Cantankerous Consumer:

Toyota's tribulations
a pleasure for some

By David Cobain

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Taking pleasure in another's misfortunes is an unpleasant human characteristic encapsulated in the German word schadenfreude. It's an attitude one would prefer not to discover, let alone to nurture, in oneself. Yet...Toyota's latest problems push me very close to it.

This Japanese automotive manufacturer, which rose to eminence from nothing since its vehicles first appeared in Canada in the 1960s, has become a caricature of corporate arrogance. In fact, we should be thankful its executives run just a company, not a country.

That this company has produced some decent vehicles is indisputable - although it's hardly comparable with such legends as Volkswagen, Ford or Morris Garages, known better worldwide as MG - but it seems to some observers to have now far over-reached itself.

'Recalls are skyrocketing,' says one. 'So much so that Toyota last year recalled more vehicles in the U.S. than it sold. Quality...is suspect and three company officials are under investigation for failing to remedy a faulty steering component blamed in an accident that injured five people.

'Now, Chinese authorities say more than 20,000 Toyota sedans made in China are being recalled because of defective rubber strips around windshields. And U.S. regulators are investigating complaints of a faulty lift gate in 2004-2005 Sienna minivans, covering more than 393,000 vehicles.'

It's highly unlikely, in any event, that you'll read a road test review of a Toyota vehicle in this column. When such a test was suggested, Toyota Canada's media relations manager - whose job, one might think, is to improve his company's image - produced a novel response.

'If you want to test drive one of our cars,' he told this media representative, 'get it from one of the rental companies.'

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Another manufacturer making the news - but for reasons of an entirely different nature - is Mustek, a Taiwanese maker of innovative imaging products integrating new technologies 'to improve and expand consumers' ability to explore the future of digital vision.'

In business since 1988, and not known for negatives like the failures that now bedevil Toyota, Mustek is about to launch in this country what this writer regards as the very acme of electronic convergence in vision and sound recording and playback.

This is the new DV536 camcorder-PVR - a palm-sized powerhouse that combines a personal video recorder for connecting with TV or DVD player, a VGA-quality digital camcorder, a l0MP digital still camera, a voice recorder and an MP3 player.

All this for a mere $220 Canadian. If you don't find that amazing, your capacity for such response must have been sharply diminished by the battering we take from manufacturers for whom marketing and merchandise are barely on speaking terms.

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Writing of which....

Be wary of such claims as that by New Brunswick food processing giant McCain that one of its soft-drink concoctions, now relentlessly featured in television commercials focused on children and their mothers, contains '50 percent less sugar'.

'Ah!', you are meant to conclude, 'so it must be healthy enough for me to give the kids.' But, before you think that or do that, check the ingredients to determine precisely what that piece of advertising copywriting means. Fifty percent less than what?

What you'll then discover, I believe, might give you pause for a more responsible reaction.

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Finally....

When will digital camera manufacturers - falling over themselves, as they are, to introduce astonishing advances in photographic technology - bring to bear on their products some of the old-fashioned sense widely referred to as common?

I refer here to the arbitrary abandonment by virtually all these makers of the strap lugs on both sides of compact cameras - which for decades enabled us to wear a camera round our necks - in favour of the now ubiquitous single lug and wrist strap.

This newest arrangement makes a camera awkward to carry, prone to damage from being knocked against other hard objects and more than a handful when one needs to bring it up to one's face to take a photograph. All in all, not a very good idea.