In hindsight I suppose it seems a bit strange, but when I think back on television shows my family tended to watch all together, there really weren’t all that many. But there was one, which, I think by virtue of its Sunday late morning scheduling, we all tended to watch on the little portable TV in our screened-in porch: Fight Back! with David Horowitz. I’m not exactly sure what it was about this particular show, but my family all seemed to bond over this guy who looked and sounded a bit like a number of our relatives stick it to the man as he pointed out ways that big companies were screwing everybody.
I bring this up because the Fight Back Facebook page – I was sort of surprised to see that this was a thing, since the show ran from 1976 to 1992, long before the world was saddled with Facebook – posted an old clip from a 1983 episode of Fight Back that revealed how 1981 to 1983 Toyota pickup trucks had doors that could be opened with a pencil.
Yep. A pencil. It didn’t even have to be a sharpened pencil. Just a pencil, jammed up under the door handle could push the locking mechanism lever up, unlocking the door. And Toyota’s response to this wasn’t exactly great. But before we get to the specific episode, prepare yourself with the Fight Back! theme song:
Okay, now that you’re in the mood, here’s the segment. If you’re curious about it in context of the whole episode, who am I to deny you that joy? Feel free to watch the whole thing, but I have it cued up to the relevant part:
This episode also investigates Tova 9 cactus mask wrinkle cream and the dangers of discarded power line transformers, anti-shoplifting tech, and, as you probably hoped, exposes the rip-off of “his and hers” watches. So, you know, something for everyone.
Okay, but let’s focus on the Toyota truck part: the trucks in question are the deservedly beloved early ’80s Toyota pickup trucks, the American version of the legendary third-generation Hilux trucks. Fantastic little trucks by nearly any measure; they just happened to have a maybe not-insignificant security flaw.
Also, just noting, $5998 in 1982 dollars is about $20,000 today, so that’s a reasonably priced truck, especially by modern standards. The lock design, though, while pretty conventional in most respects and not necessarily a bad design, was compromised because of how easily the door locking button actuator rod could be accessed via the door skin cutout under and behind the exterior door handle:
The access to that locking button rod meant a pencil or even an unbent paper clip, as shown on the Fight Back! segment:
…could be used to get the door open quickly and easily, with tools that you very likely had in the junk drawer of your kitchen, surrounded by soy sauce packets. This is, of course, a pretty significant problem, and on the show Horowitz noted that he had, for months, since he had first been informed of the issue by a Toyota truck owner, done multiple news segments about the issue and reached out to Toyota, who didn’t bother doing anything about the problem. In fact, according to Horowitz, Toyota accused him of making the situation worse by publicizing the issue.
Toyota did develop a shield that could be placed between the door card and the outer skin of the door to prevent the easy lock-picking from happening, and it was available from dealers, but not publicized, nor were owners notified.
Eventually, in large part due to pressure from all the attention Horowitz and other journalists were applying by making the issue known, Toyota was forced to send a letter to over 400,000 truck owners about the problem and make the lock sheilds available to any owner who wanted one. The beginning of their letter, though, sounded a bit petulant about the whole thing:
The wording makes it sound like the reporting of the vulnerability is the issue, not the fact that the doors can be opened with a freaking pencil. I mean, look at that first sentence:
“In recent TV and other news media, an unlawful method of unlocking the doors on the 1981-1983 Toyota trucks has been publicly reported.”
It sounds like the media did something unlawful to Toyota! Like everything would be fine if they just kept their damn mouths shut. This is a service bulletin type of letter; there was no need to mention the media coverage at all, just that the lock mechanism needed an extra component for security. Toyota was just being a whiny brat.
There’s a good lesson here: it’s important to push back on big companies when they’re doing something wrong or lazy or just looking to save money at the expense of the consumer. Huge companies are not your friends; you can be a big fan of the products they make, but it’s worth remembering that for all their marketing and PR and other forms of outreach, the goal isn’t to make you happier or your life better, it’s to maximize shareholder returns.
So, you know, be ready to fight back.
Time to put on my PR hat and chime in, I suppose.
This one of the biggest nightmares for a PR person, and textbook failure of a company to understand and value public relations.
In other words, someone – likely an executive, a CEO or a chief legal officer, made the following two mistakes (among many, many others): 1. Treated the reporter as an adversary or an annoyance and 2. Clearly did NOT have PR counsel in a position of power.
In this industry, in order to be effective at PR, we always demand “a seat at the table.” If no PR person gets to have direct access to the executive team, there’s a good chance no one will be a voice of reason and say something like “Do you have any idea how many people you’re harming with ____ policy?”
Of course, legal will snap back with something like “If we admit responsibility there will be a billion lawsuits” and corporate will say something like “It’s going to cost too much to fix and the news will just disappear”. That’s where it’s my responsibility to remind everyone to do the right thing.
