Mr. Toyoda goes to Washington

Akio Toyoda, the head of Toyota (TM), will go to Washington to testify before the House Oversight Committee. He did not want to visit Congress, but he ended up with little choice. The committee’s chairman Edolphus Towns wrote Mr. Toyoda “There appears to be growing public confusion regarding which vehicles may be affected and how people should respond. In short, the public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it.”

An insult, but an effective one.

It is almost impossible to imagine the CEO of an American company trying to dodge a sit-down with Congress, but Toyoda does not have the obligations of a US citizen. But, he clearly feels the pressure to save whatever is left of Toyota’s image and has the need to stanch the flow of blood at the firm’s American dealerships if he can provide some assurance that his company can build safe cars. The world’s No.1 car firm has not commented about how many sales it might lose in the US, but the figure could certainly be in the six figures this year.