Secret Toyota Documents Attack Obama As Anti-Industry Activist

February 21st, 2010 (26) Posted By Pat Dollard.

BUSINESS-US-TOYOTA-RECALL

Politico:

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as
“activist” and “not industry friendly,” a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker’s top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall.

According to a presentation obtained under subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Relations committee, Toyota referred to the “changing political environment” as one of its main challenges and anticipated a “more challenging regulatory” environment under the Obama administration’s purview.

This document, in addition to piles of other records, will be front and center this week as the Japanese automaker girds to face lawmakers hungry for answers about a recall that has the company teetering.

Upwards of 8 million cars have been recalled in the U.S. and worldwide, amid reports of Toyota’s vehicles accelerating rapidly. The problems have turned political, as the company has shuttered some American factories, potentially resulting in layoffs.

The oversight committee, which is led by Democrat Ed Towns of New York and Republican Darrell Issa of California, will seek to discover if Toyota was forthright in disclosing problems with rapid acceleration – and if the government was responsible and quick in investigating such complaints.

Toyota has launched an image rehabilitation campaign on Capitol Hill, and its top lobbyist has sent emails to Congressional aides in an attempt to shape its image amid this crisis.

Committee aides say the presentation, which was obtained by POLITICO, gives the clearest view into the minds of Toyota executives.

Aides believe the presentation was an explanatory slideshow prepared to explain the inner-workings of Toyota’s Washington lobbying operations. It includes a responsibility flow chart, in addition to resources the office calls upon, including The Brookings Institution and the Chamber of Commerce.

The slideshow is titled “Toyota Washington, DC” and the cover sheet is labeled “Yoshi Inaba” – the president of Toyota North America, who is slated to testify.

It is a peek into how Toyota executives view the American political environment.

The “Activist Administration & Congress – increasing laws & regulations” is listed as one of “Toyota Challenges,” as is “Massive government support for Detroit automakers.”

The July 2009 presentation also says the Department of Transportation and National Highway Transportation Safety Administration “under Obama administration” is “not industry friendly,” and anticipates a “more challenging regulatory and enforcement environment.”

It says the NHTSA “new team has less understanding of engineering issues and are primarily focused on legal issues.”

“While the administration may have changed, the bureaucracy itself has not and we must ensure that government regulators give every possible consumer concern its due diligence,” said Republican Oversight spokesman Kurt Bardella.

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  • thrasymakhos

    “activist” and “not industry friendly,” :lol:

    “..the NHTSA “new team has less understanding of engineering issues and are primarily focused on legal issues.” :lol:

    Just how long do you think the Japanese are going to put up with this Bovine Feces? They are the largest holders of our freakingly large colossal debt! Do you Dollardites remember the utter crap that Detroit put out in the 1970′s My Lord, what junk. 12/12 warranty if that and you sure needed it!! The only thing that saved the American Automobile industry then was competition from Japan. I have owned many cars in my life with about half of them being American (trucks). Toyota makes a quality product and has for decades, but it is made by human beings and will have problems just as “American” cars have and do. It is just not right to crap all over Toyota and the thousands of AMERICAN workers who make them in order that some in Detroit can survive under the banner of “Government Motors”. GM and Chrysler are dead men walking. Ford may come out of it. It didn’t take the money! We shall see.

  • scott

    the attack on capitalism commences! Soon we’ll all be required to buy from GM. altough that is good for our union brethren.

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  • ji

    I was going to buy a toyota pickup. But I bought a stronger built Ford instead.
    My dad bought a lot of vehicles, but never a Chevrolet.
    He called them junk.

  • http://thecoffeeshopblog.blogspot.com/ Rose

    Fascinating

  • 0311inOHio (I didn’t drink the kool-Aid)

    When I decide to buy a new car I am most definitely going to look at the Toyota. Never in my life had I even considered it. I will look at a Ford first then a Toyota. And I retired from GM. The ORIGINAL GM

    • BradW (the Infidel)

      0311,

      I am onboard with your view! I just traded my 1993 F150 in on a Subaru forester a few months ago, and I waited until AFTER C4C. I paid less than the C4C customers. The dealer was willing to negotiate with me, in the C4C, they told the customer you are getting 4500 off, we can’t go any lower.

      all that sis was put extra $$ in the dealer pockets, and the taxpayers got the shaft/

      My wife loves her 1998 Toyota Avalon, so recall issues there, only iwht the dealer, lousy service. If she gets another toyota down the road, it’ll be a different dealer. But the 98 will be around for years still, has been well maintained, so still runs and looks great, no rust, even in Ohio slat laden winters.

