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-- Posted Wednesday, 10 March 2010 | Digg This Article | | Source: GoldSeek.com
Rick’s Picks Wednesday, March 10, 2010 “Phenomenally accurate forecasts” So, are we now supposed to believe that every Toyota that runs off the road, or plows into another car, or leaps a concrete berm in a Safeway parking lot, is a runaway? The latest report of a Toyota wilding spree – supposedly caused by a faulty Prius gas pedal -- surfaced the other day in California. The driver said the car reached 94 mph, although we’d never have imagined the tortoise-shaped vehicle was capable of exceeding the speed limit, even on steep downhill stretches. Another Prius crashed into a stone wall in New York, but we’re awaiting the accident report before we blame Japanese engineers. The automaker said it was going to look into both incidents, as well as some others, and we hope they do. The investigation would not come a moment too soon, since every Toyota driver who gets stopped for speeding these days could tell the cop that his car, apparently possessed by demons, had simply willed itself to violate the law.
Toyota’s competitors must be breathing a sigh of relief. BMW, for one, has engineered such unnecessary complexity into the car’s driver controls that one practically needs an engineering degree to activate the heater/defroster. If BMW’s throttle linkage were to experience a congenital problem with sticking, determining the cause would be like trying to trace the source of an intermittent humming sound in a NASA space shuttle. A hundred guys with stethoscopes would probably drive themselves crazy after a few weeks of fruitless listening, tapping, plinking and toggling. The Bimmer Myth Full disclosure: I’ve been driving Japanese cars myself for the last 35 years, having lost my fondness for BMWs while a charter member of the BMW Car Club of America. (Old-timers may recall that BMW drivers used to flash their headlights at each other back in the Sixties.) As far as I’m concerned, the Germans would still be building horribly unreliable, overpriced cars if the Japanese hadn’t showed them how to do it right. Before I came to that revelation, the relatively rare model 2000 that I owned and maintained had racked up parts bills equal to half the car’s original cost in just a few years. The delicate, exorbitantly priced, three-part O.E.M. exhaust system, for example, was good for about 25,000 miles, and the rubber sleeves that shielded some crucial suspension bearings cracked and dried out at around 8000 miles. An engine rebuild begat a collapsed piston ring that turned the car into a smoker. But the final straw was a six-month wait for a “gooseneck” thermostat to replace one that had gone bad. To make things worse, it was connected to a 7/8-inch heater hose that was 1/8 of an inch wider than anything available in American auto-part shops at the time. (I had to improvise with a section of washing-machine hose.) I finally gave away the car to a friend of German birth who lived in Bellingham, Washington. He sent a one-legged, ex-Luftwaffe pilot to San Francisco to pick it up – I am not making this up, honest – and it was good riddance. To speed his long journey home, I threw in a box of spare parts including an alternator, some radiator hoses, a fan belt, spark plugs, fuses, a head gasket and voltage regulator. The Honda Accord that I bought to replace the Bimmer was the best car I ever owned – at least, until the time I bought a Lexus eight years ago. It’s got 130,000 miles on it and still runs like the proverbial top. And that’s why it makes the hair on my neck bristle when I see Toyota executives called on the Congressional carpet to face an inquisition on quality control. It’s mass hysteria, as far as I’m concerned. Toyota has engineered some of the safest and most reliable cars on the road. You never seen one stranded on a highway, and I’ve yet to see one whiz by me, out of control, at 90+ mph. For every paranoid Prius owner eager to dump this supposed killer car for half its Blue Book value, there are probably at least a dozen buyers just as eager to take if off his hands. *** Information and commentary contained herein comes from sources believed to be reliable, but this cannot be guaranteed. Past performance should not be construed as an indicator of future results, so let the buyer beware. There is a substantial risk of loss in futures and option trading, and even experts can, and sometimes do, lose their proverbial shirts. Rick's Picks does not provide investment advice to individuals, nor act as an investment advisor, nor individually advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment. From time to time, its editor may hold positions in issues referred to in this service, and he may alter or augment them at any time. Investments recommended herein should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor, and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. Rick's Picks reserves the right to use e-mail endorsements and/or profit claims from its subscribers for marketing purposes. All names will be kept anonymous and only subscribers’ initials will be used unless express written permission has been granted to the contrary. All Contents © 2009, Rick Ackerman. All Rights Reserved. www.rickackerman.com
-- Posted Wednesday, 10 March 2010 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com
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