7 US SAILORS DEATHS MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN ACCIDENTAL (SPECIAL PROBE)

7 US SAILORS DEATHS MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN ACCIDENTAL (SPECIAL PROBE):

PLEASE PRAY FOR THEIR FAMILIES.

THIS TRAGEDY WAS DESIGNED TO MAKE US MILITARY APPEAR INCOMPETENT.

CONGRESS NEEDS TO CALL FOR A SPECIAL INVESTIGATION.


Sources: Washington Post, YouTube


***** 7 sailors died aboard the USS Fitzgerald. Here are their stories:


First came the crash, then the rushing waters — and then, the wave of grief.

The grief swelled after divers found seven bodies in the wreckage of the USS Fitzgerald off the coast of Japan this weekend. It washed across the United States, through dire phone calls, texts and solemn visits.

It reached the family of a 19-year-old firefighter who had enlisted in the Navy the year before, and the wife of a 19-year veteran who had been planning his retirement, and fell upon households from Connecticut to the southern end of Texas — people with little more in common than a sudden, immense loss on the other side of the world.

A Navy chaplain brought the news to Halethorpe, Md., where Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Martin had lived.

On Father’s Day, Martin’s bereaved father stood in front of a CBS WJZ news crew and covered his mouth with his hand.

“He’s my only child,” Darrold Martin said. “He’s all I have.”

The father looked at the tattoo on his arm. His son, 24, had one to match, he said.

He looked at his phone. “He was trying to — all the comms were down. He was trying to call me,” he said.

The Fitzgerald collided with a ship four times its size off the coast of Japan in early-morning darkness. Military officials still don’t know what happened exactly, but it is clear that sailors tried to save one another in the aftermath. A woman told the Associated Press that four of those killed slept in the same room as her son, who had repeatedly dived into the flood trying to save them.

As rescuers searched for 37-year-old Gary Rehm Jr., a shipmate stayed on board the listing Fitzgerald and texted reports to his wife in the United States, Rehm’s mother-in-law told The Washington Post.

“She said she wasn’t leaving the ship until they found him,” Joan Braniff said. “They kicked her off, and she stayed on the pier until they found him.”

Now Erin Rehm is a widow. They had been married for nearly all of the fire controlman’s 19-year Navy service, Braniff said.

“You could tell right from the start he just adored her,” she said. They sang karaoke on a PlayStation in Hampton, Va., when he was home. They talked many times each day when he was deployed, as he had been on the Fitzgerald for nearly two years, according to the Navy.

“He was supposed to be coming home in September,” Braniff said.

And next year, she said, Rehm was planning to retire from the military and stay home for good.

“I assumed they would be together forever,” Braniff said.

Two hours up the highway from the home that Rehm will never return to, the Lake Monticello volunteer fire department held a news conference over the weekend to announce the death of Dakota Rigsby — 19 and one of their own.

An assistant chief called him a “good kid” and good firefighter, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. He’d left tiny Palmyra, Va., last year to become a gunner’s mate seaman. Stars and Stripes reported that Rigsby got to meet the secretary of the Navy before his last night on the Fitzgerald.

In Oakville, Conn., the sister of 25-year-old Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc Truong Huynh remembered him as a quiet, sweet, selfless man who had not always desired a military life.

“But he wanted to do something adventurous,” Huynh’s sister told the Hartford Courant. So he enlisted about two years before his death.

From the town of Weslaco near the Texas-Mexico border, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez had spent eight years in the Navy, and in that time impressed his family with photos from Italy and the Pacific Ocean.

“We all came from poverty in Guatemala,” Aly Hernandez-Singer told CBS 11. “He was the one who made it.”

Now the photos he’d sent home were how his cousin remembered him, while his wife mourned him with their young son.

Carlos Victor Sibayan grew up with a military father who was often absent, deployed on a ship somewhere, his mother told NBC 7.

So Sibayan had assumed a patriarch’s role as a child, and helped raise his younger siblings outside San Diego.

“One thing that my son always told me is he has my back,” Carmen Sibayan told the station.

He was still a teenager in 2013, when he followed his father’s example and enlisted. During the three years he’d spent on board the Fitzgerald, his mother said, his father had retired from the military and come home.

Her son, a fire controlman, had been set to leave the ship and join them back in California in less than a month, she said. Then came the crash.

“We just borrow this time from God,” the mother said. “So now he has to go back.”

The final victim from the wreck in Japan, Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Douglass, also grew up in the country.

The son of a Marine stationed in Okinawa in the late 2000s, Stars and Stripes reported, he was remembered as the class clown at a U.S. military-run high school.

Douglass’s family moved to California before he graduated from high school in 2010, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. Four years later, he enlisted in the Navy and soon after returned to Japan.

His early duties on the Fitzgerald were menial — sanding, painting, raising and lowering the rafts, according to a Navy news release quoted by the paper. But Douglass told the Navy he was proud of his work and was excited to be in the military.

Service was important to the family, retired Master Sgt. Stephen Douglass told the Union-Tribune, shortly after his son’s death.

“My mind’s going a mile a minute,” he said. “We’re still in sort of a state of shock.”

Obama's 2010 Asia Trip To Create Jobs In U.S. Or India?

Obama Focuses On Economy, Both At Home And Overseas

President Obama heads to Asia Friday as part of an effort to improve U.S. trade relations, but experts say the president's perceived anti-trade rhetoric has complicated the process of reaching agreements that could benefit the U.S. economy.

Following election losses which signaled the administration should have focused more closely on the economy, the president's nine-day trip features an economy-related event in each of the four countries he's to visit.

