As the owner of a Toyota Camry produced during the recall time line, this issues hits a little close to home. When I purchased the vehicle, I stretched my budget to get this car because of the manufacturer’s reputation for quality, service, safety, and longevity of product. I’m a high mileage driver, frequently driving in bad weather conditions and along isolated and mountainside roadways. After driving an older car for 11 years, I wanted something that would be reliable and give me peace of mind. To date, I’ve always taken my care to a Toyota dealership to have it serviced. Frankly, part of what you purchase when paying for a Toyota is that reliability and peace of mind. I wanted to purchase a car that I could drive 250k miles and 15 years. That is the very reason that this current string of quality issues is a serious problem for the company.
Here’s a little laundry list of issues I’ve got with Toyota, most of them personal experience:
I was given weather proof mats with the purchase of my car, to be shipped to my address. Two years later, still no mats.
A few months after making the purchase and at 11,000 miles (1,000 miles over the 10,000 mile new purchase full warrant), the front bumper came unhitched from the wheel well. Mind you, this is cosmetic, but I expected the company to fix it. They did not, and quoted me a $800 price tag. Needless to say, I’ve learned to deal with it.
Servicing the vehicle with the dealership has historically been expensive. The first 30k miles brought on a a couple of $250+ routine services. Even the routine oil changes were expensive at $50+. Over the last six months, the price of an oil change has fallen to around $30, much closer to my expectations.
My little tray in the console between the front seats is stuck and won’t open. Apparently, a card of some type fell behind the latch, so I can’t get it open. Mostly cosmetic, but still very annoying.
The company has 12 vehicles listed with a recall. 12… Really? I think we can call that a systemic issue at this point.
It’s a little early to criticize the company for its handling of the issue. After all, lets be honest, this isn’t an exploding gas tank problem. According to statistics from the company, over 80% of Toyota’s vehicles are still on the road after 20 years. I couldn’t even find Toyota listed when I googled for top ten automobile recalls (here’s one example). At this point, my issues isn’t with the company having recalls. My issue is with how poorly the company is handling the recalls. Here’s how the company has responded:
I know the company is strong in its corporate culture, and maybe in Japan the brand carries enough strength to inspire confidence with consumers. But here in the US, we want to see executives stepping up to plate and taking responsibility for the problems. Failure to do just that it was drove many of us away from our own domestic car companies
Ultimately, I think Toyota is (hopefully) taking the right operational steps… but they are failing miserably in the PR department. I’ve almost reached my breaking point, between hearing about a new recall every morning on CNBC to listening to the talking heads opine about the issue in the evening. The company has to step up and reassure me as an existing customer. For me, that means some level of personal communication. It also means making a vehicle at an affordable price point that dominates in the quality and performance categories. Oh, and sending me my floor mats.
So, I’m ashamed to admit that I actually couldn’t sleep last night thinking about Lane Kiffin’s exit as coach at Tennessee. I’m not so self-centered as to not consider this in the grand scheme of things (my prayer’s go out for those affected by the Haitian earthquake), but I’ve grown up a Volunteer. Some of my earliest memories are watching UT football with my parents. To dissect this a little more, part of it’s my competitive nature and the hope I had for winning the SEC East next year, part of it was thinking about the train wreck of misguided team spirit on the campus (really… you set a mattress on fire?), and part of it was thinking about the alternatives. Something about my personality comes to life in a time of crisis; I love the intensity and velocity of navigating and managing a crisis.
Unfortunately, I don’t earn my living thinking about UT football… so I need to get this off my brain so I can be productive. Here’s a download of some things going through my head:
Thoughts on Kiffin’s Exit:
Let’s be honest… Kiffin’s career flourished at USC and his persona/identity is riddled with USC references (i.e. we adopted a “USC/West Coast” offense). I’d wager that inside his psyche, this was his dream job all along. The school has plenty of money, California loves big personalities, and he has a history with the school. I know its hard not to take it personal, but the guy made a career move. Ill timed and very inconsiderate, but he has wagered his entire career on making USC successful. He failed in the pros, he’s jumped ship on an SEC school after talking trash about most others, and now he’s inheriting a very bruised USC program. If he can’t make it work and quick, he will be reconciled to a tier 2 coach for the rest of his career. Particularly once his dad retires from football.
I’ve supported Kiffin from the start, but let’s just be honest, the guy has a mouth on him. I grew up seeing Tennessee football and their coaches as classy and confident, not mouthy and arrogant. I’m not sure Kiffin ever fit the Tennessee culture, as much as we tried/pretended he did. Good riddance.
While the fans are devastated by this, the real victims are the current players, including those enrolled for this season. They were sold loyalty, performance, and discipline from a team of coaches that turned on them in a moment of real need. We need leadership right now from the players. If they don’t step up, this team will have a very difficult time. We still have much of the same team that lost to the national champions by a blocked field goal… Much of that team is returning next year. I repeat, most of that team is returning next year.
Recruiting is going to take a serious hit… Frankly, I don’t see anyway we hold together a recruiting class that makes it into the top 10. Fortunately, a couple of our large recruiting holes (i.e. quarterback) are “locked in” barring transfer restrictions from NCAA.
The coaching cabinet is going to be cleared out… although I hope we hold on to some of them, specifically Lance Thompson and Kippy Brown (who has been named interim-head coach).
