TOYOTA RECALLS A HOAX?

Wouldn’t it be something if it came to pass that Toyotas don’t have a safety problem at all? I don’t know that to be a fact, but I also don’t know it not to be. Logic 101 teaches us that it’s impossible to prove a negative.

Try to follow me on this. To clarify my first sentence, what I should say is maybe Toyotas don’t have any greater safety problem than any other car (and probably fewer than most). There are no perfectly safe cars, just as there are no perfectly safe ladders or baby cribs. There are only safer and less safe. One reason I say that is because there has not been one proven incident of an injury from a sudden acceleration because of a defective Toyota. In fact, there has not been one proven incidence of a sudden acceleration even without an injury. The last I heard, in America, we are innocent until proven guilty. Why doesn’t this apply to Toyota? There have been plenty of lawsuits filed, but not a single lawsuit won on this issue.

Now that the media feeding frenzy has begun to subside because there are more interesting issues like Tiger Woods’ apology, a whale eating her trainer, and the Oscar Awards, some of the truth is beginning to surface on the back pages. Did you read that in the ABC TV exposé (the driving engine behind much of the media assault) that they faked the tachometer which was shown to be revving to scarily high rpm’s? When ABC got caught on this they said that the real tachometer was “shaking” too much so they just filmed one that was in a stopped car while somebody stood on the accelerator.

Or have you read the reports by testing labs who examined Dr. Gilbert’s Congressional testimony about how he had caused a Toyota to suddenly accelerate by simulating certain conditions with the electronic throttle control? If you would like to see one of these, click on my website, http://www.earlstewarttoyota.com/. Then click on “Toyota Recall Info” in the top left of your screen. Once you view this video, you will fully understand why this allegation that defective electronic throttle controls are defective is a hoax.

There is no real evidence that Toyota has built unsafe cars, only anecdotal allegations by people with a variety of reasons for what they say. People accidentally step on the accelerator and the brake at the same time. They even accidentally step on the accelerator instead of the brake sometimes. How often do we read or see on the news how somebody drove their Lincoln, Cadillac, or Buick through the plate glass window at the 7-Eleven or Hair Salon? Did you ever hear one of the drivers admit that they were stepping on the brake and the accelerator at the same time?

The horrible case of the Texas Highway Patrol trooper and his family who were killed in a Lexus is what brought the first attention to Toyota on sudden acceleration. The trooper further dramatized this tragedy by describing the entire event on his cell phone to a 911 operator. How can Toyota be blamed for this when NHTSA’s findings was that the Lexus dealer had used an oversized, recalled floor mat not made for that car and placed it in the vehicle “upside down”?

You want another motive for anecdotal allegations? How about greed and money? Toyota is the largest and wealthiest auto manufacturer on the planet…very deep pockets. Every tort lawyer in the USA is salivating over this opportunity. You can’t look at TV for 10 minutes these days without seeing some unscrupulous attorney soliciting someone who slipped and fell, was in an auto accident, owes the IRS money, or wants to blame somebody else because they have cancer. Auto liability insurance is much higher in some areas like South Florida, because of the great scam of people slamming on their brakes in front of the car behind them causing a rear end collision…a slam dunk for a PI lawyer.

It wasn’t until the late eighties that science was able to match DNA from crime scenes to the perpetrators. It makes me shudder to think how many innocent people were executed and imprisoned before. Even now, there are men and women in prison who hopefully will be released when the DNA evidence is reviewed. Most of these wrongfully executed and imprisoned victims were convicted on the basis of “eye witness” testimony. Judges and prosecutors now know that eye witness testimony is one of the least reliable forms of evidence. I’m absolutely sure that when Mrs. Smith testified before Congress that her Toyota accelerator stuck, caused her car to suddenly accelerate, and that only when God intervened did it slow down that she firmly believed she was telling the truth.

There is also the “fifteen minutes of fame” motivation. Right now, if you want to be on TV, all you have to do is call your local TV station and tell them that you almost killed yourself and dozens of school children when your Toyota suddenly accelerated while driving though a school zone. Lots of people actually confess to horrible crimes to get attention. You probably know that police won’t even arrest a person and prosecutors won’t prosecute a person who confesses to a crime without corroborating hard evidence.

I’ve been a Toyota dealer at the same location for 35 years. I’ve sold over 10,000 of the recalled cars and have not had one single incident of a sudden acceleration, accident, or injury from a recalled Toyota. I know hundreds of Toyota dealers from all over the country and we communicate all of the time, especially these days. I don’t know of another Toyota dealer who has had a case of sudden acceleration. What’s wrong with this picture?