In his post election news conference Wednesday, Mr. Obama acknowledged the American public was primarily focused on one issue in the voting booth. "I think that there is no doubt that people's number one concern is the economy," the president said. "And what they were expressing great frustration about is the fact that we haven't made enough progress on the economy."

It's a frustration the president plans to address with his Asian tour.

"The primary purpose is to take a bunch of U.S. companies and open up markets so that we can sell in Asia, in some of the fastest growing markets in the world. And we can create jobs here in the United States of America," President Obama said after meeting with his cabinet Thursday.

"My hope is that we've got some specific announcements that show the connection between what we're doing overseas and what happens here at home when it comes to job growth and economic growth," he added.

One specific achievement the White House hopes to announce: a deal with India, the first stop on the trip, to purchase ten Boeing C-17s. The deal, which would include training and ground equipment, could be worth as much as $5.8 billion dollars and create jobs.

The other tangible agreement the administration is hoping for: a free trade agreement with Korea. According to a statement released by the White House, Mr. Obama spoke with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak Tuesday and expressed his hopes in using their upcoming meeting in Seoul to solidify a deal.

"If we can reach a satisfactory agreement on the key issues for American workers, we will have a deal," the statement read.

But experts say that the Asia swing is not just meant to reassure the voting public that Mr. Obama is focused on the economy, the trip is also meant to send a message to worried Asian partners. "The big mess the president has to cope with...is the economic message," says Ernie Bower of the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

While in India, Mr. Obama is scheduled to address the U.S. India Business and Entrepreneurship Summit. He will also meet with a group of U.S. CEO's in India to "discuss the opportunities and challenges of doing business in India." Among the CEOs: David Cote of Honeywell, Jeffrey Immelt of GE, Terry McGraw of the Mcgraw Hill Companies, Jim McNerney of Boeing and Indra Nooyi of Pepsico.

In Indonesia, the president will deliver a "major speech" in which he will stress the Muslim majority country's growing role in the international economy. In Seoul, he will be joining other leaders at the G-20 Summit to discuss international economic issues such as the global financial crisis and currency revaluation. Finally, Mr. Obama will head to Japan for the 18th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.

"Every leader is going to grab him by lapels and ask him, ‘How is the U.S. economy and is it recovering, and when are you getting back to a leadership role on trade?'" Bower says.

Experts say the perceived weakness of the U.S. economy and fears of rising U.S. protectionism create major economic uncertainties for Asian economies that are reliant on U.S. consumers to drive exports.

Some argue the president's "misguided rhetoric" on the campaign trail didn't help matters.

"The president would be wise to drop once and for all the divisive line about shipping jobs overseas -- it doesn't do much politically or diplomatically," said Dan Griswold of the CATO Institute in Washington.

"India in some ways is a challenging stop for the president because during the campaign, he made a big fuss of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas," said Griswold.

Just last month, President Obama focused on this topic in his weekly address.

"For years, our tax code has actually given billions of dollars in tax breaks that encourage companies to create jobs and profits in other countries," Mr. Obama said who then turned his criticism to the GOP. "Over the last four years alone, Republicans in the House voted 11 times to continue rewarding corporations that create jobs and profits overseas -- a policy that costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year. That doesn't make a lot sense. It doesn't make sense for American workers, American businesses, or America's economy."

Of course, the president did acknowledge in this October 16 address that, "A lot of companies that do business internationally make an important contribution to our economy here at home. That's a good thing." Nonetheless, experts say the president will have to address his own "divisive" rhetoric once in Asia.

"So the president has been on the one hand, in the heat of the campaign, demonizing that economic integration, and on the other hand, he's going to go over there and what's he going to say?" asks Griswold.

"I think what he's going to see on the ground over there will be in direct contradiction to the way he was mis-portraying things on the campaign trail," says Griswold who argues the economic success in Asia, specifically in India, is in part because the country has followed the U.S. model of doing business, and those achievements should be praised.

"Our big ace in the hole with India is the growing commercial relationship and the president should be celebrating it, not demonizing," as he did during the midterm election cycle, Griswold argues.





Fuzzy Math Dogs Obama’s Asia Trip

As if Tuesday’s "Shellacking" wasn’t enough, President Barack Obama is getting pilloried by the right on the cost of his 10-day trip to Asia, with outlandish hyperventilation going directly from suspect Indian media reports to conservative U.S. media outlets and commentators without a pause for fact-checking.

First, the Press Trust of India reported that Mr. Obama’s entourage would be spending $200 million a day for two days in India, a claim that was quickly repeated last night by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) on CNN. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, “The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality,” and are “wildly inflated,” but “due to security concerns,” he would not offer an alternative price tag.

Snopes.com, a website devoted to myth busting, noted that even if the Indian press has correctly reported the size of the president’s entourage – 3,000 – the cost would work out to $66,000 per person per day, “a figure that stretches credulity to the breaking point.” Factcheck.org noted that the entire war in Afghanistan costs $190 million a day.

But the report is demonstrably incorrect. It says the White House had blocked off the entire Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai – it hasn’t – and that the press traveling with Mr. Obama will be staying there. We won’t. Besides, the press pays its own way at considerable cost to the media outlets, not the U.S. taxpayer.

Now a new rumor has emerged courtesy of India’s NDTV. Mr. Obama, the outlet says, “will be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast.” The White House called that ridiculous. But on the conservative Drudge Report website, it’s on the home page – in huge type.





