What we should loudly ask is why now?  Is it because of running for the senate seat?  In the 1990's his response to C-22 Nissan minivans which caught fire while being driven and killed people brought the response from the A.G. of hushing up the investigation and buying a RICO charge and number filed with the Justice Department.  Those vans were particularly lethal because they caught fire sitting still, the doors locked and the windows so if you were in the van you had a very difficult time of ever getting out. 

There were 29 Nissan minivans picked up at salvage yards by just one dealer in CT.  The vans were trucked to New York at night and flown back to Japan at the cost of $20,000 a van.  There were a total of 156 vans involved in accidents and/or burning in driveways and garages and causing serious accidents.  People died and their records were sealed by the court.

This is not to say that Blumenthal's concern about the Toyotas is not genuine but why did he not show a genuine concern about Nissan breaking the law by retitling cars and rolling back odometers then putting the cars back into commerce in 16 states. At the time the minivans were catching fire and causing accidents this retitling of cars and rolling back the odometers was also occurring.  Blumenthal flunked the course on acting in both instances.  Both he and his deputy Gary DesJardenes were aware of an investigation but because of political friends in CT did not act on the facts.

If it had not been for a citizen of CT aggressively pushing getting the minivans off the road more people would have died.  As it happened, well known news people in Washington who reported the story saw their careers end, but eventually in 1994 Nissan Motor Corp had to pay the piper and buy back 33,000 vans. This happened because of one citizen who would not give up because he saw childrens' toys in a burned van.

With the senate seat in the offing in CT and with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and the administration being so aggressive to save American lives perhaps the response this time by the A.G. will be better than losing the evidence that his deputy claimed happened.

However, fortunately for the American public this evidence did not disappear because of a team of citizens concerned about American laws and public safety acted with the "concerned individual" in saving the necessary records.

Perhaps we will be as fortunate with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood being so forceful at the Congressional hearings and also with Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) who chaired the hearing.  He also responded quickly to Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CAR) and ranking on Oversight and Government Reform as well as with Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) who is chairman of the Committee. 

At this time a hearing should be held because of the similarity of the Nissan burning minivans which caught fire while being driven and were death traps as are the accelerating Toyotas.  Nissan was able to manipulate the auto system so it escaped with only buying the minivans and not a government hearing to examine their technology and scope the size of or seriousness of the problem. 

In addition the blatant breaking of American automobile title laws and rolling back the odometers broke both the Federal and State laws.  The lead lawyer for Nissan brushed aside the retitling a car and rolling the odometers last year in a letter. The Nissan lawyer claimed "this was a common practice" then on title law. 

Did this mean this flaunting of the law was a common practice of all the Japanese carmakers?  Remember how the Japanese companies work intimately first with the Japanese government and their laws and suppliers and then with American government.  The CT. examiner for the state called it the "most egregious case in 40 years on title law but it was ignored by the U.S. Federal government.  No hearings.     

What is so interesting is all the American auto manufacturers were stunned that an auto manufacturer would do such an irresponsible act.  It was the parent company Nissan Motor Corp which committed these horrendous acts of retitling the cars and rolling back the odometers.  

It is time to commend the CT. Attorney General for coming forward to ask questions of Toyota.  Perhaps we will also see Nissan in hearings because the people who demanded investigations and hearings on the deaths and accidents of Americans from the minivans have not been examined.

One Nissan auto dealer in Florida actually hosed down protesting minivan owners who were afraid to get in their vans and picketed the dealer.  Perhaps A.G. Blumenthal can help to settle this technology issue.  If it was not properly corrected then the technology can be carried forward in other Nissan models. 

Remember, when Nissan and Carlos Ghosn were after GM in 2006 trying to push an alliance with GM that four Nissan models were at the top of "the worst car list" in the U.S.  How do we know that there was not a relation with the earlier technology of the vans?  It is more than time to set the record straight and it is mandatory our title and odometer records be accurate to maintain the title system for the one quarter billion vehicles we have registered today in the U.S.

Just a little playing with the title record makes a difference just like Cerberus Capital Management did in buying GMAC, the financial arm of GM which financed 75 percent of all GM dealers.  To force GM into giving up it's 49 percent interest in GMAC, Cerberus raised the leasing costs so high that no one leased nor could buy cars.  The story reported that Cerberus took away a "big chunk" of business for GM in 2008.  The result allowed Toyota to then become the Number One car manufacturer in the world knocking GM out of that position which in turn hurt the prestige of the U.S. for leading in auto manufacturing.  With this action Cerberus completed pushing GM into bankruptcy.

This result had long been sought by Toyota and by Japan.  According to Koji Endo, an analyst at Credit Suisse in Tokyo, Toyota earns about 60 percent of its operating profit, or sales minus expenses and the cost of goods sold in North American (2/3rds of it in the U.S.), Honda gets about 70 percent and Nissan 74 percent of the company's operating profit.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO, Nissan/Renault put the importance of the attack by Cerberus on leasing costs for General Motors in perspective with the statement on November 19, 2009.  In discussing why GM should have formed an alliance with Nissan Ghosn stated, "When General Motors was in danger, everybody was scared.  We were scared.  Because some of our suppliers are big suppliers of General Motors, if they go down (GM), we would not have been able to assemble any single car in the United States."

It is apparent that the general public and certainly many of our government officials are not aware of how critical the American automobile industry is to the country.  If the foreign carmakers disobeyed the title and odometers laws (which is a property right in the U.S.) then the inaccuracy of measuring a companies sales and how that affects the whole industry is not understood.  This should have been cleared up at the time with government hearings or we will limp along with nothing but inaccuracies in the industry. 

How do you know who is the largest carmaker if they are inaccurate in their titles?  Ghosn is now claiming that Nissan is the number two company after Toyota?  The company lawyer said it was common practice at the time to retitle cars, put them back into commerce as new, though they were not, and roll back the odometers.  These actions not only affect the new sales market but also the used car market later when people buy a car and the mileage is misrepresented plus the ownership history of the car.  Instead of getting a good deal in a car they are getting a "junker" with a hidden history.

So, we thank Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for showing an interest in these Toyota accidents.  They must be stopped.  It will also help us clear up by slate for both Toyota and Nissan if the proper actions are taken.  It is time to set the record straight for A.G. Blumenthal and all American's for their safety.  We cannot afford to have public officials not accept the responsibility for investigating such serious issues as the safety of Americans and their cars. 

It is not only an investment for an individual or a family but it is also a matter of life or death when the technology produces burning minivans or sudden acceleration of a car.  We need public hearings and not some official dropping into the story without responsible and genuine interest to correct a life threatening situation.  If you are to uphold the law then uphold our property right with title laws and do not buy it.  Both Toyota and Nissan must be held accountable under the law.

mbiras64862@mypacks.net

Mike Biras

March 18, 2010