Toyota should have known they’d be on the hook for a recall. Even if it was too late, they should had jumped on the problem properly. Acknowledge that they were late to the game, accept responsibility and get the fix out there. All of this can be done while still being legal-compliant (believe me, I have spent my career making sure I understand the ins and outs of communicating while keeping lawyers happy).
To be fair, it was the 1980’s and I feel like PR has grown up a lot since then. We still hold the response to the Tylenol crisis of 1982 the a textbook example of how to jump on top of a problem and communicate clearly. Since then, things have gotten better but not universally.
It’s telling that the letter that went to Toyota owners was signed from “Toyota Motor Sales” and not from some more over-arching corporate source/named exec.
I’ve found in my position I spend a lot of time helping others understand reporters from programs like “Fight Back” and how much you can engage without being the villain. And I always remind people that the best way to not look like the villain is to NOT ACT LIKE ONE. Any company that acts like the bad guy isn’t gonna get me for an employee.
I hear what you are saying…. but…. what about the shareholders? And the executive bonuses for next quarter?
Anything beyond next quarter is simply inconceivable/not bothered to be examined.
This is why Tesla doesn’t even have a PR department, their CEO just handles everything by getting high, then sitting around in his bedroom and Tweeting at 2am
Well it’s working
That’s the worst part.
Good point. Someone let Elon know I would be glad to take the lead on PR, as long as I have an unlimited supply of edibles and can do my work at 2 AM as I listen to an unlimited supply of Grateful Dead bootlegs.
There aren’t really any Grateful Dead “bootlegs” at all, really.
They set up special areas for anyone who wanted to record their shows.
I am aware of that. That is why there is an unlimited supply.
I don’t think Toyota was like that back then. Lord knows this is a huge problem now
*Enforced by law.
Thank the Dodge Brothers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
“This one of the biggest nightmares for a PR person, and textbook failure of a company to understand and value public relations.
In other words, someone – likely an executive, a CEO or a chief legal officer, made the following two mistakes (among many, many others): 1. Treated the reporter as an adversary or an annoyance and 2. Clearly did NOT have PR counsel in a position of power.”
Yeah. This seems like to be the first reaction now 50+ years later from a company (or organization that may or may not be a sovereign nation).
I wish I could elevate your commentary higher.
I work for a large manufacturing company that has PR folks embedded in all the facilities for this reason. They constantly remind everyone, including site leadership, not to knee-jerk respond but to the media lest they make whatever the media is asking about a bigger deal (or in one recent case, turned positive attention into a local government fraud inquiry). As an engineer, my natural response to the press is to hiss and run away, so the PR folks have a lot of work on their hands with all of us on the engineering team.
I was always told not to make any comment, just refer them to our PR department.
That’s the instruction we receive too, including the exact wording to use, since people have said stuff they shouldn’t have while giving the referral to PR (like “incident” or “accident”).
We weren’t given exact wording, just ordered to tell them that I’m not authorized to comment and all questions need to go to official communications channels (PR).
I was told to say” I do not recall” if ever questioned by authorities. Ahhh, the late 1990’s in the tech industry, cant imagine what all the AI related companies are up to now, will require extra popcorn.
“I don’t recall, I wasn’t told” has gotten me out of so many problems over the years
I’ve digitally signed off on at least 10 things this year for government busy/paper work that I always check to see if “To the best of my knowledge” is the last line. If it isn’t I have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to decide if the sign off is worth the income versus my time spent to fully understand what I’m signing off on.
It’s a really small company and I have to try to balance risk/reward all the time.
Same here, small company, many of these nonsensical govt surveys or requests from customers to complete their forms so that they can fill out their nonsensical govt surveys come to me. Without the govt provided disclaimer there is no way that many of the questions can be answered with any sense of confidence, and therefore would not be answered at all.
The problem is acting like a ruler instead of a pr worm. Once the media contacted Toyota say yes we are aware of the situation and trying to keep it on the QT until we can work out a solution which we are close to but rolling it out to so many of our valuable customers without alerting car thieves. Then fix it and let customers know bring in the reporter for a news conference thank them for bringing it to your attention and giving you time to fix it. Then even the reporter is praising you for being a responsible manufacturer and you get some great free publicity.
The fact that Toyota fumbled on this one is not even up for debate. Whenever I’ve dealt with a situation like this, my first step is internal communication – make sure everyone inside the company knows what’s going on, what needs to be done, and what actions have been taken. Someone always blows things out of proportion and I’m guessing that happened here. A simple bulletin letting owners know and full disclosure would not have hurt as much as Toyota thought it would. This is a failure of a door lock, not something like a fire hazard or a Kia ignition switch. Thousands of people drive convertibles daily and don’t ever lock their doors. So yeah, they should have come right out, communicated quickly, and given a precise, realistic timeline for deploying the fix. Lol – Can you tell I’ve had to say that a few times in my career?