U.S. To Spend $200 MN A Day On Obama's Mumbai Visit

The U.S. would be spending a whopping $200 million (Rs. 900 crore approx) per day on President Barack Obama's visit to the city.

"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.

"Except for personnel providing immediate security to the President, the US officials may not be allowed to carry weapons. The state police is competent to take care of the security measures and they would be piloting the Presidential convoy," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Navy and Air Force has been asked by the state government to intensify patrolling along the Mumbai coastline and its airspace during Obama's stay. The city's airspace will be closed half-an-hour before the President's arrival for all aircraft barring those carrying the US delegation.

The personnel from SRPF, Force One, besides the NSG contingent stationed here would be roped in for the President's security, the official said.

The area from Hotel Taj, where Obama and his wife Michelle would stay, to Shikra helipad in Colaba would be cordoned off completely during the movement of the President.


View Larger Map


Sources: Asia Society, CNN, Drudge Report, Fact Check, Fox News, NDTV, Snopes.com, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo News, Youtube, Google Maps

Did Toyota Care More About Profits Than Customers? Yes!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Toyota Apologizes But Asserts Electronics OK



The president of Toyota's operations apologized for the company's handling of safety issues Tuesday while insisting that electronic problems did not contribute to sudden acceleration of its cars. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued that such a possibility could not be ruled out.

Toyota's James Lentz and LaHood presented differing views in prepared testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel, the first of three congressional panels holding hearings on Toyota's problems.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., set the tone for sharp questioning of Lentz at the hearing's outset.

"Toyota all but ignored pleas from consumers to examine sudden unintended acceleration events," he said. "They boast in a briefing of saving Toyota $100 million by negotiating a limited recall. They claim that they first became aware of sticking pedals in late October of 2009 when in fact they had received numerous complaints many months and years earlier."

"They misled the American public," Stupak added, "by saying that they and other independent sources had thoroughly analyzed the electronics systems and eliminated electronics as a possible cause of sudden unintended acceleration when, in fact, the only such review was a flawed study conducted by a company retained by Toyota's lawyers."

Lentz said in prepared testimony that Toyota had poor communications within the company, with government regulators and with its customers.

But he also said that Toyota has no problems with its electronic throttle controls, which have been blamed as a possible cause of unintended acceleration in some Toyota models.

Also being heard from Tuesday are drivers like Rhonda Smith, a Sevierville, Tenn., woman whose Toyota-made Lexus suddenly zoomed to 100 miles per hour as she tried to get it to stop — shifting to neutral, trying to throw the car into reverse and hitting the emergency brake. Finally, her car slowed down before she crashed.

Smith wrote down her feelings after the 2006 scare, saying she had "a near death experience, which occurred on October 12, 2006 between approximately 10:50 and 11:00 a.m. At almost exactly 6 miles God intervened" and slowed the car. She said that nothing she had tried had worked.

Smith's description of her nightmare ride in October 2006 will precede testimony by safety experts — and set the tone for the hearing. Toyota executives and the secretary of transportation also will be at the witness table. Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel will be armed with preliminary staff findings that Toyota and the government failed to protect the public.

Toyota, which has recalled 8.5 million vehicles to fix acceleration problems in several models and braking issues in the 2010 hybrid Prius, is bringing apologies to the hearing.

"In recent months, we have not lived up to the high standards our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota," said Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. in prepared testimony. "Put simply, it has taken us too long to come to grips with a rare but serious set of safety issues, despite all of our good faith efforts."

More than 150 Toyota dealers gathered in the Capitol Tuesday morning before the hearing to lobby lawmakers in support of the carmaker. Many wore buttons saying, "I am Toyota in America."

"We made a choice, a conscious decision, to be part of something, rather than just submit to it," said Tammy Darvish, a Washington area dealer who helped organize the action, which Toyota also helped coordinate.

Dealers Complain

Toyota dealers are complaining that the besieged automaker is being treated unfairly by the U.S. government. Some say it's because the government has invested billions in two competitors, General Motors and Chrysler.

At a news conference in advance of the hearing Tuesday morning, some complained the government is picking on Toyota, even though there have been dozens of recalls of other automakers' vehicles in the past year.

Toyota revealed Monday that federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now investigating the company's safety problems and what it told government investigators.

Lentz was defiant on one point, asserting that Toyota is confident "no problems exist with the electronic throttle control system in our vehicles. We have designed our electronic throttle control system with multiple fail-safe mechanisms to shut off or reduce engine power in the event of a system failure."

LaHood, in written, prepared testimony, said his agency will ensure the safety of Toyota vehicles. He added the department's investigation includes the possibility that interference with electronics had a role in sudden acceleration.

"Although we are not aware of any incident proven to be caused by such interference, NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) is doing a thorough review of that subject to ensure safety," the secretary said. "If NHTSA finds a problem, we will make sure it is resolved."

Slow to Respond

Committee investigators have made preliminary findings that the government was slow to respond to 2,600 complaints of sudden unintended acceleration from 2000 to 2010.

LaHood countered, "Every step of the way, NHTSA officials have pushed Toyota to take corrective action so that consumers would be safe."

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hear from company president Akio Toyoda, who is expected to speak to the committee and the American public through a translator.

In an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal, Toyoda acknowledged that the automaker had stumbled badly.

"It is clear to me that in recent years we didn't listen as carefully as we should — or respond as quickly as we must — to our customers' concerns," wrote Toyoda.


