Screw Toyota and Ford US auto sales jump 24 percent in January

[Watchman]

Ford US auto sales jump 24 percent in January

AFP - 2 hours 40 minutes ago

Ford Motor Co. posted a 24 percent jump in January US auto sales on Tuesday and estimated its market share grew by two points from a year earlier.

CHICAGO (AFP) - – Ford Motor Co. posted a 24 percent jump in January US auto sales on Tuesday and estimated its market share grew by two points from a year earlier.

The gains follow strong growth in recent months and came after rival Toyota was forced to suspend sales on some of its most popular models in the wake of a massive recall due to faulty accelerator pedals.

"People increasingly are discovering that the Ford difference is the strength of our products, particularly our leadership in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart technologies and value," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president for US marketing, sales and service.

Ford estimated that its total sales of 112,406 vehicles in January would result in a US market share of about 16 percent.

The second largest US automaker said higher sales for every brand and in every product category propelled the growth.

Cars sales were up 43 percent, crossovers were up 20 percent, sport utilities were up eight percent, and trucks and vans were up 14 percent.

Among brands, Ford sales were up 26 percent, Lincoln sales were up 16 percent and Mercury sales were up six percent.

Sales to government, commercial and rental fleets were up 154 percent from last January's depressed levels when purchases were deferred due to the credit crunch and economic crisis.

Sales at Volvo, which Ford is in the midst of selling to China's Geely, were up 42 percent at 4,128 vehicles.

Ford, which unlike General Motors and Chrysler was able to survive the industry's worst year in decades without resorting to bankruptcy and government bailouts, posted its first annual profit since 2005 last week.

The company reported net earnings of 2.7 billion dollars profit for 2009 and said it expects to be profitable in 2010 and 2011.

The results represent a stunning comeback for Ford after years of painful restructuring and bleeding balance sheets.

Ford also managed to post its first annual market share gain since 1995 last year.

 

[singveld]

Nagoya is bye bye. US lawyers will eat them alive.

The mother lode of gold mines for lawyers.

ZoomI don't own a Toyota, but with everything I've heard and read as of late, I'd hate to be one of the high-end executives.

The horizon doesn't look rosy for the Japanese-based company.

If anything, Toyota is now a defenseless, wounded animal out in the wild, waiting with watchful eyes as the meat-eating beasts circle their prey.

Several unfortunate events are now taking place on two different fronts. Just two weeks after Toyota recalled 8 million vehicles because of sticky gas pedals, the company is now gearing up for a global recall of its new Prius model. Instead of the gas pedal issue, this line of hybrids has problems with delayed braking. Reuters reports that Toyota will officially launch the recall on Tuesday.

The second issue Toyota now faces is on the legal front. In a second report, Reuters said that at least 30 class-action lawsuits have been filed against the Japanese automaker since the original recall two weeks ago.

"This is just the beginning," said Mark Bunim of New York-based mediation firm Case Closure LLC. "There's going to be one of these cases in every town."

Given the state of the economy, that's a bad thing for Toyota. As I said before, the wounded company has found itself circled by legal hounds and highly ticked-off consumers. But who can blame them? If you had an accident because of faulty manufacturing, you can bet-- if you're still alive that is-- you'd find yourself in a lawyer's office suing the pants off the company.

Unfortunately, the lawsuits won't just deal with issues that have appeared over the last few weeks. Frank Pitre, a plaintiff lawyer at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, points out that there will be Toyota owners-- those who had an accident in the past few years-- that will wonder if the accidents stemmed from unintended acceleration, and will look into legal action.

To make matters worse, there's talk that Toyota knew about the acceleration problem and lied to the public to conceal the truth. If that's the case, if that is proved true in a court of law, then Toyota may end up closing its doors for good.

If you want to sue Toyota, you better get in line according to Reuters.

 

[singveld]

Toyota will likely announce this week that it plans to recall at least 311,000 of its 2010 Prius hybrids around the world to fix the brakes, reports Japanese media and The New York Times.

