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Old 03-12-2010, 03:19 AM   #66 (permalink)
5speed5
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Los Alamos, NM
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TBSS - '08 Chevrolet Trailblazer SS 2WD
90 day: 19.36 mpg (US)

Wife's car - '09 Chevrolet Impala SS
90 day: 22.96 mpg (US)

Big Blue Hippo - '06 Chevrolet HHR 2LT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rmay635703 View Post
The only difference is Toyota comes from a country with different sensibilities everything else is basically the same otherwise.
I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about Toyota and they were saying that the Japanese tend to be very nationalistic and they have lots of pride in Japanese workmanship and the quality of their products. It's ingrained in the Japanese culture.

That, however, is a double-edged sword. That same pride prevented them from acknowledging there was a problem much earlier (The Insurance Institute reported to Toyota back in 2002 that they were seeing a rise in the number of reported "sudden accelerations" of their cars). Once they did acknowledge it, they blew it off as a floormat problem. Then when that didn't fly, they invented this mechanical fix for the gas pedal (which, just by chance, I'm sure, was confined to the American/Canadian made pedals).

I'm personally enjoying a little schadenfreude over this Toyota debacle. GM/Ford took so much crud from the media and reviewers over the years and Toyotas were always given a pass (as though God himself personally touched every Toyota made) even though they had head-gasket problems, engine-sludge problems and a lot of the same niggling little problems that all cars do.
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Last edited by 5speed5; 03-13-2010 at 01:50 AM.. Reason: misspelled "schadenfreude"
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