I’m not one for taking pot shots at people in leadership positions, but from a business and competitive economics environment, what was Mike Hamilton thinking providing a $800k buyout for a young up-and-comer like Lane Kiffin. I don’t remember the link or the specifics, but I think we had a $4M buyout to fire him in his first year, but he could leave us for $800k. You know we were paying about 80% of competitive salaries in the SEC, so you know there was some flight risk involved. You’ve got to create more protection than that.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let’s talk about where we go from here:
New head coach and recruiting coordinator… STAT! We need to analyze and make decisions on the current recruiting class. Now to be clear, I’m a big Kippy Brown fan and don’t mean to pass him up for head coach, but I’ve heard he isn’t interested. Some of the other coaches may be able to transition with a new coaching staff (can we keep lance Thompson, please?) and some of them need to find other homes. Either way, it needs to happen fast. As an aside, please stick with a pro-style or smash mount offensive strategy. Let’s not get gimmicky. Here are my three picks for head coach:
Will Muschamp–This guy is the heir apparent for Texas, so he won’t be cheap or easy to secure–he currently makes $900k + bonuses at Texas. The current coach, Mac Brown, has a contract through 2015, so maybe Muschacamp can be enticed away with an early opportunity to head coach. He’s a UGA graduate and worked at Auburn and LSU, so he knows the SEC. He’s currently the defensive guy at Texas, a school with a phenomenal recruiting and winning track record. He’s young and he’s fiery.
John Gruden–This guy is a little untested in SEC football, although he did work as a grad assistant at UT back in the mid-80′s. His recent stint as head coach of Tampa Bay brought a Super Bowl win and a couple of division titles, and he’s had mostly positive years. One thing that I think is a big selling point is that he has left a wake of successful assistant coaches during his time at Tampa, leading me to believe that he knows how to identity and develop talent– a critical skill for a college coach. His wife is a UT graduate and I’ve heard, although I can’t confirm, she was a cheerleader.
Kirby Smart– I know this is a LONG SHOT, but the current defensive coordinator at ‘Bama is a stud. He’s young, an awesome recruiter with experience all over the SEC, and worked Bama’s defense (with Saban, of course) into the monster that became the national champions. That defense destroyed Florida. I repeat, that defense destroyed Florida. He would be hard to get, seeing as he just turned down a lucrative offer from his alma-mater to be defensive coordinator at UGA, but the guys is a rising star. Also, making the career move from ‘Bama to the Vols would be a mini-version of Kiffin leaving for USC. All’s fair in love and war… and SEC football is war (thank you to my ‘Bama friends taking pot shots on my twitter and facebook accounts last night).
So, all is not lost Orange Nation. Maintain your composure, stay positive, and don’t riot on the campus (again). If you need a laugh, just remember that at least Lane Kiffin used a Trojan to screw Tennessee.
Yesterday, Jimmy Fallon had former SNL co-star Horatio Sanz on Late Night to perform an old SNL sketch–I Wish It Was Christmas Today. It’s cute, amusing, and takes you back to that era of SNL… but at around 1 minute in, the camera shifts to the performance stage where Julian Casabalancas (of The Strokes) and The Roots take over the performance. Pretty freakin’ awesome and Casablancas sounds awesome as ever. I hear this is a hidden track on Casablancas new album (also cool).
This post really strikes at two issues that frustrate me. One, the Obama economic policy of spend-spend-spend (which will ultimately be followed by tax-tax-tax). Two, the pitiful excuse for national media coverage in this country, particularly on business and economic issues.
The Obama administration is reporting that they have “saved or created”150,000 American jobs and that they are ramping up the stimulus to “save or create” an additional 600,00 jobs. The problem with this claim is that its total political drivel–you can’t measure “jobs saved.” The Department of Labor doesn’t do it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, neither does any other legitimate organization that collects economic data. Any attempt to make that claim is bogus. Is it possible to estimate, from a theoretical perspective, the multiplier effect of stimulus spending? Yes, but not with any real accuracy or focus. It’s like a 3rd baseman trying to extrapolate how many runs he prevented from scoring based on the number of balls he fields. Fielding a hit ball consistently makes him a solid 3rd baseman, but it doesn’t mean every ball is the equivalent of preventing a run.
We know that some jobs have been created. The government is pumping an enormous amount of money into every thing from overhauling our national laboratories, to NASA, to community organizations. In true big-government fashion, they can hire people to dig holes (which this deficit is certainly doing) and hire people to fill the hole just dug (if only the deficit was that easy to fill). But is that really having an affect?
In reality, this “saved and created” is just a bait-and-switch political maneuver. When we look at the aggregate data, we know that unemployment is at 9.4% as of May (see here). This is the highest rate since the early 1980′s and is an almost 2% increase since January (when Obama took office). You can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but it’s still a big… and this country is still experiencing high unemployment.
Think about this the next time you vote… Hopefully we don’t find ourselves so over-leveraged with debt that we’re not in the position to finance the necessary responsibilities of government (a-hem… national security).
I’ve been so busy with everything, that I haven’t had a chance to post about this. My life has been a total whirlwind lately of phone calls, planning, venue visits, research, etc. Throw on top of that some really exciting but time intensive projects at work, and I’ve been swamped. I’ve kept the yard mowed and watered, but there hasn’t been much else happening in my life.
So, the big news is that I’m engaged… I’ve got a wedding website up at masonick-miller.com, so go check it out!