Sources: MSNBC, Toyota

Toyota's New PR Nightmare: Lawsuits & Declining Stock

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Toyota's Next Problem: Lawsuits


Fixing millions of gas pedals and brakes and convincing customers their vehicles are safe could end up being the least of Toyota's challenges. Some experts think the price tag from legal settlements could end up topping the company's estimate of $2 billion in recall costs.

There are already more than 30 U.S. lawsuits filed against Toyota involving the problems with its gas pedals alone, according to Craig Hutson, senior investment grade analyst at Gimme Credit, a bond research service firm. And there are more lawsuits are in the works.

"Lawyers are champing at the bit to get at these guys, and the company has come out and largely admitted mistakes in respect to these issues," said Hutson. "It's hard to put a dollar amount on it, but multi-billion dollar costs are not out of the realm of possibility."

Hutson isn't alone in worrying about how much lawsuits could hurt Toyota. Credit rating agency Moody's cited the litigation risks when it warned Tuesday that it might downgrade Toyota's credit ratings.

The company also faces at least one class action suit involving problems with the brakes on 2010 models of the Prius and other hybrid vehicles. Toyota announced a recall for those hybrids Tuesday.

New reports of problems with the steering of its Corolla could mean more lawsuits against Toyota.

Safety experts estimate official complaints involving Toyota gas pedals show there have been 19 fatalities involving the recalled vehicles.

But Gary Robb, an attorney in Kansas City who is looking at filing cases, says he believes that number will increase significantly as people look more deeply into accidents for which no cause was ever determined.

"We've had so many calls from so many people now that this news has come out," he said. "Accidents that were heretofore attributed to driver error are very likely due to a malfunction of the gas pedal. There's going to be dozens of those incidents arising."

Cases involving death or serious injury will likely be handled in individual lawsuits.

Suing to reclaim lost value.

Robb said he's also looking at a class action case to try to recover billions of dollars he claims were lost in the resale value of the recalled vehicles. He said his experts estimate total losses could be in the $6 billion to $8 billion range. "For many people their car is their second largest investment," he said.

Other experts suggest that the loss in resale value is not as high as Robb's figure, but that it is still likely in the billions.

Toyota's troubles: How it got here

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kelley Blue Book, a leading used-car value service, is lowering its estimated prices for the recalled models this Friday by 2.5% to 3.5%. That's enough to lower the value of each vehicle by between $250 and $800.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that more than 6 million U.S. vehicles are affected by the recall. So based on Kelley Blue Book's estimates, the overall loss in resale value is likely to be at least $2 billion.

Toyota wouldn't comment on its legal exposure from the recalls. As to the reduction in resale value by Kelley Blue Book it said, "Historically Toyota and Lexus vehicles have held their value very well relative to other vehicles. We expect that to be true in the future as well."

It's not clear whether courts will allow plaintiffs to collect that much money. James Henderson, a law professor at Cornell University, said legal precedent is against them.

But Henderson does think the recall opens Toyota for a rash of new personal injury cases. He added that if it is determined that Toyota knew of problems with the gas pedals and did not warn a driver involved in an accident, the company could be hit with punitive damages.

Hutson said beyond the cost of any jury verdicts or settlements, the lawsuits have the potential of causing continued damage to Toyota's reputation, keeping the problems and company's failures in the news. That could cost the company additional sales going forward.

He said if any documents come out which prove Toyota engineers knew something needed to be fixed, it will be difficult for Toyota to ever regain consumers' trust.

"When your image is one that has been largely built on quality and dependability, you can't afford that kind of smoking gun," Hutson said.



View Larger Map

Sources: CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, DOT.gov, Google Maps

Toyota Recalls The Prius Too; Company No Longer #1

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Toyota Recalls Prius, Other Hybrids Worldwide


Toyota says it is recalling about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems — the latest in a string of embarrassing safety lapses at the world's largest automaker.

"I don't see Toyota as an infallible company that never makes mistakes," President Akio Toyoda said at a news conference Tuesday. "We will face up to the facts and correct the problem, putting customers' safety and convenience first."

With the Prius announcement, the number of vehicles recalled globally by Toyota Motor Corp. has ballooned to 8.5 million, including for floor mats which can trap gas pedals and faulty gas pedals that are slow to return to the idle position. The 2010 Prius wasn't part of the earlier recalls.

There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay doesn't indicate a brake failure. The company says the problem can be fixed in 40 minutes with new software that oversees the controls of the antilock brakes.

"Let me assure everyone that we will redouble our commitment to quality as the lifeline of our company," Toyoda said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Tuesday that Toyota's leaders have assured him they are taking safety concerns "very seriously." The statement said LaHood's agency will stay in constant communication with Toyota to hold the company to its promise.

A U.S. House hearing on Toyota's gas pedal recalls scheduled for Wednesday was postponed due to weather, aides told NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell.

Also, State Farm, the largest auto insurer in the U.S., said it alerted federal regulators late in 2007 about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Congressional investigators are looking into whether the government missed warning signs.

Toyota officials went to Japan's Transport Ministry earlier Tuesday to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid — the world's top-selling hybrid car. The automaker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the U.S. and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan.

The 223,000 cars being recalled in Japan include nearly 200,000 Priuses sold from April last year through Monday, according to papers the automaker filed with the ministry. The Prius is Japan's top-selling car.

In the U.S., Toyota will recall 133,000 Prius cars and 14,500 Lexus HS250h vehicles. Nearly 53,000 Priuses are also being recalled in Europe. Toyota is suspending production of the Sai and Lexus HS250h in Japan until the updated software for those models is ready.

If drivers experience a delayed reaction when depressing the brakes in any of these models, they should keep pressing, according to Toyota and the transport ministry.

