You just KNOW there's a smoking gun in the Toyota e-mail system. You KNOW there is.

[Stinky The Clown]

It just hasn't been found yet. Or surfaced. But it will be, I hope to hell.

The law says when a carmaker finds a defect he is required BY LAW to notify the feds.

Within five days of said discovery.

It seems pretty clear to any thinking person that Toyota knew all their ills long ago and worked to cover them up. Now the head of Toyota, Mister Toyoda, is suggesting to the feds who summoned his sperm lottery winning ass, that they'd be better off speaking to his US division head.

Scumbag. That's what he is.

But my point remains ...... there's a smoking gun in the form of an e-mail chain - or several chains - that they knew about the problem and worked to cover it up in violation of US law.

You just KNOW that's the case.

[FarCenter]

1. High ranking Japanese executives use email? Maybe not.

It's harder to input Japanese than languages that use the Latin alphabet.

Japanese were quite attached to using fax a lot longer than Europeans.

I don't know what the situation is, but the use of email might be very limited.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. High ranking American subsidiary executives use e-mail.

I betcha they do.

But there's a smoking gun e-mail as sure as dog made green apples.

[FarCenter]

3. That may be, but maybe not reaching back to Japan.

The old system was that the faxes came from Japan by the morning and the replies went back in the evening.

If the correspondents were Japanese, they were hand written.

[Brickbat]

4. And I can't fucking wait until it comes out.

I'll be honest.

[TexasObserver]

5. The former Toyota lawyer Toyota is suing has boxes of materials.

They got an order preventing their former attorney from disclosing the documents and the documents are now under court supervision. He's suing Toyota, and they're suing him. They bought his silence a couple of years ago in a settlement, but some time thereafter, he wanted out of his deal and they appear to want to enforce its terms, apparently to shut him up and keep his documents from falling into the hands of others.

Of course, their very public fight has undoubtedly drawn the interest of attorneys suing Toyota for the families of the dead and injured. Those attorneys will try to get the judge where the docs are being held to have them reviewed by someone (perhaps a discovery master he appoints) and determine if they are discoverable in Toyota's other lawsuits. Or, they can go get an order from the court in which their case resides, and demand that Toyota provide copies of the docs in controversy.

But, yeah, there's got to be a ton of bad emails Toyota sent which prove they engaged in a cover up. The wise employee would have a batch saved off site to a disk or memory device. When the dam breaks, there will suddenly be a flood of incriminating evidence.

I don't see Justice going after Toyota criminally, but I could see the Attorney General of some state (Michigan?) doing so. Not trying to (I said MICHIGAN) put ideas in anyone's head.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Where (MICHIGAN) do you think this (MICHIGAN) lawsuit might start?

Maybe the US HQ state (NEW YORK) might have an avenging AG (CUOMO)?

Gee ..... (MICHIGAN or NEW YORK) ...... I really wonder.

[TexasObserver]

7. I like the idea of (NEW YORK) Cuomo. I forgot about him.

If he's got their HQs, he's got them by the short and curlies.

[FarCenter]

8. Toyota's USA headquarters are in Torrance, CA

[Romulox]

9. That's really not material. Jurisdiction can be had in any state Toyota operates in...

:hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

10. I also thought it was Torrence. The Wiki says NYC ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota#Toyota_North_America

"Toyota Motor North America headquarters is located in New York City and operates at a holding company level in North America. Its manufacturing headquarters is located in Hebron, Kentucky, and is known as Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, or TEMA."