What's The Truthiness Of Pogue's Prius Horn-Blowing Fit?

Toyota's had some problems of late in the sphere of quality control, so much so that Frank Williams from Robert Farago's relatively tame site, The Truth About Cars, provided some quality and controlled commentary on the issue the other day — and asked an important question:

Is this a minor setback in Toyota's relentless march on American market share or warning signs of a more fundamental, less easily solved problem?

And although neither Williams or us have the answer to that question, we know the growing group of grumbling ToMoCo owners out there may believe they have the answer. We somehow think it'll be difficult for New York Times tech-blogger David Pogue to see past the full on raging love-on he's got going for the Prius even after he dropped a post onto his TimesBlog on how his Prius totally flipped its lid at him recently, randomly deciding nightime was the best time to blare the horn and alarm for as long as possible. In this case, "as long as possible" can be best defined as "until the battery runs out" which can be best defined as "1 AM."

Although we sympathize with brother blogger Pogue, we've got to point out that despite his claim "the Prius, of course, is an outrageously successful hybrid vehicle" — he should really lower his expectations from a car that's more of a marketing-making than money-making enterprise for Toyota — and maybe hope that this "hybrid equivalent of the 24-hour flu" isn't a more chronic condition.

The Mind of the Prius [NYT Blog]
Toyota: [Falling] Quality is Job One [The Truth About Cars]

Related:
Gas Prices Up And Toyota's Prius Sales Down — Toyota's Back-Assward Supply/Demand Curve? [internal]