The Prius repairs will start in Japan on Wednesday. U.S. owners will start receiving letters about the recall next week.

Toyoda, the president, has been criticized for being largely invisible during the two weeks after the company announced Jan. 21 the gas pedal recall in the U.S., Europe and China.

He apologized at his first public news conference last Friday, but was criticized by the Japanese media for failing to outline concrete steps to tackle the safety crisis and reassure customers.

In contrast to his halting English in response to questions from foreign reporters at last week's news conference, Toyoda seemed much better prepared Tuesday, reading from an English statement after doing so in Japanese.

"We will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers," Toyoda said.

He said he planned to go to the U.S. soon to talk with American workers and dealers to bring the ranks together.

Analysts said fears of an even bigger consumer backlash prodded Toyota into recalling the Prius.

"If they hadn't done the recalls, their image would have suffered even more," said Ryoichi Saito, auto analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities in Tokyo.

The Japanese transport minister rapped Toyota as reacting too slowly, and said he was meeting U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos on Wednesday to exchange views about Toyota's recalls and make sure U.S.-Japan relations remained on good terms.

"The consideration for customers was lacking in Toyota," Seiji Maehara told reporters, after a meeting with Toyoda. "We hope this never happens again."

Toyoda, who visited the minister after his news conference, apologized and explained the recalls, Maehara said.

U.S. safety officials are investigating the brake problem.

It is suspected in four crashes resulting in two minor injuries, according to data gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Toyota says it's cooperating with NHTSA's investigation.

Also Tuesday, Toyota said it will voluntarily recall about 7,300 four-cylinder Camry sedans produced early in the 2010 model year because of a possible brake fluid leak. Dealers will inspect the cars for a power steering hose that could come in contact with a brake tube, causing a leak. The leak means it could take longer for the vehicle to stop, the company said. Owners will get letters starting in mid-February.

Problems with hybrid braking systems haven't been limited to Toyota.

Ford Motor Co. said last week it plans to fix 17,600 Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion gas-electric hybrids because of a software problem that can give drivers the impression that the brakes have failed. The automaker says the problem occurs in transition between two braking systems and at no time are drivers without brakes.

Toyota's plug-in hybrid is also being recalled in Japan, Europe and the U.S., but in small numbers because it is a largely experimental model for rental and government use.

The Prius holds a cherished spot in Toyota's vehicle lineup and is symbolic of its leadership in the "green" car market.

The Toyota executive overseeing quality, Shinichi Sasaki, said the delay that Prius drivers can feel when braking lasts for a fraction of a second as the antilock brakes kick in.

The problem happens only on snowy or bumpy surfaces, and the complaints did not become more numerous until winter, Sasaki said.

But Toyoda acknowledged the company could have done better in picking up on the complaints, managing the crisis and sending a message to car owners on a fix.

In the U.S., Toyota will add five more centers in addition to the current three that investigate customer complaints, Sasaki said.

"When compared to the size of Japan, America is so much bigger and so our network for gathering information was not enough," he said.

Toyota was one of the first companies to mass-market a hybrid that combines an electric motor with a gas engine, introducing the Prius in Japan in 1997. Its high gas mileage made it popular among environmentally conscious drivers, especially when gas prices spiked two years ago.

But the complexity of the Prius, a highly computerized car, has led to problems in the past. In 2005, the company repaired 75,000 of them to fix software glitches that caused the engine to stall. It has also had trouble with headlights going out.

Shares in Toyota rose 2.9 percent Tuesday to 3,375 yen, but are still down about 20 percent since Jan. 21, when it announced the gas pedal recall.


Sources: MSNBC

Toyota's Swift Fall From Grace; Apology Comes Too Late

Toyota: Apology But No New Recall

Toyota Motor chief executive Akio Toyoda apologized Friday for the problems that led to the company's recall of more than 8 million cars. But he did not announce any solution for brake problems of its popular Prius hybrid.

Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, made his first public appearance in the two weeks that the company has faced a growing crisis over the safety and quality of its vehicles.

The recall affected 8.1 million vehicles worldwide and will cost the company an estimated $2 billion in repair costs and lost sales due to a sticking accelerator. Toyota has not said how much the new problems with the braking system in the Prius will cost it, though.

Toyoda said an investigation of the Prius problems is under way, and a decision on whether there will be another recall will be announced as soon as possible.

The company also announced Friday it is looking at the brake systems of the latest Lexus hybrid vehicles as well as a Japanese model called the Sai -- because they use the same system as the one on the 2010 Prius.

But Toyoda denied the company has been trying to hide problems with the brakes from safety officials in the United States and Japan. Still, he admitted Toyota needed to do more to assure customers about the safety of its vehicles.

"I feel we are in stormy weather," he said. "Under this situation, [we] must regain customer trust. Tackle the problem. My role is to carry it out. We lacked customer perspective. It's very unfortunate."

Not going far enough. But one expert said Toyota and its chief made a mistake by not announcing a recall for the Prius, especially since it now is clear there is a problem that will eventually need to be fixed.

"What we heard this morning was more foot dragging," said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for auto sales Web site Edmunds.com. "They still are not very forthcoming. I think it'd be in their best interest to do a recall, and get it all behind them."

Other experts agreed that Toyota is suffering greater damage by not getting all the bad news out as quickly as possible.

"For reasons we may never learn, Toyota appears to be pulling their bandage very slowly, and therefore keeping their recall situation...firmly in the public eye," said James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

Krebs said that while most Toyota customers appear to be staying loyal to the brand for now, the damage being done to its image could hit future sales. She believes Toyota's estimates of a loss of 80,000 sales in North America and another 20,000 in Europe due to the recall are probably too low.

