Posted on 02/05/2010 3:38:42 AM PST by Scanian
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood put Toyota's stock price into free-fall Wednesday, telling a House committee that Americans with cars made by the Japanese auto company should stop driv ing them.
LaHood was addressing an issue of some significance: Toyota's recall of some 2.3 million vehicles due to a faulty gas-pedal design.
"My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it," he said.
But the company says the cars are safe to drive until repairs can be scheduled -- and LaHood swiftly backtracked.
On its surface, LaHood's gaffe is just the latest instance of foot-in-mouth thoughtlessness for which the Obama administration has become famous. (Remember when Vice President Joe Biden, at the height of last year's swine-flu scare, warned New Yorkers to avoid public transportation?)
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Should be titled “You betta check unda da hood.”
My advice to this idiot LaHood is for you to personally chauffeur all these people who should stop driving Toyotas so they can get to work and continue paying your salary.
What a pompous @$$.
Hope all those American haters love their Japanese death traps. After all American workers are the worst in the world and anything designed in Japan must be superior.
LOL.. Unfortunantly life experiences has taught me never to set foot in another GM or Ford piece of trash vehicle.
That’s quite an effort by the Obama Admin to try to tarnish the reputation of the finest automobilies in order to help out his union thugs and their garbage cars from Detroit.
Exactly. This is not an innocent mistake by LaHood, except to the extent that it revealed the government's agenda v. Toyota.
Nice opinion. Now what do you think about getting the Federal gov’t the hell out the automotive business?
My Toyota is built in America. Does it make me un-American to help pay the employees at the Toyota plant?
I think maybe you should check and see where the part Toyota is having trouble with comes from—America.
I also think you should check into where those parts Chevy puts in their cars comes from.
American car companies like GM and Chrysler have had their asses handed to them by Japanese, and more recently, South Korean auto makers. Overall, these companies are building cars with better reliability. They are also able to adapt to changes in the market much faster than GM or Chrysler (or Ford) ever thought about doing. This is essential if you intend to compete in a global market. For example, as reported this week by CBS, if the market changes and more sedans are needed in showrooms the modern, state-of-the-art Hyundai plant near Montgomery, AL, can retool and go from making SUV's to sedans in a matter of hours, in less than one shift. GM or Chrysler take six weeks or more to do this sort of retooling, and, because of all the various unions involved, it is far more expensive for American car manufacturers to retool. American car manufacturers are being beat at their own game, pretty much on every front, and have been for several decades
This is but one example. There really is no great mystery as to why American car manufacturers are losing ground to their Japanese and Korean counterparts.....
You might want to read up on a brilliant idea that American car companies introduced in the 50’s to create more customers - “planned obsolesence”.
To a large extent, this idiotic idea is responsible for so many people buying foreign cars.
Yes it does. Only UAW workers receiving inflated wages and Cadillac health benefits that drive the company into the ground are real Americans.
I cant argue with you there LMAO.
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