agree with what we did. Those parts could have KILLED someone, Toyota seen it and so did we but they did not care!

If you want to be technical the part that is being replaced in all their vehicles were NOT Toyota made, a lot of the accelerator pedals were made in MISSISSAUGA, yet instead of pulling a Ford and blaming this company for the problem and threatening to pull the contract they are working with them and taking the blame! Remember when Ford had the tires blowing up and spent more time blaming it on GoodYear? Instead of playing the petty game of pass the blame Toyota took the blame and is working to fix it!

Tracy, A pretty intersting tale. Toyota and GM parts are interchangable now?

Tracy, I'm not sure now but in the past I have seen GM parts is the Toyota Avalon. The parts were clearly labeled as GM complete with the logo. As far as your story goes it’s hard to believe but not impossible but Toyota has been hiding information regarding their own rollovers. I found out today the Toyota is recall the Yaris in Canada not sure about the U.S. With the exception for the Ford/Goodyear recall, this is the only time that I can remember that a company is naming the supplier that provided the defective part. Is this an attempt to say that it’s not their fault. GM has a recall now and I don’t believe they are pointing fingers. I never really followed the Ford recall but from what I remember, they were blaming each other. Not sure how it all worked out in the end but in my opinion Ford should have replaced the tires and sued Goodyear if it truly was their fault.
Your last statement about Toyota accepting blame is wrong. They tried to blame the floor mats thinking that we are all stupid and then they were all happy that they saved $100million.
Anyways, my point is this as follows:
1. I don’t believe that Japanese cars are so much better then Americans.
2. My opinion has always been that they don’t do recalls because it tarnishes their brand so they do service advisories and secret warranties. I am wondering why is it that Honda and Nissan are also falling over themselves with recalls. Are they also worried about lawsuits?
3. And this is maybe the most important reason; the future prosperity of our nation is at stake with billions going to Japan, and billions more to China and India and lets not forget the middle east and Mexico; we need to stop the bleeding now.
I could go on but.....

Lisa, I’m in my 40’s as well and have 2 young kids. I drive almost 100km a day to and from work. I cannot afford (time and money) to have my car in the shop (we only have 1 car). I had no problem replacing my Chevy with another Chevy last year(the other one killed a BMW and was written off).

Ken, you might want to dig a little deeper into your facts. The floormat issue was in fact a problem with consumers not hooking their floor mat into the little hook to hold it in place. The floor mat would then ride up as they moved in and out of the vehicle. Make something idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.

As for the claim the big three are supporting america more than the imports, not quite. How many plants did they close during the whole bankruptcy thing in the US and Canada? I don't recall the numbers but it was quite a few. I do know how many they closed in Mexico. Zero. In fact, they're currently opening more plants in Mexico because it's cheaper for them. The big three don't care about where the cars and parts are made, just how much profit they can make from them.

Man, there are some good points being made in this blog.
To Ken Porter: So you are trying to say at this point that GM actually IS as good as a toyota, right?
I hope I have that right. I had ONLY GM vehicles for 25 years, simply because I had a relative who could fix them. They DID need a fair bit of attention. I didn't mind at the time, but now that relative is dead, so what am I supposed to do? I decided to try a toyota, and low and behold, my experience is lower maintenance. I don't know what toyota is doing right, but they are doing something right.
Ken you also mentioned lawsuits. As far as that goes, YES I believe that alot is done in every sector of society because companies are scared of lawsuits. I can't say I blame them. These days, people are "sue happy."
I think someone else made a great point...companies (people within the companies) should start taking responsibility for their own actions. This always brings me back to...are we adults here?
The other thing is, (and I"m thinking about toyota floormats right now), DON'T sweat the small stuff people! Floormats are NOT a big deal. (Brakes, now THAT I would worry about.)
Ken, (another Ken, I believe) or anyone else so worried about losing our jobs to other countries...do you realize that if we become responsible HERE and make a great products HERE, and quit bitching about wages, etc...maybe companies will want to stay HERE.
Anyway, it always comes back to...be a responsibile adult...it really shouldn't be that hard.