"My impression is they are fairly tone deaf about how significant this is in the U.S.," she said. "I don't think they have a good sense of what it's going to cost them in terms of reputation and sales."

She added that problems with the Prius are a particularly tough blow to Toyota -- even though the number of hybrids affected is insignificant compared to the 8.1 million vehicles recalled due to the gas pedal concerns.

"The Prius is so important to them. It's the pinnacle of their technological knowledge and engineering prowess. Now that image has been tarnished," she said.

Toyoda has faced harsh criticism over the last two weeks about his lack of public appearances during the crisis. Krebs said it was important for him to finally speak to the public.

How did Toyota got here? Timeline

The tone of the news conference, which took place late Friday night in Japan, was very out of character with what is normally seen at corporate press conferences in Japan. Reporters did not show the typical deference to a top executive. Some demanded answers about why there is no leadership and why the company was dodging questions.

Toyoda said the company would set up a committee to examine problems that led to the recall and said the company would cooperate with U.S. authorities who are looking into problems with Toyota vehicles.

"Believe me, Toyota's cars are safe," he said.

No solution yet for brake problem. The company has admitted it had a problem with the software controlling the anti-lock braking system of the 2010 model year Prius. The company said earlier this week that it has changed the software for cars produced since January, and it is looking into what to do with the vehicles already on the road.

Jesse Toprak, analyst with TrueCar.com, said the delay in announcing a recall for the Prius is a sign that fixing vehicles already on the road won't be as simple as fixing ones coming off the assembly line. But he said Toyota would be better off announcing the recall even if a solution is not finalized.

"Normally it would have been better off to wait for a solution. It doesn't help your image to say you don't know how to fix your own cars. But these are not normal times for Toyota," he said.

The 2010 model year Prius went on sale in the middle of last year. There are an estimated 37,000 of the cars on the road in the United States, and more than 200,000 worldwide. It is the best-selling vehicle in Japan and Toyota's fourth-best selling model in the U.S.

There have been 124 reports of problems with the brakes on the Prius in the United States, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, which Thursday announced it had launched a formal defect investigation into the car. There have been reports of four accidents involving the Prius brakes, two of which had injuries, although there have been no reported fatalities.

Toyota, which achieved steady market share growth in the United States due to its reputation of strong vehicle quality and safety, has been criticized by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for being slow to respond to the latest problems. LaHood said Toyota did not move on the accelerator recall until pushed to do so by U.S. safety officials.

The Prius brake problem causes a delay of about a second in the brakes engaging, but during a second a car traveling 60 m.p.h. can travel almost 100 feet.

While Toyota (TM) has far greater financial resources than most of its rivals, especially its U.S. rivals General Motors, Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) and Chrysler Group, the quality issues do pose a financial challenge for the company. Friday credit rating agency Standard & Poor's placed its debt on credit watch, meaning it faces the risk of a downgrade that could raise its borrowing costs.

"Standard & Poor's believes that these developments may affect the company's reputation for quality, weakening its competitive position," it said in the announcement.


View Larger Map

Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Google Maps

Toyota's Prius Brake Malfunction Crisis; More Problems

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Toyota Admits Design Flaw With Prius Brakes


Toyota Motor Corp. acknowledged design problems with the brakes in its prized Prius hours before the U.S. Department of Transportation opened an investigation into the 2010 model.

The new investigation adds to the catalog of woes for the Japanese automaker as it reels from massive gas-pedal recalls around the world.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the AP it received 124 reports from consumers, including four reports of crashes. The investigation will look into allegations of momentary loss of braking capability while traveling over uneven road surfaces, potholes or bumps.

The Japanese government has ordered Toyota to investigate brake problems. The automaker said it had corrected problems with the antilock brake system in Prius models sold since late last month, including those shipped overseas.

But the company said it was still investigating how to inform customers who had bought them earlier. Nothing was decided on that front for Prius gas-electric hybrids sold outside Japan, according to Toyota.

"We are investigating whether there are defects in the Prius," Toyota executive Hiroyuki Yokoyama told reporters at the automaker's Tokyo headquarters.

When the car moves on a bumpy or slippery surface, a driver can feel a pause in the braking when the vehicle switches between the traditional hydraulic brakes and the electronically operated braking system, said Paul Nolasco, a company spokesman. He credited that pause to the two systems in a gas-electric hybrid — the gas-engine and the electric motor.

The brakes start to work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal, but the driver may momentarily feel they aren't working, he said. Fixing that included a software programming change, he said.

Company mulling Prius recall

Whether a recall was in the works for the Prius is still undecided, according to Toyota.

A major Toyota dealership in Tokyo said the automaker had informed dealers that Prius brakes can sometimes fail to work for less than a second but it had not told owners.

"It is disappointing because the Prius was receiving such rave reviews," said Hiroyuki Naito, a manager at the dealership. The latest model Prius hit showrooms last May and is only made in Japan.

In recent weeks, the automaker had answered questions about its overseas recalls for gas pedals with assurances that problems didn't extend to Japanese vehicles, implying it was doing a better job with quality control in Japan.

"I plan to drive very carefully"

But Prius owners were worried.

Akira Suzuki, 25, who makes surf boards and teaches surfing, was excited about the high mileage his recently purchased hybrid offers — but concerned about its possible problems.

"I'm not sure how safe it is. I plan to drive very carefully," said Suzuki, who lives in a Tokyo suburb.

