Tuesday 28 August 2012

How An Angry Truck Owner Used Google And His House To Let Everyone Know 'Toyota Sucks'


Someone really doesn't like Toyota, and wants either God, Google or airplane passengers to know. Possibly all three. Otherwise, why would someonepaint "TOYOTA SUCKS" on the roof of their home?
To be fair to all of us condemned to ground-based living, the Toyota-disparager has also helpfully used his current-gen Toyota Tundra as a canvas to explain the issue in a bit more detail for the Google Street View car. The white letters on the black Tundra read:
TRY THE NEW TUNDRA WITH BUMP AND JERK THROTTLE
... which pretty much explains the reason for the strong anti-Toyota stance.
The house is a smallish "manufactured home" pleasingly set on the water in Bradenton, Florida. Based on the image from Google Maps, the roof lettering appears carefully applied, in black on the vivid white of the roof. Somebody was clearly dissatisfied with their truck and, presumably, service, to really take some time with this. Its not clear if the area is on a major air traffic route or if the message was meant to be seen by the Google spy-pigeons, but it did get noticed, so congratulations are in order.
How An Angry Truck Owner Used Google And His House To Let Everyone Know 'Toyota Sucks'
A quick check of some forums does reveal some strange throttle-jerking and related issues under acceleration that are quite possibly related to the roof-painter's problem. The Tundra was part of Toyota's2009-2011 recalls for unintended acceleration issues, which may or may not have fixed anything.
I'm sure if this gets sorted out, a full roof-painted apology will be forthcoming. But I wouldn't hold my breath.
The more I think about it, the more I like this unnamed victim of bumping and jerking. Google Maps becomes an interesting last resort to bring attention to a particular issue, and I suspect the future holds more of this type of thing. In this age of Google Maps, our roofs have become our bits of paper on the Earth's global billboard, so we may as well use it.

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