Gaming the system, regulatory capture and a revolving a door between the regulated industry and the regulatory agency. Sounds very much like what happened to banks. The important difference is that Toyota isn’t going to get federal help on the taxpayer dime. They’ve screwed themselves over by being just a little too smart for their own good.
It turns out that Banks aren’t the only entities who have managed to corrupt the political process and end up hurting themselves and the public as a result. The world’s largest automaker has managed to make a mockery of the regulatory process as well.
Toyota North America hired several employees directly from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA. These former government employees helped to end NHTSA probes into unintended acceleration occurring in some of the same vehicles that are now being massively recalled and which are apparently responsible for causing deaths. The probes were ended in 2002-03, and the employees consistently lobbied against any expanded inquiry into these issues over the past decade.
The irony is that Toyota’s regulatory lobbying effort was in pursuit of short-term gains that ended up causing long-term damage to their reputation. As with banking, special treatment given to firms at their own request has been damaging — even fatal, to their own existence. In Toyota’s case, it has led to the tarnishing of their once impeccable reputation, and regrettably to the deaths of 19 of their customers.
via The Big Picture » Blog Archive » How is Toyota Like Citigroup & Goldman Sachs?.
I’ve owned 3 Toyotas and currently drive a 2008 Prius. I haven’t had any problems, but the wife says she had a unintended acceleration event that nearly caused her to lose control, we’re not sure what caused it or if it was related to the waves of recalls recently announced.
We got a notice from Toyota some months ago that was about floor mats. It said to remove any 3rd party mats and to make sure that the clip system on the drivers mat is properly installed and in use. Well, it was. Seemed like simple common sense to keep the mat properly installed, and we’ve never had 3rd party mats or flipped the factory mats over. I suspect the re-sale value of my car dropped, a lot.