Earlier in Washington, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood startled the public with a comment, which he later retracted, that Americans should park their recalled Toyotas unless driving to dealers for accelerator repairs.

The Prius was not part of the recall spanning the U.S., Europe and China over sticking gas pedals in eight top-selling models including the Camry. That recall involved 2.3 million cars in the U.S. alone.

Toyota senior managing director Takahiko Ijichi defended the automaker's quality standards.

"We have not sacrificed the quality for the sake of saving costs," he said. "Quality is our lifeline. We want our customers to feel safe and regain their trust as soon as possible."

Toyota for the first time gave an estimate of the costs of the global gas-pedal recall. The $2 billion total represents $1.1 billion for repairs and $770 million to $880 million in lost sales.

Toyota is expecting to lose 100,000 in vehicle sales because of the recall fallout — 80,000 of them in North America.

The tarnishing of the Prius nameplate is also a serious setback for Toyota's recovery from the global auto slump.

"It's very unclear what the future will bring," said Mamoru Katou, auto analyst with Tokai Tokyo Research. "Toyota's image as a leader in hybrids has been hurt."

The automaker has received 77 complaints in Japan about braking problems for the Prius. Separately, the Japanese government confirmed 14 complaints. About 100 complaints over Prius brakes have been filed in the U.S.

At least one accident has been reported in Japan suspected of being linked to faulty braking. In that accident, in July 2009, a Prius crashed head on into another car, slightly injuring two people, according to the transport ministry.

Toyota had looked into that accident and concluded there were no problems with the Prius.

Dealers start receiving parts

In the U.S., harried dealers began receiving parts to repair defective gas pedals in millions of vehicles and said they'd be extending their hours deep into the night to try and catch up. Toyota said that would solve the problem — which it said was extremely rare — of cars unaccountably accelerating.

Toyota is set to face additional questioning from U.S. congressional and other government investigators. Toyota has shut down several new vehicle assembly lines and is rushing parts to dealers to fix problems with the accelerators, trying to preserve a reputation of building safe, durable vehicles.

The latest recall involves 2009-10 RAV4 crossovers, 2009-10 Corollas, 2009-10 Matrix hatchbacks, 2005-10 Avalons, 2007-10 Camrys, 2010 Highlander crossovers, 2007-10 Tundra pickups and 2008-10 Sequoia SUVs.

U.S. lawmakers who are now digging into the recalls say they would look into the Prius.

Many consumer groups have questioned whether Toyota's gas pedal fix will work and have asserted it could be connected to problems with the electronic throttle control systems.

Yasuaki Iwamoto, auto analyst with Okasan Securities in Tokyo, said the big challenge for Toyota was rebuilding its damaged brand, especially in overseas markets.

"For all people who own Toyota cars, for all people with jobs related to Toyota, this huge sense of uncertainty simply isn't going away," he said.



View Larger Map

Sources: MSNBC, Toyota, Google Maps

Toyota's Damage Control Goes Into Overdrive...Public Relations Nightmare!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Experts See Flaws In Toyota’s Handling Of Crisis


The problem with faulty gas pedals in its cars and trucks is rare, Toyota says, and car owners are unlikely to experience any trouble. Toyota's reputation is another matter.

Crisis management experts say just how far Toyota's image tumbles depends on how quickly it can fix the problems and how well it communicates with hundreds of thousands of loyal customers.

They also say that Toyota's growth has outpaced its management structure. The company didn't have in place the mechanisms to identify and deal with the problems before they exploded into two giant recalls, factory shutdowns and instructions to dealers to stop selling eight models.

Toyota Motor Corp. rode a reputation for reliability to become the world's top car maker. For more than 30 years, it won customers and market share from General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. by building high-quality cars such as the midsize Camry and compact Corolla.

Americans, particularly baby boomers, frustrated with Detroit's poor quality, fell in love with Toyotas because they rarely broke down. Last year, they bought more than 356,000 Camrys, making it the top-selling car in the U.S. The Corolla was second with almost 297,000 sales.

In short, drivers trusted Toyota. Now that trust is in danger.

Toyota said late Tuesday it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models, including Camry and Corolla, to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. It recalled more cars on Thursday.

Crisis managers say the issues with the pedals likely surfaced early on at lower levels of the company, but no one wanted to deliver bad news to the boss.

"Nobody wants to go upstairs and say 'Hey, we just made 10,000 cars that have a problem and it's going to cost us millions to fix them,'" says Robert Wiseman, a professor of strategic management at Michigan State University.

In March of 2007, Toyota started getting reports of gas pedals being slow to rise after being depressed for acceleration. Engineers fixed the problem in the Tundra pickup early in 2008.

But troubles persisted in other models, eventually leading to last week's recall and the plans to suspend sales and shut down of six factories while Toyota tries to fix the problems.

Toyota insists that the sudden, uncontrolled acceleration is "rare and infrequent" but offered few specifics. A spokesman at the company's office in Torrance, Calif., didn't return two messages left seeking comment for this story.

The delay in dealing with the problem now leaves Toyota in an untenable public relations situation. It's forced to alarm customers and take vehicles off the market before the repair parts are ready, said Jim Cain, senior vice president of the Quell Group, a Troy, Mich., public relations firm and a former Ford Motor Co. spokesman.

He also said the company likely had the information it could have used to diagnose the problems much faster.

"There are always consumer complaints and warranty information, parts return data and other things that can indicate problems before they become of such colossal magnitude," he said.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Seeing problems early will become even more important as automakers increasingly sell the same model with common parts across the globe, Cain said. Companies want to act quickly to avoid global recalls that will only become more costly, he said.