Ken, those plants were closed to reduce capacity, no point in making cars if nobody is going to buy them. As far as Mexico goes; I don't agree with it and it should be stopped however, at least the profits come back here and not somewhere else. Which brings me to another point, GM and Ford have sold cars in many countries around the world and in many of these countries they have built factories giving local employment. Yes I know Japan has as well but the rest of the imports from wherever they come from for the most part have not. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Floor mat clips???? I’m owned 4 cars and never seen any and never have had a problem with the mats riding up????? This includes aftermarket mats.
If I’m wrong please feel free to enlighten me…

Many vehicles, including my dodge truck, have a little hole in the floor mat, and a hook on the floor to place in the hole to keep it in place. It's typically on the driver side only. But this was my point, you brought up the floor mat issue without knowing all the details.

If the plants were closed simply because of decreased demand, why are they now opening new ones in Mexico instead of US and Canada? Toyota is currently the largest seller of Canadian made vehicles in Canada. That means there are more toyotas built in Canada than any other make.

And the profits aren't coming back here, unless you consider it coming back here when it's going into the pockets of a bunch of morons who drove their businesses into the ground, blackmailed goverments to give them money, and fired thousands of hard working people so they could keep their multi-million dollar salaries. Toyota and the others have headquarters here too. Don't use that as your guide for where the cash is going. In fact, most of the cash GM is making is probably (I said probably) going overseas because those are the markets they're aggressively trying to expand.

They all have there problems, every manufacturer has had big recalls. Now it's just Toyota's turn. I buy what I can afford and like. I have owned over 48 cars in my life so far, and have had at least 1 car from every company...even AMC lol. they all had something that the company just couldn't do right. Remember when Jap cars first got here? U couldn't wash them or they would rust right in front of your eyes, who cares how good the drivetrain was if the body couldn't last 5 years lol. in they last 10 years they have gone along way to fixing that. in the last 10 years the big 3 have made major strides in having better drivetrains. but like everything there are lemons. hopefully this decade will see much better cars all around. and nothing like the crap like they had in the 90's.

OK Ken, I'm not sure about this hook because I have never had a car with one (I will check my new car when I finish working). Just spoke to a good friend of mine who happens to own a 2009 Camry and he said that there is a hook so I stand corrected. By the way his first car was the 1996 Grand Am that was a daily rental before. According to what he said it was a much better car with fewer problems than this one has been in its first year. He also does not like the ride much. I am not sure that they are opening new factories in Mexico or expanding existing ones (makes no difference really). I agree with most of what you are saying but the profits that Toyota makes in Canada goes to Japan, not the U.S. and not Canada that’s for sure. As far as GM is using money to expand overseas; what’s wrong with that. I think that I read something about GM selling more cars in China last month than in the USA. There must be some profit coming back from that? What about the value of the good will that the local communities get from them being here?
John, you are right about all cars having their problems, I feel the difference is that the Americans generally don’t hesitate to do a recall and the imports don’t, this makes the perception that their cars are better. I have no memory of recalls from the Koreans or Germans either. Also at one time (mid 90’s) GM outsold Honda 5 cars to 1. If 1 car out of every 100 is garbage, then logically the perception would be that GM makes crap.
Guys, I think that where I’m going with this is that we need local manufactures with local suppliers provide local job and giving back to the local community. It is my belief that when North America is not buying many cars that most of the imports will abandon the market leaving us with nothing. By then we would not have the money or the knowledge to start over again. What made this part of the world great was manufacturing. Those crooks in Detroit should be kicked out and the business fixed. Ford is doing well but nobody will give them a chance. All the greatest nations have and a thriving auto and aerospace industry. The rest sit on oil? What are we going to have…..