Toyota's recent issues have turned the lights on automakers' and governments' responses to consumer complaints. Two of the questions to arise, which still haven't been answered, are what is the threshold for customer complaints to be considered a safety defect, and when should the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration open an investigation? An example? More than 200 owners of 1999 to 2003 Ford Windstar minivans have submitted complaints to the NHTSA about snapping rear axles, but there has been no investigation and Ford says there's no safety issue.
The breaking-axle incidents have happened after 80,000 miles, the majority coming after the six-figure mileage mark. Ford's take is that nearly all drivers have retained control of the vehicles, and the few that haven't have described behavior that doesn't fit with Ford's predicted vehicle behavior in such an incident. Therefore, it isn't a problem with safety.
As for the NHTSA, even though the complaints are spread over various categories (consumers choose their own categories under which to report), it says it has reviewed every single one of them and says it is monitoring the situation. We suppose everyone is relying on good judgment to decide when or if to declare this a safety matter and open an investigation, and we can agree with that – good judgment can make far more sense than trying to slap hard numbers on these kind of occurrences. The question is: Who's the one with the good judgment?
