Toyota Recalls

As you all know, Toyota has encountered one of the most unfortunate events in the history of the company. In late 2009, Toyota found customer complaints and issued recalls to many of its models. My condolences to all the Toyota employees who suffered the stress to quickly analyze and fix the brake, electronic stability control, and/or acceleration system problems that several models have. I am indeed speaking of the following Toyota models: Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Avalon, Prius, Highlander, Tundra, Sequoia, Aygo, Matrix, iQ, and Auris. I also speak of the following Lexus models: the ES series, IS series, and the HS 250h.

Lexus and Scion were hardly affected by this recall unlike Toyota, who had around 80% of the models get recalled, resulting in the delay of the sale of these aforementioned vehicles until the issue is fixed.

In spite of these recalls, which I express my deepest sympathies for as working for Toyota is amongst one of my dream jobs, there's no doubt that Toyota is among one of the best companies in the world, not just before recalls, but in the very beginning. Toyota was responsible for the success of Lexus in the first place, where the well-known LS series was launched in 1989 with a very huge success, dominating and overtaking various luxury automakers that underestimated Toyota in the luxury market by taking the top spot in terms of not only sales, but also in customer service and satisfaction.

In case if you all don't know, Lexus has earned the best reliability ratings ever since its start in 1989.

To all the people I know who own the newer Toyota models, including possibly Anna since I saw her driving her parents car, which appears to be a 2009 Toyota Corolla, I express my sympathies if your models got recalled for these aforementioned issues.

P.S. Pontiac Vibe, as a Toyota engineered vehicle, was also recalled for the same reasons, as were models built on the same platform as the Toyota Aygo.

Spring Break at LA and San Diego-Visiting UCLA and UCSD

Ahh... I had a fun time at LA and San Diego over the Spring Break that I just had. I used this time to visit LA for the second time and San Diego for the first time ever, only that this trip is primarily to visit both the UCLA and UCSD campuses, 2 of 8 colleges that I was accepted to. I'm thrilled and honored to be accepted to these public ivy schools that are one of the best in the nation overall. In fact, I read from US News and World Report that UCLA is ranked the second best public university in the nation, outranked only by UC Berkeley.




I visited the engineering schools located in the South campus that I would be taking classes at should I attend UCLA, as I chose Chemical Engineering as my undergraduate major for this university.

Now, I took a college tour for both campuses. My, they were immensely huge and convenient schools to stay at! I have to admit, when we started at the Kerckhoff Hall, which serves as a house for the student government offices, we toured all over the campus, including the engineering schools that I earlier visited, as well as the North campus. Royce Hall is perhaps the most unusual building of them all. Not only are the patterns noticeably out of place when comparing the overall symmetry of the building designs, but if you compare the sides of the building, you'll notice some missing features that should have been there when the university was established. Interestingly enough, the North Campus where Royce Hall is located is actually the original location of the UCLA campus until it expanded.



I visited the UCSD campus (note: a couple photos of UCSD are down below) as well, by driving from LA down to San Diego using the rental car that we earlier got when we landed at LAX. I also thought it was cool too, only in the way that it is much more of a typically modern research university than UCLA, where it is a mixture of laboratory buildings and early 1900s and Gothic campus buildings. The view of the campus itself is really beautiful, as good as UCLA. Of course, the different strengths and weaknesses that are fairly equal between these two campuses make it difficult for me to decide which to attend between these schools.



I would say that UCLA is good in the way that it offers good housing services, meal services, overall rank, overall location and layout, and the science programs given out. UCSD is also good with science programs, but it lacks the Chemical Engineering major I would've liked to major in. On the other hand, UCSD is good in transportation services, meal services, overall location and layout, and its overall rank.

Some weaknesses I thought about these universities: well, both universities are enormous, which makes it hard to get around sometimes. Also, some of UCLA's science programs are a little bit weaker than UCSD, but still very good overall, given its good overall rank. And I thought UCSD's service for housing for students in junior and senior years are really bad in the way that you cannot choose to live in the same dorm as you would in your sophomore year, which conveniently includes a kitchen. And you are limited to just 3 choices of housing on campus that can all get filled up with transfer students almost quickly. Again, as I said before, UCSD lacks the Chemical Engineering majors, which is one of the top majors I would want to major in as an undergrad.

Right now, I am happily choosing between UCLA, UCSD, and Boston College as the possible choices of college I would attend next year. I will decide at least by the end of this week.