TOYOTA CONTINUES FIGHTING BACK – Apparent buoyed by reports that some reports of "out of control" Toyotas are false, Toyota is continuing is fight back.  The company seems to realize that its initial, apologize-to-everyone strategy has not worked.  The apologies, like Obama's apologies for the United States, only brought contempt.

Now Toyota is going after ABC for what the company considers a particularly outrageous report:

"Toyota deserves a public retraction and formal apology from ABC News." At least according to the automaker itself. For what, you ask? For ABC's "irresponsible broadcast entitled "Expert: Electronic Design Flaw Linked to Runaway Toyotas." You surely remember the piece, which originally aired the night before a Congressional Panel began investigating the issue of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

That dubious timing has also drawn ire from Toyota, which says ABC News "Rushed out the report" and "denied Toyota the opportunity to review specific manipulation" ABC and its expert, Dr. David Gilbert, "performed in the broadcast." If it had been given an opportunity to respond, Toyota claims it would have shown that Gilbert's technique required conditions that are "virtually impossible to occur in real-world conditions."

It's also pointed out in Toyota's four-page letter, which you can see in its entirety below, that ABC News faked at least one shot of a tachometer shooting from 1,000 to 6,200 RPM, insinuating that the vehicle was speeding out of control with Brian Ross behind the wheel when it was actually sitting in a parking lot with the transmission firmly in Park.

COMMENT:  We've compared the Toyota controversy to global warming.  The first stories featured authoritative-looking people who assured us that they had The Truth.  Then other truths started to come out.  What's a trial lawyer to do?

We're only at the beginning of this story, and we'll follow it.

March 19, 2010