Toyota, which is ahead of other automakers in globalization, could see its U.S. problems spread to Europe, where a similar accelerator part is used. The company is studying possible responses there.

Toyota's response at least partially replicates the crisis communications strategy used by Johnson & Johnson in the 1982 Chicago-area Tylenol poisoning case.

J&J recalled more than 20 million bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol and burned every one. It also communicated with the public and came up with new tamper-resistant packaging.

The company placed consumer safety above cost, restoring its reputation quickly, said Brenda Wrigley, chair of the public relations department at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

"Treating people honestly and openly is the way to go," she said.

With Toyota's mechanical problem, though, the company can't just pull all of the problem products off the shelves, she said.

"They're really in a bind. Short of saying 'park it in the driveway and don't drive it anymore,' how do you prevent everybody from exposure to a safety issue?" Wrigley asked.

Toyota thus far has avoided Ford's mistakes from last decade when hundreds of people died or were injured in accidents involving tread separation on tires, most of which were on popular Explorer sport utility vehicles. Ford blamed tire company Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., while Bridgestone said the Explorer's design was faulty. Both companies' reputations were tarnished.

The latest developments follow a recall of 4.2 million Toyota vehicles in late 2009 over concerns that floor mats could bend across gas pedals, causing sudden acceleration.

The problems, Wrigley said, hit Toyota extra hard because it has touted quality for years to gain advantage over competitors.

"Quality was their differentiator and now it's their Achilles heel," she said.


View Larger Map

Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Toyota's Loyal Customers Unfazed By Mysterious Recall

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Americans Confused, But Still Driving Their Toyotas


Some Toyota customers are swearing off the brand, while others aren't much worried about sticky gas pedals. For just about everybody, confusion reigns.

Toyota first announced its massive recall last week, which followed one last November. Both involve issues with gas pedals in millions of Toyota's most popular models.

Toyota owners are still waiting for a coherent story about what is actually going on, said Sylvia Marino, executive director at auto sales site Edmunds.com.

"People are feeling a cross between shock, concern and disbelief," she said. "There's a huge amount of confusion. People are saying, 'I think I own a car affected by a recall but I'm not sure,' and it's going to take time for owners to get an official recall notice from their dealer."

Even local dealerships don't have the answers customers are looking for.

Bobby Moore, service director at Atlanta Toyota, said his dealership has received a large volume of phone calls from customers wondering if their particular car is affected by the recall, what Toyota is doing to solve the problem and when the issue will be fixed.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

He said people seem to be feeling a combination of confusion and frustration, and while the dealership has been able to answer most of their questions, there are still a lot of holes.

A Toyota spokesman has said that the carmaker is very close to announcing a solution to the sticking gas pedal issue for cars.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Still cruising: While the phones may be ringing off the hook at dealerships, many Toyota owners are not all that worried, said James Bell, vice president at Kelley Blue Book.

"Sure you're going to see the reports of people running to Toyota stores and throwing the keys at the dealer," he said. "But I think the general sense is that while this is a problem, we're not going to all of a sudden see speeding Toyotas left and right on the freeway."

Matt Schoder of Sandusky, Ohio said he and his wife are still driving their 2007 and 2010 Camrys -- both of which are covered under the recall -- without concern.
0:00 /1:18Toyota recalls spread

"This could happen to any brand, and it has," he said. "They will come out stronger in the end. Good companies -- and people -- learn from their mistakes."

Matt Fitterer, from Spokane, Wash., said he isn't worried about the recall either and that he will continue to drive his 2009 Toyota Corolla.

"My reaction was that it's not a big deal, the brand itself is very reliable so I know they'll find a fix," said Fitterer. "And if I get pulled over by a cop, I'll just tell them my gas pedal got stuck!"

Slamming the brakes: Other Toyota owners who are more concerned may continue driving their cars because they have no other choice. But when it's time to buy a new vehicle, spending money on another Toyota will be out of the question.

Marino said that of the customers currently in the market for a new car and considering a Toyota, about half of these people may delay purchasing a vehicle until more is learned about the recall.

A third to a quarter of those people considering Toyotas will likely switch to other manufacturers, as indicated by comments such as the post one Toyota owner wrote in an Edmunds.com forum:

"I will NEVER, EVER purchase another Toyota in my life. Toyota has gotten too big, too fast and they're quality has gone down hill."

Taking the GM bait: After Toyota announced its most recent recall, General Motors pounced on the opportunity to take advantage of its competitor's fumble, offering incentives of $1,000 and low financing rates to Toyota customers who have had their vehicles recalled.

Bell said that over the last quarter, Kelley Blue Book has been tracking the number of people visiting its site who identify themselves as Toyota owners but who also view GM vehicles, as well as the number of GM owners who shop around for Toyotas.

The data collected so far shows that GM owners are more likely to also view Toyota vehicles, whereas Toyota customers hardly ever look for GM products.

GM's incentive program could therefore be a great way to attract those Toyota owners who may not have considered GM's lineup before the recall, said Bell.

"It'll make people take pause and say, 'let's go have a sniff and see what they're like,'" he said.

Jeff Morris, a salesman at Jim Crivelli Chevrolet, a GM dealer in Pennsylvania, said that while Thursday was the first day the incentives were offered, the new deals are already attracting customers.

"It seems like a lot of people are in a kind of a state of panic about their Toyota products," he said. "We've already seen interest, so I think [the incentive program] is really going to help business."


Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Toyota