rickbreitenfeldt

Hallelujah Tomas!!!

That is the whole frickin nutshell. I wish ABC would stop lying. My wife was spooked but the moment she read these links she sounded like ABC killed Kenny, you B@$t@ards!!

By the way the businessweek link 404 'd on us

sciontc_mich

well this just got more interesting. According to this newest recall, yes another one, Toyota cars in Europe are being recalled for the same gas pedal problem. And some of those are made in Japan! Here's the link

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/29/o...els-1-8-milli/

bB2NER

I just heard that Honda is recalling 75,000 Fits that may have this same problem.

sciontc_mich

^^ the fits from what I heard was a problem with the door/window mechanism, the switch for that operation

bB2NER

Oh, OK. My bad, I just caught part of the story and assumed.

rickbreitenfeldt

Asia and Eurpopean models with CTS components are added. I also just saw on MSN that Toyota said that the repair is even easier than originally thought and the government approved the repair too.

bB2NER

I think all the media hoopla over this is hilarious. Like this minor thing is going to hurt Toyotas reputation in the long run. Atleast Toyota is doing the right thing unlike the big 3 did everytime.

sciontc_mich

^^ the right thing? NHTSA (Nat'l Highway Transportation Safety Admin) told Toyota to stop production so doing the right thing? More like they were forced by law. Since for 5 days before that, they planned on selling the cars, until NTHSA had a "chat with them, reminding them of the law". Which is they cannot sell a car that has a known defect.

And a "minor thing" are you serious? A car that can accelerate out of control and not respond to throttle inputs isn't minor. And 16 people who are dead isn't minor either

Tomas

An alleged "untended acceleration" problem that never really existed nearly killed Audi - a top quality brand - in the United States back before most of you learned to drive (sorry, it's true: 1986), so most of you may not have ever heard of it.

Major or minor, this could seriously hurt Toyota if not played right.)

Back story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Minu...d_acceleration

bB2NER

It should be a minor thing cause all they had to do was turn off the key or pop it into neutral and it would stop right away. Problem being is people panic too easily and don't do the right thing. There is such a thing as being in complete control of your vehicle at all times.
I'd still like to see some real numbers of how many times it was actually the floor mat causing the issue.

smokescreen024

have you ever had a throttle stick? Its not always that minor! it takes the brain .4 seconds minimum to tell your foot or hand to react from the time your brain computes the situation thats why racers use the last yellow light on the tree instead of the green to launch that assumes that your hand or foot is in the exact positon it needs to be and you are antisipating the situation real world variables make it more like 1.5 seconds. I agree no one should have died from this situation if they had some very basic knowledge of how their car worked, but please don't turn the key you will lose steering assist and since motor skills diminish under stress you may turn it to far and lock the steering just bump the shifter it will almost find N on its own.

Tomas

Please allow me to answer that: Yes, a number of times, and you are right, it can be a challenge.

First time it was my brand new '69 Plymouth Barracuda, and it was due to a factory defect in the throttle cables for some models that caused them to jam.

It was on Meandering Road near Carswell AFB outside Fort Worth, TX, and having a massively over powered car suddenly decide to continue accelerating when you take your foot off the accelerator is, er, "exciting."

I was able to get the 'Cuda shut down and pulled over without a problem on that twisty road because I was paying attention and had SOME idea of what I was doing.

Years later I had another vehicle with a factory defect that the dealer thought they had fixed several times, but each time they returned it would wait a few days then suddenly jump to 6000 RPM and take off. I kept that one under control, too, and did not crash it. (The problem was eventually found and repaired with factory help.)

Many years earlier, I had the brakes on my '55 Chevy totally fail when the Caddy Eldorado in front of me did a panic stop in downtown Tacoma right in front of me. When I slammed on the brakes, the side of the master cylinder shattered and I had zero hydraulic brakes and maybe 20 feet and closing fast to the Caddy, I steered up over the curb between a hydrant and a light poll and grabbed a huge handful of emergency brake (they were called that then, not parking brake). No collision.

Mechanical devices fail. When driving it is our responsibility to maintain control, and to be ready for those failures. It is also our responsibility to know how to properly respond to those emergencies, not to just throw our hands in the air and blame someone else.

A lot of the people driving cars should not be. They are not competent to handle the emergencies that will come up, and they crash, injuring themselves and others.

That was one thing I really liked about being a pilot: You had to prove you knew what you were doing, knew how all the parts of the plane worked and that you knew how to handle emergencies before you were allowed to fly without an experienced person in the right seat to take over in case you failed.

(My first instructor pilot used to really enjoy killing the engine without warning - on take-off, on landing, over water, over forest, middle of a city, anywhere, and force his students to instantly find the only right solution to the sudden problem that presented. I made many dead-stick landings in unexpected places with him.)

Anyway, some of us have been driving long enough and hard enough to have encountered most of the expected problems that really test a driver, from stuck accelerator, to no brakes, to unexpected acceleration, to full electrical failure coming down a mountain at night. Those who are competent usually survive.

"Luck favors the prepared."

Tomas

Video of pedal fix...

http://www.projo.com/video/?nvid=412993

XPRESSCION

^^^So its THAT EASY!!!

I still love this statement from that one guy from Washington DC...."Don't drive these cars....Drive to your dealer and get it looked out" LMAO Good ole American government!

Still, I feel this whole problem was made out more than it really was. And it was a chance for ammo against TMC for the US government and American automakers. Think about it: during the "Cash for Clunkers" Toyota sold more than any other automaker. While the government came up that idea to help out American automakers and it backfired. Just my $.02s.

Like I said on other Scion site...

Cars are machines. We risk our lives everytime; we step into one. Anything could happened while driving. A speeding car cuts you off on a interstate and slams right into you; you slam off the road into ditch and you slam your head onto the driver's side window and your neck snaps...Just watch "101 Ways to Die" on Spike TV.

engifineer

The biggest mistake by Toyota was not jumping on this and halting sales after the first incident. In that case, they become mostly the good guy, protecting their customers. A lot of people now are going to be against them because it looks like they were just going to continue on as normal until they were forced to stop selling. Right or wrong, that perception means as much or more to many customers than the type of car you sell.

And Tomas... I never knew of a 198X audi sold in the US that was not a horribly unreliable pos.. I knew 3 people with them at one point... none of them managed to stay running more than a few months before they broke down... so I dont know about "top quality brand" back then

Tomas

Heheheheheheh... You have a point there, but based on price and advertising Audi was claiming such. (I could say same thing about many other "top brands" of cars...)

bB2NER

Any other videos of that fix Tomas? That one won't play for me and I can't find one on Youtube.

Tomas

At a M&G, sitting in a bar right now - I'll check when I get back to a 'puter.

CXTKRS1

IMO Toyota has become laxed much like the old GM. Maybe this will be a wakeup call to them since this may help tarnish their reputation. I do not hate this company but some of the Toyota/Honda loyalist I have meant in my life make me want to vomit.

Tomas

Sorry, that's the only copy of the video I can find so far.