Sign the Czar up as one of those people who is curious at the sudden difficulties Toyota is facing, all in a row.

Bear in mind that Toyota has long known about its accelerator problems; they were reported some time ago. But suddenly the government elects to warn people to stop driving Toyotas. Hmm. Well, yes, there is often a long delay between an initial event and the time a politician makes a bone-headed statement about it. And yet, when Toyota ranks as the number one car company in the world, suddenly the US government declares their vehicles are unsafe to drive.

But if this is such a massive problem with Toyotas, where are so few Lexus models affected, when they share much of the same basic technologies? Admittedly, Lexus does not sell an overwhelming number of cars in the US.

Now the Prius has problems with its brakes. David Frum tweets “A liberal friend observes: Prius recall a bigger blow to left than Scott Brown.” The Czar is not so sure that those on the Left are not distantly behind the recall.

After all—the problem with Priuses (let us call it Priupism) has nothing to do with hybrid technology—which is available on eight GM models!—but with safety…and GM hybrids stop on time. So if you are a liberal car buyer, forget Toyota: come on over and see what the Obama adminstration is selling.

The Czar would normally dismiss this as conspiratorial nonsense. Why would General Motors and Chrysler, both now substantially owned by the government after wobbly stimulus money that has yet to pay itself back, go to the trouble of using government resources to shoot down their number one foreign competitor?

Except, that is largely what the Japanese auto makers did in the 1970s: use their influence to find American cars that were shoddily made, problematic, and potentially deadly. Exaggerate the claims. Cherry pick examples of threats. Get the American media to buy into it. And in turn, Japanese automakers went on a dizzyingly profitable climb to the top.

Is it that hard to imagine that the US government, as a substantial stockholder in two companies, would like to see its largest non-union competitor popped in the mouth? And see the highly questionable government bailout suddenly turn profitable? Especially at a moment when the President could use anything remotely positive on his economic vision?

Update: Ultra-alert Gormogon operative GD writes in to warn the Czar that more is coming. Look for a suspiciously timed attack on Toyota Corollas, which now allegedly are developing steering problems.

And the NHTSA is deciding whether to launch a formal investigation, which is odd because (you will note) the NHTSA investigates any and all complaints anyway on any car. So why go public with this? Why a formal investigation?

The Czar is starting to wonder: if he called in a complaint that his 1984 lime green Fiero was spitting toxic gases into the interior, would he get a response? But were he to mention he did not like the way his 1982 Toyota Celica Supra bounced in a pothole, would there be a sudden flurry of intense interest?

Thanks, GD, for an outstanding tip. You may have even scooped the Mandarin on this one!

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.