Tag: Toyota

Lexus Owners = Teh Stupid

Even though a Lexus ES 350 was involved in a widely publicized accident before the recalls, Lexus sales are up about 5 percent so far in 2010 compared with last year. That is close to the average for other luxury brands.

By contrast, sales of models with the Toyota nameplate fell 15 percent.

Analysts said that sales of Lexus have held up partly because the brand is not included in the most serious recall for sticking accelerator pedals.

Lexus must therefore not have as many problems, right?

Yet on a per-vehicle basis, Lexus is responsible for more reports of unintended acceleration than the rest of Toyota, federal records show. And more than half of the roughly 300 such complaints to regulators since 2000 about Lexus ES and IS series models – the only two models subject to recall – involve vehicles from years that have not been recalled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03…

The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Mad Hatters and Tea Parties

Crossposted at Daily Kos

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

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Steve Sack

Steve Sack, Comics.com

Should John Dingell be primaried out in 2008 or 2010?

Tom Friedman writes about how Michigan automakers and Toyota have consistently fought against rises in auto emissions standards. What Friedman doesn’t get is what he calls empty-barrel politics — or the practice by Detroit automakers of constantly fighting against higher and higher MPG standards, even though they have been brought to the verge of bankruptcy by those standards.