Mar
10
2010
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse for Toyota, on Monday a 61 year old driver in California underwent the harrowing experience of his Prius hybrid accelerating uncontrollably and nearly crashing.
According to reports, the driver called 911 and got a police officer to drive next to him, calling out instructions on the [...]
Read the Full Post
Mar
03
2010
Well, it is no big surprise that Toyota’s sales dropped pretty steeply in February (for Toyota a 9% fall is like going over the proverbial cliff). The company continues to battle with the flood of negative publicity about the safety of its cars and, more devastatingly, the alleged cover up by Toyota in dealing with [...]
Read the Full Post
Feb
21
2010
On a recent business trip I picked up the latest Car and Driver magazine to get my monthly car guy fix. I usually don’t read the editorials in any of these car mags because they tend to say the same tedious things.Typically that includes a memoir of driving the newest Lamborghini on the Autostrada, or [...]
Read the Full Post
Feb
17
2010
I am in New York this evening and was watching the Olympics at an Irish bar near my Midtown East hotel. On came a Toyota ad, which amazed me with its tagline:
Moving Forward
Now, I have seen that Toyota campaign tagline before. But, I never viewed it with the context that we all have now — [...]
Read the Full Post
Feb
17
2010
The news is out today that Toyota is undertaking a series of quality and safety measures to fix the systemic problems brought glaringly to light because of the company’s recent massive recall and resulting brand crisis.
As reported in Ad Age today, the steps include appointing regional quality officers, relying on an onboard "black box" to [...]
Read the Full Post