According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, President Obama wants to require all new U.S. vehicles be equipped with some mechanism that, essentially, will stop the vehicle if both the gas and brake are activated at the same time. All I can say to that is “Back off, the market’s got it.”
Now, I can understand the push for government intervention when there are public safety concerns as a result of these types of problems and others (we’ve seen it before with airbags, etc.) but let’s take a step back and look what’s going on.
First of all, Toyota stocks have plummeted since the recall. What was once a great stock to have trading at a high of $91 is now down to $76 per share. In addition, Toyota sales are plummeting. In January, there was a 16 percent drop in sales and for February and March, a drop of 30 – 40 percent is projected.
So, what’s the bottom line here? Toyota will have to pay for their mistakes and they are/will via the free market. The market is telling Toyota to build safer cars…until that happens, we’re not buying.
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