The Here, Now and the Recall (History lesson is over. This is where start really giving what is my opinion, is not based in fact and is not meant in any way as anything more than supposition. I am not a mechanic nor should be mistaken for one. I am just asking questions.)

Often, when on the freeways of California, I will look around at the cars driving on the freeway around me and realize that I am completely surrounded by Toyota products. It is the sort of thing that makes seeing all of the “domestic” brands on the road while visiting Detroit seem odd, even exotic for a Californian. My actual experience with Toyota products has been spotty, at best. When we first discussed the Lexus with the floormat/sticking gas pedal incident on The RoundAbout Show, it seemed odd to all of us that a California State Trooper wouldn’t know how to stop a vehicle that was out of control. We were not the only ones.

While I was in Texas over the holidays, I happened to catch an article on December 21, 2009 in the lean Abilene Reporter-News about a local priest who’s Camry rolled and who, after brain surgery to remove a clot as a result of the accident, was told that it was his floormats. Just so you know, when I attempted to contact Father Akamike the last week of January 2010,but he has yet to return my call.

As much as I enjoy the folks who work for the auto manufacturers, I immediately turned my ear to the people who keep their public face: the dealers.

As one Toyota dealer told me, January 22nd, the day after the recall was announced by Toyota, was the longest day of his life. After all of the anguished voices of the car dealers I spoke with last year repeatedly through the automotive market crashing and then the subsequent mess of Cash For Clunkers, it was probably the most sad I have ever heard a dealer speak. Over 65% of this dealer’s inventory was immediately unsaleable. Toyota would not be refunding him for the cars (over 250) on his lot for which he had borrowed money so that he had inventory. He had to wait for a fix. His used car selection, which came from auctions, also hit a wall. Manheim immediately ceased running any used Toyota products through their auctions and that meant other brands of used cars were more desirable, driving up prices of potential used inventory and, moreover, that dealerships couldn’t recoup their investment in traded in Toyota cars because they were not auctionable. The dealerships quickly learned that they were learning more from the media than they were their franchisor. One dealer told me how they were shredding all communications from Toyota Motor Company because employees were so distraught by the immediate, panic induced lack of sales that his team had broken down to physically fighting on the car lot that day.

Toyota is no where near being over this whole debacle. Their dealers are being sent a piece of metal, thinner than a nickel and approximately twice as long, as a mechanical fix which should take their service employees 30 minutes per car to fix. That is today. Last week the part was going to be an entire assembly that would take 2+ hours per car to install. At a national average labor cost per hour of $100, this would have put a serious bit of ouch into the Toyota Motor Corporation and so now they are presenting a fix that costs pennies to produce and install and provides a barrier to keep condensation out of the pedal unit. Make more with less, in the tradition of the Toyota Production System. And yet, isn’t it a mechanical fix for what is rumored to be an electrical problem? Isn’t this the similar small piece of engineering that caused so much problem for the Pinto? In this mechanical fix, doesn’t the little part being installed in the recalled vehicles with the driver being able to put their foot under the pedal and bring it back up if it should happen to stick? If it is possible that it is from condensation building up inside the system, can that little fix-part in a prevent this? What exactly did Toyota learn in a joint venture in an American designed production line, ie, NUMMI? Did GM walk away with more than an education in lean production if the Vibe is based on a Toyota designed platform that potentially have the same acceleration issues? Is communicating to your dealers through the media another example of doing more with less? Is the American public not able to handle a clear concise message like the UK public?

This recall is nowhere near being ready to be drawn to a quiet close. The fact is that the 1st incident that was brought to national and international awareness was a Lexus, not specifically Toyota in brand, and no Lexus have been recalled in this current wave. Why is that? Is it because Toyota Corporate communications originally dismissed it as a floormat issue and they don’t want to get caught telling a fib? Is this why it is rumored that Toyota wants to do a blood alcohol analysis of the state trooper in the original fatal crash in the Lexus? Can discrediting a dead man save a car company? Because all of the recalled cars and those that have not yet been recalled have such elaborate electrical systems, can an over-rev limiter be thrown in neutral while driving at 3800 rpms? Can a career state trooper trained in deductive reasoning really not be the issue?

My friend Jessica told me that her children are not allowed to ride in anyone’s Toyota cars. Honestly, I am more scared of my child being on a road where anyone is in a Toyota or a Lexus right now. Whether it be a stuck pedal or a mischievous floormat or the accidental acceleration issue that began becoming part of the discussion about Toyota, being on the road surrounded by a huge number of cars that could potentially crash is terrifying until someone gets to the bottom of it all.

I have started so many blogs about GM that my drafts folder in WordPress is a virtual diary of issues that screamed to me that I needed to say something to you but then I would worry about your health. It is personal to me. It’s like telling a close elder relative that they offend everyone at Thanksgiving dinner with their un-Big Fish-Like stories and are clueless to this and something should be done but then Thanksgiving passes and so I kind of hope/think that your spouse must be telling you why people pick on you.

But here are some observations.

Whether or not you actually pay eBay for the recent trial endeavor of listing your new inventory on eBay Motors that is now coming to an end, I know this:

• - eBay Motors doesn’t care if you pay them. The free marketing you did for the most cheap and marketing incompetent major company in the world realizes that it was your money who brought them all of those wonderful hits. They base stock price on hits. No sales for you but hits for them.
• - While we are on your money? It was nice of you to pull eBay Motors along with you while you paid back part of your loan … that wasn’t your money at the time nor was the contract with eBay even signed when the program was announced. I like team spirit among people. Sharing is nice.
• - You did a nice thing for your franchisees by putting their inventory on eBay Motors on their behalf so they didn’t have to pay a marketplace they had all abandoned long ago because it was useless to them and didn’t increase sales. I bet after they had so many peers lose their franchises it made them feel warm and part of the GM family to know you could offer them a snowcone treat on a freezing day.
• - Fritz Henderson had a genius idea with this eBay Motors thing and announced it as if it was All New! although it had already been 2 years in the works and, in the panic of securing government funds, grasped it as an example of how GM was changing and showing appreciation of being allowed to continue breathing.
• - Playing with eBay Motors and pretending like cars were really going to sell was optimistic. Audi only sold 2 cars in their entire history of listing their Certified Pre-Owned cars on eBay on behalf of their dealers but you decided that GM would be different. Despite public opinion and franchisees well known for their lack of follow through on internet leads, you were going to sell cars, dang it!
• - Everyone knew that this eBay program was about generating leads and you say that you got 15,000 leads on 16,000 cars in 225 California dealerships which is great but you claim you don’t have visibility on how many of those ended in successful sales. You could (dealerships and eBay are run by this thing called software) but then the cars that were listed as current inventory on eBay were very often no longer available. So maybe you got some buyers in other cars. Who knows? You could tell us but you don’t, you silly little tease!
• - Speaking of releasing actual numbers: it is cool that most of the cars you listed on eBay were higher than the prices of the actual cars on the actual lots (which is higher than people actually negotiate) because that helps the perception that we all crave in this economy (e.g., cars are worth more than they are if you see it on the internet).

We don’t have to talk about the money back guarantees and how that worked out for other companies before or how playing conkers with the media is proven to be a bad idea. I do want you to start talking though. This Penske deal is a huge heartbreak for a lot of people. I am keeping my fingers crossed for Hummer. This isn’t pretend anymore. People have used you and you show a kind face of being optimistic and take the knocks of being the one at fault. Managing bad news is not a fun job and a lot of very tired but loving employees working on your behalf. Bad news is not a PR opportunity. It is a sign that everyone is tired. It is time to start making some good news.