      I miss the truck, got it rigth after I got out of the Corps, just had no need for vehicle that large anymore. Ford dealers and everyone else in the area kept trying to upsell us, except for the dealer we bought through. Listened to what I was looking for, and did not try to upsell at all.

      I am sick of the union cries, after sucking at the teat for years, that they will have to start paying for some services. I hope they all have it as rough as the rest of us by the time this is over.

      Reloader, I am glad you and the fmily members have had good luck with your GM products. I got no beef with you. I had GM cars in the past, and realized that I got shafted by the dealers. That is what sent me to Ford, and I had a great deal on the F150. Loved it for years.

      GM did not have available what I was looking for in a vehicle, and I was not about to spend 20 grand to help Obama Motors out, after I am already on the hook along with the rest of America for 50 billion. If nothing, they owe us all a free car or truck…

  • political.fish

    This administration is ‘activist’, and ‘not industry friendly.’ This administration is against free enterprise, individual freedom, personal success and any industry that supports those traditions. Frankly stated, this administration is not only un-American but anti-American. With the singular exception of trucks, the American auto industry produces nothing but shit. Is it because we can’t produce quality products? No, its because of the left-wing Marxist assholes who blindly support the Unions.

  • http://www.bootparkergriffith.com The Sentinel at the Gate

    Obongo knows he’s got two car companies bent over a barrel and he’s giving them the high-hard one right now. This issue with Toyota has been planned to discredit Toyota in order to bring US car buyers back to the same shit they left because of lack of engineering, lack of quality control, lack of service and lack of a decent price.

    I hope Toyota gets out of this one and gains a much greater market share forcing GM and Chrysler into the tank. I loathe Obongo and his government ownership of the auto industry. May their Soclalistmobiles fail so miserably they have to close.

    Fuck Obongo!

  • mark gibbons

    imagine how great America could be without all unions. your chevy sucks its the union stupid. your kids can’t read or write its the teachers union. you can’t afford taking your family to a sporting event its the unions. no work in the building industry check out how the unions have work. and then we have obongos union shoving crap up our backsides. stingers should be sent to all union headquarters.

  • Reloader449

    I’ve had enough of this, FUckwads. My Chevy DOES NOT SUCK. My last one didn’t either- for FOURTEEN YEARS. Cadillacs are very well built, Buicks win quality awards. The Saturn Vue my wife owns is FUCKING PERFECT, you idiots.

    Now you all know how it feels to be an ignorant Leftist- Wrong and wrong. You have been propagandized. You are what they are, now.

  • Reloader449

    My Chevy truck is perfect in every way. My Dad loves his Saturn Vue, and he has traded vehicles every six months for over fifty years. Almost always GM, and never regretted. My older brother love HIS Saturn Vue. My youngest brother loves HIS Saturn Vue.

    You people should get out more. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FFUUCCKK YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.

    FUCK Toyo da.

    • YEMROM

      settle the fuck down Francis

  • USMCTANKS

    I think the real point is this……GM is still sinking! The first quarter losses are just a large as before the bailout. The Oshithead administration can’t fail at everything…….So if you own the DOT and the NHTSA and GM , who would you put the spotlight on ?? KIA? BMW? No…you focus on the #1 company….and you beat them into submission. This is a oshithead government smear operation pure and simple.
    Does chevy make a good product….I drive a chevy truck and I like it ! Would I buy another ? NO! But I’ve always refused to buy Toyota also.

    ANSWER: LET CHEVY SINK OR SWIM ! IT’S THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO WORK.

    • thrasymakhos

      It is generally true that a Marine can bring truth and rationality to what is otherwise a FUBARed argument. :smile:

  • Sully

    You’d likely find the same sort of ‘documentation’ in a very large % of companies worldwide.
    Particularly those related to health, energy and financial products.

  • Tim Roesch – pseudo intellectual

    Again, had I a job that allowed extracurricular activities I would investigate these ‘problems’ with the accelerators and brakes.

    Could this be an attack on Toyota as a way of destroying a successful company that has evidenced anti-Obama sentiment? Are Honda and Mitsubishi toeing the line?

    Who made these ‘accelerator units’ for Toyota? Could these units be ‘modified’ from outside the car? Does Toyota use a completely different system than other companies?

    Experts? I know you’re out there…

    hmmm…

  • josephus

    Here is the point of all this. Toyota plants are NON UAW SHOPS!

    So you have two things at play here.

    The UAW/Gov’t owned GM and Chrysler would LOVE to kill Toyota competition in terms of sales, but also jobs.

    I am going to predict that this will happen:

    Because these are viewed as defects, the gov’t will say that because they use less-than acceptable workers aka non-UAW workers, they will FORCE Toyota as part of their mea culpa to take on UAW workers in their plants.