It will become Toyota's third major recall at present, following two for unintended acceleration. But at least on this one, the numbers are fairly paltry compared with the 8 million cars under recall around the world, more than 5 million of them in the U.S.

A Prius recall hurts, however, because the car has been emblematic of how Toyota differs from other automakers:

It's a high-volume hybrid that sells at a relatively affordable price, often cited as the kind of vehicle that Detroit should have been building.

Specifically, the complaint is that Prius brakes can momentarily stop working after the car hits a bump. The problem has been blamed for several accidents, but no deaths. Interestingly, Toyota ran a Prius ad during the Super Bowl halftime, at least the feed that runs in Southern California. Edmunds.com says it saw an spurt in increase in people researching the Prius on its site last week, possibly indicating they were getting ready to pounce if the Prius' price drops as a result of the publicity around its troubles.

The head of Toyota brand sales in the U.S., Bob Carter, told dealers in a memo last week that a big Prius fix may be coming.

 

[singveld]

As Toyota rolls out fixes for sticky gas pedals, the automaker is coming under scrutiny from federal investigators who say the faulty pedals are not the only cause of sudden acceleration.

Electronic defects may also have contributed to the problem, say investigators and independent safety experts. Federal safety regulators have begun an investigation into Toyota’s electronic throttle control system, which connects the accelerator pedal to the engine via sensors that send electric signals, rather than a mechanical cable.

“It’s not just sticking gas pedals,” says Byron Bloch, an independent auto safety expert. “Toyota, which does a pretty good job in many ways, made a bad decision when they went to electronic throttle control. They should have adopted more safety measures and they didn’t. And their customers and company are suffering as a result.”

Toyota maintains that its electronic throttle control system is not to blame.

“Through many investigations over a period of many years, Toyota has never found a problem with the electronic throttle control system that could lead to unintended acceleration,” says Brian Lyons, safety and quality communications manager at Toyota, USA. “The results of those investigations recently have indicated pedal entrapment and sticky pedal [are to blame].”

Doubts about cause
But a recent investigation by the Los Angeles Times also casts doubt on Toyota’s decision to blame sudden acceleration on the gas pedal defects.

Motorists have to date lodged more than 2,000 complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles over the last decade, according to the Times report. The problem has led to 19 deaths and 815 vehicle crashes since 1999, as well as global recalls numbering in the millions.

Complaints of sudden acceleration soared with the introduction of electronic throttles in Toyota vehicles in 2002, the Los Angeles Times report says. And of the 2,000 complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles since, only 5 percent blamed sticking gas pedals, according to the report.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has conducted eight investigations into sudden-acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles in the past seven years and none of them have identified a sticking pedal as a cause, the report adds.

Moreover, the maker of the faulty gas pedals, Indiana-based CTS Corp., claims that its product has been unfairly blamed.

“The problem of sudden unintended acceleration has been reported to have existed in some Lexus vehicles and Toyota vehicles going back to 1999 when CTS did not even make this product for any customer,” the manufacturer said in a statement last week.

No proof on throttle control, either
Still, experts caution that no evidence has yet been found linking the throttle control system to sudden acceleration.

“NHTSA has investigated [electronic throttle control] and found nothing,” says David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports' Auto Test Division. “A lot of people are saying this is the issue. Well, show me.”

A congressional inquiry headed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D) of California and Rep. Bart Stupak (D) of Michigan will look into the source of the accelerator defect and determine whether Toyota has taken adequate measures to fix it. The Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Representatives Waxman and Stupak, will hold a hearing on Feb. 25.

 

[Watchman]

iowahawk explains it all to you:
Don't let Tojo turn you into a unwitting freeway kamikaze for the "Divine Emperor"! At the U.S. Department of General Motors, our G-Men are working 'round the clock to stop Jap sneak attacks on America's publicly owned automotive industrial arsenal. But here on the home front, America's vehicular victory requires the vigilance of regular Joes and Janes like you. Together we can Shun the Huns and Nip the Nips, and send 'em packing their non-union Priuses back to Yokohama!