Toyota "not totally" confident despite their "commitment' commercial.

In what seemed to be the beginnings of a damage control campaign, with the airing of the Toyota's "commitment" commercial and other messaging concerning Toyota's dedication to fix their errors, newly released information suggests that the recalls may not, in fact, fix the problem. When Toyota's U.S. sales chief James Lentz was asked today following his testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce whether he could say with certainty that the fixes now being undertaken would completely eliminate the problems, Lentz responded "not totally." He added that the chances of unintended accelerations would be "very, very slim" once the recalls were complete. Though Toyota has not expressly ruled out an electronics malfunction, they argue that they have not found an electronic malfunction in the cars in question. This conclusion is based on Toyota's assertion that they and other independent sources had thoroughly analyzed the electronics systems and eliminated electronics as a possible cause of sudden unintended acceleration. However, this review was conducted by a company retained by Toyota's lawyers.

Not what Toyota owners, shareholders, and the government wanted to hear.

In the same testimony, Lentz previously stated that Toyota has "rigorously tested [their] solutions and (they) are both effective and durable."

This leads to the question, why, Toyota, are your 1,500 dealerships trying to complete the recalls as "quickly and conveniently as possible...[with] some dealers staying open 24/7 and repairing vehicles at a rate of about 50,000 a day?" If your solutions are both "effective and durable" then why are you "not totally" certain whether or not the fixes now being undertaken would completely eliminate the problem?

In the wake of the recent crisis, has Toyota succumbed to mounting pressure to implement a solution quickly that it may not totally fix the problem? Is it better to say 'we don't really know, for certain, what the problem is, but we are working on it?" Or implement a wave of repairs that may not do the trick?

In arguably the worst handled auto recall, is Toyota setting themselves up for another potential crisis? With increasing government involvement and speculation of Toyota's probe into the matter, and the potential chance of their being another third-party investigation of the issue, could Toyota find themselves in a similar, but worse crisis? What will Toyota do if, in fact, their 'solutions' do not really solve the problem?

ev