    It’s a no-lose proposal in the Leftist automakers’ minds. Because they will achieve one or two goals.

    1) Toyota would refuse to employ UAW workers and retreat to building the cars overseas, in which case they’d have to ship them in whole and face all sorts of import issues, costs, etc.
    2) Toyota decides that keeping the plants here is better than shipping them in and they agree to UAW workers.

    Either way bad news:
    1) Toyota pulls back significantly or out of the US market thus leaving Honda and Mazda next inline for a witch hunt, but also with the ability to raise prices.

    2) The number of choices in the market shrinks (although there are still quite a few).

    3) A boatload of people lose their jobs…and we’re talking up and down the chain…suppliers, dealers, mechanics, etc.

    • Tim Roesch – pseudo intellectual

      So, how would one short stop this process, short circuit it?

      Is there a smoking gun somewhere? A ‘Deep Throat’ that could be approached in some underground parking garage?

      If this was ‘done’ to Toyota then, maybe, it can be used to our advantage? All one would have to do is find the fingerprints…

    • josephus

      I’m not saying that the defects were setup by the government.

      What I’m saying is that Toyota screwed up and the gov’t is seizing upon what is a free gift. These documents that are anti-administration will only now make it more vicious.

      A defensive back falls down and the receiver comes open for what will be a sure TD…no QB worth his salt would fail to take advantage of that. Toyota is the DB that fell to the ground here.

    • josephus

      As for what can be done?

      Toyota needs to re-build consumer confidence and take care of their own house. The biggest chip Toyota has had in its favor was the consumer belief that they manufactured care of a higher quality and standard than American automakers.

      That is now shaken and perhaps destroyed. Not much you can do except provide all your recalls with exceptional customer service during the repair and then work like hell to restore confidence.

    • josephus

      Oh and I forgot No. 4 in my bad news piece.

      Toyota hires UAW workers is out of the American auto game is less than 10 years after unsustainable losses.

  • mark gibbons

    Reloader 449 you must be a union man or you really hate the japs. i will drive my chevy truck as long as i can, but i can no longer support any union. i will never buy another union made truck. unions are a big part of the U.S. problems.

    • Reloader449

      and yes, unions should be outlawed. They are nothing but another arm of organized crime.

  • Reloader449

    Never a union worker- but the fact is that American-made vehicles have ALWAYS been built by union labor. That has not changed.

    And YES, the Japs deserve our disdain. They may not overtly say it now, but when they built these Jap-Government-Run auto firms,

    AND REMEMBER ALL JAP COMPANIES ARE GOVERNMENT-RUN THERY ARE JUST CAS COMMUNIST AS EUROPE

    … their main goal was ECONOMIC WARFARE against the U.S. They still think they can win WWII in overtime.

    FUCK ‘em.

    It’s been a great propaganda victory for commies in the U.S. to convince so many Americans to buy imports. AND JAP-built in the U.S. are still IMPORTS.

    So now, EVEN MORE Americans say:

    “I’ll never buy a GM product.”

    and

    “Look, GM is still sinking.”

    DUH.

    This is how Leftists have “customized” treason- now there’s a flavor of treason for everyone, even for rightists.

  • Jusuchin

    Only an ignorant fool would continue to use the word ‘jap’ in an argument, as well as go with the meaning of communist as anything isn’t American. Its almost like a new axiom needs to be added to Godwin’s Law.

    Got any basis to shore up those facts? Any understanding of the Japanese besides harboring the view that they’re out to get us because of the war?

    So, let’s see your view of the term imports. Japanese designed yet built within the United States. You see, it goes against what is normally associated with the term ‘import’, which is, used as a verb: to bring in (merchandise, commodities, workers, etc.) from a foreign country for use, sale, processing, reexport, or services.

    Or as a noun: the act of importing or bringing in; importation, as of goods from abroad

    I see nothing but the designs being brought over here. The entire manufacturing processes are within the country, and being produced by American workers of the American arm of Toyota.

    As for Toyota being Government run. Which government. If you meant Japan, there may be some truth in that, as the Japanese bureaucracy often ends up having close ties to businesses. And this bit about Economic Warfare. If you want economic warfare, look no further than Japan’s truly Communistic neighbor to the west. China. It has most of our debt in their hands, and every time we need more loans, they would provide. Japan has been in a recession since the 1990s, and while their economy has been doing lovely for the past few years, it has yet to return to the breakneck growth during the 1960s and 1970s.

    I don’t know if its either ignorance on your part,Reloader, or the fact I’m probably studying international politics and comparative governments in college (yet still staying right of center, but its people like you, who sprout ignorance to the point of profiling and untruths that allow the libtards ammunition to show us as the idiots and roadblocks to the American people.