Toyota Spinning Out Of Control
It is no secret that our economy is in trouble. This is even more true if you are with the automobile industry.
I had thirty five years of service with Ford Motor Company before I retired back in March of 2007. Quality was not the most important issue back in 1972, when I hired in at Ford. We didn’t have a lot of competition back then and we were more concerned about how many vehicles we were getting out the door.
When the oil producing nations hit us with the oil embargo, many of us were laid off for a long time. I had a lot of my friends that never got called back to work. Fortunately I was called back after a short lay-off.
People were starting to think about saving money. The Japanese introduced their very funny looking cars, but they were cars that were very fuel efficient. As more and more of their vehicles were being sold, the, “Made in Japan”, joke that was passed around was not getting to much laughter anymore. This competition was going to change the whole auto industry forever.
Competition will always create a stronger market. It certainly did with Ford. We had to start taking a longer look at, not only our fuel efficiency, but the quality of the vehicles that we were producing.
I was given the opportunity, with about thirty other Ford employees to go to visit the Mazda Plant in Hiroshima, Japan. It is a part of my life that I will never forget. The Japanese people and the employees of Mazda were the most gracious hosts. I love the people and the country of Japan, and would very much love to go back and visit it again someday.
As we toured the plant, there was an area where the vehicles came off the end of the line and went to a repair area before final shipment. We had this at all out Ford facilities also. We asked if we good go in and see the area, and we were told that it was off limits for us. They said that it was an area where they got the vehicles ready for shipment and there were no repairs needed. Their cars went straight off the line and out the door. We knew better than that. They had repairs.They just didn’t want us to see.
When I look back at my thirty five years of service with Ford Motor Company, we went through a lot of changes and I have to say that when I left we were producing some of the finest quality vehicles on the planet. I would put us up against anything that the Japanese had to offer. What used to rile me to no end, was whenever Ford, Chrysler, or GM had an issue with one of their cars, it was front page news all the time. We took our hits and we made them better. Not so with Toyota.
Many of my family and friends own vehicles from Japanese automakers. We would go around and around on how the Japanese build their cars just like we do and have repairs just like we do. A lot of this way of thinking was fueled by our own news media. They were no different then us, except we own up to our mistakes. They would like you to believe that they don’t have any.
I always felt that the Japanese automakers had our news media on their side. Every time an American car company had an issue with a vehicle, it was always front page news. Not so with the Japanese. You would find their story on the back page, if you found it at all.
Toyota’s day finally arrives. They can’t hide anymore. They are not just having a problem with the accelerator sticking, now it is a brake problem with the very popular Prius. It’s not all the problems that I am upset with, it’s how they are handling it. They aren’t just coming out and taking care of their customers. They had to be dragged out into the open before they would even acknowledge that they had an issue. Now their are problems with the steering. Has there been some type of cover up on some of these issues?
I for one, don’t feel sorry for them one bit. Nor for any of those people who bought their cars. After all they are better built cars…. right? It’s OK. Toyota said you can still drive their cars…. right? It may be until fall before they can fix yours, but don’t worry. Nothing is going to happen to you. You won’t crash your car…. right? You won’t die or injure anyone….. right? No……that won’t happen to me?
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