W Post: Data: Toyota drivers experience more runaway acceleration than owners of other vehicles!

[Omaha Steve]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2010/03/data_toyota_drivers_experience.html

By Frank Ahrens | March 16, 2010; 11:49 AM ET

Speaking about Toyota on MSNBC last Saturday, I said that I was going to spend at least part of this week looking into complaints about runaway acceleration in non-Toyota vehicles, to see whether Toyota's problems were atypical.

Well, auto-research site Edmunds.com beat me to it.

Writing in an op-ed in today's Post, which you can read by clicking here, Edmunds.com chief executive Jeremy Anwyl describes his staff's one-by-one investigation of the more than 52,000 complaints filed at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2005.



The NHTSA site, Safercar.gov, is where drivers can file complaints about their vehicles and search complaints filed by others.

Anwyl writes:

"The database, with more than 760,000 records, is, simply put, a mess. After reading each complaint since model-year 2005, we found that 30 percent of the original complaints were miscategorized; more than 26 percent were duplicates; and hundreds were not complaints but merely comments or suggestions."

FULL story at link.

[Myrina]

1. Echoes of the early 80's: down with those Jap Cars! Buy American!

... oh and by the way, those American car companies could REALLY use your business right about now because the ones that are left are circling the drain in a most hasty fashion.

Coincidence? :tinfoilhat:

[Omaha Steve]

2. The American taxpayer could use the business

Since we own 60% of GM now, and close to that with Chrysler. Glad GM is so low on the list above. I bought a 2009 Cobalt with the Cash for Clunker program. Marta got an Equinox last year. We knew the USA stood behind the warranties etc.

And if you check, you will find Chevy can't make the Cobalt or Equinox fast enough. Workers getting called back is a good thing, yes?

[divideandconquer]

4. The US government owns 8% of chrysler and the canadian government 2%

<http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31738>

[Myrina]

5. It's a very good thing, its just very coincidental.

:shrug: Just pointing that out ...

[divideandconquer]

3. Today's American cars are at least as good as japanese cars, why insult them?

Toyota has been making a bad product lately, many of their employees admit it and there is all sorts of statistical evidence, why take a gratuitous swipe at improving US automakers, mostly your fellow citizens?