“Do you have any idea how many people you’re harming with ____ policy?”
Even if they know, they still don’t care. Business Ethics is an oxymoron. Profit at all costs is the only mission statement. When you ask questions like that at meetings, do they all just stare blankly for a moment and then continue as if you didn’t exist?
One thing I try to impress on many of my crisis clients is that sometimes you have to backseat the lawyers.
If your liability caps at $100,000 but the bad publicity from whatever you did is going to cost you a million in sales, comms should take the lead and you should issue that damn apology before things get even worse for you.
But then I’m agency, so I’m usually called into it after the lawyer has already had the client release some mealy-mouthed legalese deny-obfuscate bullshit that just pissed the public off worse because he was afraid they might be held liable for like 5% of what they’re gonna lose off of the boycott.
Good thing Toyota has definitely learned their lesson about bad PR and are completely open about serious problems with their trucks now…oops.
“I once saw him open a truck door with a pencil. A fucking pencil. “
Didn’t all locks in the 80’s kind of suck? I had an 86 Nissan truck and locked the keys in it. I just had to wait by the other Nissan truck and borrow her key. They’re pretty much interchangeable
How many other cars sold in 1983 are still on the road? They also probably cost more then $5998 back in the day.
I’m totally okay with that fault in 2026 since nowadays not many people would know what to do with the tall stick in the center of the floor and the 3 pedals to work the vehicle. Just don’t keep items in the cab. Problem solved.
One of my highschool teachers had a 2nd gen Escort. The ignition lock on it was so worn he could start it with a screwdriver. He regarded that as a feature, not a bug.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say theft probably wasn’t a big concern.
If Toyota could get back to making compact pickups again that would be great.
Was it Jon Voight’s chewed up pencil? ha ha
No, it was John Voight’s pencil.
My 1993 Toyota pickup had 180k miles on it and the lock cylinders were shot. The passenger one was very hard to turn, probably due to lack of use.
I once locked the keys in my truck. The back sliding window lock was very tight, usually you can jimmy those open on old junky trucks. At the time I worked at a hotel, was friends with the valet guy. Looked thru all the random keys and one for a Hyundia looked pretty darn close. Slid right in and turned like butter in the drivers side lock. Never did bother to lock it after that incident.
Also the igition cylinder was shot. You could take the keys out at 80mph and throw them out the window. I managed to start it with the small blade of my pocket knife once out of curiosity.
Truck was theft proof as well, hoods dont know how to drive stick. And nobody would want to steal that ugly thing anyways, didnt have a straight body panel on it, front bumper was held on with an extension cord. Best $600 I ever spent. Served as my backup car for 10 years. Never failed to start or leave me walking
I once had a motorcycle with a similar lock cylinder issue. I found out when my keys fell out on the interstate. Had to go back for them because my house key was on that ring. Good times….
To quote Nathan Explosion
“Oh man thats fucking brutal”
$20k and came with keyless entry…not bad.
I haven’t locked my 2001 since I bought it. It did still have auto lock until it locked me out while taking a piss in a Forrest around midnight in Vermont in December while snowing.yes don’t lock your door people can access it with a rock.
Fun fact that is why Charlie Brown became a car thief after one Halloween after being given too many rocks
I would love to watch a show like that so long as it didn’t interfere with my cartoons. Maybe run it against Sunday NFL football. But seriously I can open a car door from the 80s with a metal clothes hanger, a hammer and screwdriver, or just a hammer just as easily
As others mentioned the old Ford Rangers had the same issue, on mine I installed “jimmi jammers”, basically a plate similar to what Toyota offered, easy enough fix, I feel like such simpler times when not only did the locks and handles actually mechanically connect to the door mechanisms, but you could even access them from outside the car! 😀
Lots of vehicles from that era (and later) with flip up door handles could be opened in a similar fashion. I have personal experience with 1st gen 4runners, and 4th gen Accords. No, I wasn’t stealing them. Just pranking or helping out friends who were locked out.
Hey, better than this, the door lock cylinders on my 1980 Fiat Spider just spin. They don’t even activate a lock mechanism. On the upside, you can’t get locked out. Also, I disconnect the battery when I park it, and you need a key to open the trunk, so there’s that.
Just install a kill switch if you aren’t as lazy as I am
It’s got a parasitc drain somewhere, so I installed a quick release battery clamp so that I don’t have to keep a battery tender on it all the time.
Randomly related story, a friend bought a house in LA. Turns out that it was previous owned by the ex-wife of David Horowitz. We found an old typewriter in the garage that had his name and bunch of NASA mission stickers from the Apollo program on it. Can only assume he was part of the press pool at the time. We gave it back to the family, just to cool of an heirloom, had to make sure it got back to them.