Toyota - Unsafe at any Cost?

Toyota - Unsafe at any Cost?

Toyota's current ad campaign makes a statement that has gone largely unnoticed - but not by Ralph Nader.

Nader almost single-handedly launched the auto safety movement decades back in 1965 when he challenged General Motors with his book "Unsafe at Any Speed" and now he is taking on Toyota. He wants them to prove their latest ad claim, that they are spending $1,000,000 AN HOUR "to improve our technology and your safety."

By his calculations, Nader says, "That is an astonishing amount" that works out to $8.7 billion annually. Toyota's head of US sales, Jim Lentz, reportedly has agreed to answer Nader but it turns out that Nader isn't the only one scratching their head over Toyota's numbers. The New York Times asked earlier and got the vague answer from Toyota that the million dollar an hour comes from "all Toyota R&D spending globally, much of that allocated to new quality and safety technologies."

The whole problem, of course, comes from Toyota's attempts to come back from the disaster-public relations mess that arose from the October 2009 recall of over 9 million Toyotas for sudden acceleration and other safety problems.

So will Nader get a better explanation than the New York Times? Not likely, we bet.

Toyota's ad seems like something learned from the many highly misleading campaign ads that are running on tv more often the Toyota ads - if you believe any one side then you might as well believe the other side because all the politicians seem to be slinging the same misleading mud at each other. Personally, we don't believe any tv ads by any politician any more.

It all kind of makes you wonder if Toyota is using the same ad agency as the politicians, huh?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Known nationwide as a leading Lemon Law attorney, Ronald L. Burdge has represented literally thousands of consumers in "lemon" lawsuits and actively co-counsels and coaches other Consumer Law attorneys. From 2005 through 2018, attorney Ronald L. Burdge has been named as the only Lemon Law Ohio Super Lawyer by Law and Politics magazine and Thomson Reuters Corp., Professional Division. Burdge restricts his practice to Lemon Law and Consumer Law cases. The Ohio Super Lawyer results are published annually in the January issue of Cincinnati Magazine. Ronald L. Burdge was named Consumer Law Trial Lawyer of the Year 2004 by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the nation's largest organization of consumer law private and government attorneys. "Your impact on the auto industry has been magnified many times over because of the trail you blazed for others," stated NACA's Executive Director, Will Ogburn. Burdge has represented thousands of consumers in Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere since 1978 and is a frequent lecturer to national, state and local Bar Associations and Judicial organizations. Burdge is admitted to Ohio's state and federal courts, Kentucky's state courts, and Indiana's federal courts. Other court admissions are on a "pro hac" temporary, case by cases basis.