2005Explorer Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 "Refusing to accept the explanation of Toyota and the federal government, hundreds of Toyota owners are in rebellion after a series of accidents caused by what they call "runaway cars." Safety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour." See more at the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyot...tory?id=8980479 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aneekr Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 (edited) Oh boy... 23 years later, a resurrection of media frenzy over "unintended acceleration", a la 60 Minutes on the C3 Audi 100 (5000). Edited November 3, 2009 by aneekr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToBeHuman Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Read all the people's commments on this article. It seems like everyone commenting has had a Toyota accelerate on them and it's not due to teh floor mats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2005Explorer Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 Read all the people's commments on this article. It seems like everyone commenting has had a Toyota accelerate on them and it's not due to teh floor mats. I noticed a lot of comments about people having problems. What is sad though is that most of them will just buy another Toyota when the time comes for a new vehicle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bored of Pisteon Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 I noticed a lot of comments about people having problems. What is sad though is that most of them will just buy another Toyota when the time comes for a new vehicle. And that right there shows you how stupid people in this country have become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngeloD Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 The problems with the Tundra overcapacity, cams, bed hop, collapsing tailgates , the FJ Crusier firewall cracking, Tacoma and Tundra frame rust, and now runaway acceleration show that Toyota has expanded too fast and has gotten way ahead of themselves and their level of competence. Toyota was well within their competency envelope up to about the mid 1990's, after that it's been straight downhill in terms of quality, reliability and efficiency. They should have stuck with what they do well: small cars and trucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
06mariner Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Ditto ^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8-X Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Ditto #2. Toyota will do anything to issue a recall on the true electrical issue, whatever it may be. Once for the cost of fixing and two for the black eye it would cause them. But you'd still have the blind faithful that with continue to purchase Yota after Yota. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanh Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 (edited) http://autos.aol.com/article/runaway-toyotas KICK EM WHILE THEY ARE DOWN....oh and they are also pulling out of Formula One....... Edited November 4, 2009 by Deanh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PREMiERdrum Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 http://autos.aol.com/article/runaway-toyotas KICK EM WHILE THEY ARE DOWN....oh and they are also pulling out of Formula One....... GMI Member "goblue" summed it up nicely: Why don't they just put a Toyota floormat and accelerator pedal in their F1 cars, they'd win everytime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Reynolds Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 People were complaining of sudden acceleration well before this. NHTSA investigated the Tacoma last year, but ceased the investigation citing floor mats and driver's error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goinbroke2 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 And this morning the news reported on the radio that the worlds largest car company is showing a 3rd quarter profit of whatever and the shares went up whatever percent. I couldn't even listen. Man people are stupid! Instead of toyota the name should be teflon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 And this morning the news reported on the radio that the worlds largest car company is showing a 3rd quarter profit of whatever and the shares went up whatever percent.I couldn't even listen. Man people are stupid! Instead of toyota the name should be teflon. Toyota didn't gain their reputation overnight - it was built over several decades. Just like it took decades of poor products for the D3 to gain their current reputations. That won't change overnight, but it has already changed within the media and that's a good first step. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PREMiERdrum Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Can't verify yet, but GMI user PocoToro had this to say: Now about the transmission. From all "appearances" the left gate is the one you would use. It is lit, shows neutral, drive, lower gears. The right gate is for reverse and park. The very short center gate appears to do nothing. So with gear selection lever in the left gate and in the drive positon I pushed the gear selector all the way forward to neutral. Nothing. I accelerated and while accelerating pushed the lever all the way against the neutral position which is as far forward as it will go in the left gate. Again nothing, the transmission stays engaged. This is a humongous safety problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
97svtgoin05gt Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 And that right there shows you how stupid people in this country have become. Couldn't agree more. I love the whole perception that "Toyotas and Hondas don't break". Get real. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PREMiERdrum Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Fantastic test done in a new, 09 Lexus over on these forums: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1859407 This time I had about 1/3 the braking force as before and the car would not stop. It did slow but not easily and not nearly enough. I let off the brake pedal and ran it back up to 80. I immediately hit the brakes hard again. This time.....I had essentially no brakes. I stood on em. They had faded. My conclusion. On this car you have one chance to stop with the brakes with the engine at WOT. If you play with the brakes, try to stop a bit, let off, allow the car to reaccelerate, try to stop, etc., you aren't going to stop. This car has four wheel disc brakes. But they have a limit and one stop from this speed with the engine at WOT is it. Now about the transmission. From all "apearances" the left gate is the one you would use. It is lit, shows neutral, drive, lower gears. The right gate is for reverse and park. The very short center gate appears to do nothing. So with gear selection lever in the left gate and in the drive positon I pushed the gear selector all the way forward to neutral. Nothing. I accelerated and while accelerating pushed the lever all the way against the neutral position which is as far forward as it will go in the left gate. Again nothing, the transmission stays engaged. So, what about downshifting? As I expected you can downshift progressively with each pull of the gear selector toward the rear. Downshift up to a point that is. The ECU controls how far down you can shift or if you can downshift at all, based on speed. At speed you cannot downshift. Reverse is locked out. But what does that short center section do. No lights, no nothing but it is a gate. So I shifted into it. Here my options are drive and neutral, nothing else and nothing marked as best I could tell. Push forward on the gear selection lever in the center gate and the transmission goes into neutral regardless of throttle position. Yes, the engine will rev when in heavy acceleration and idle if you push the lever to neutral. Just like it should. What is a problem is that if you weren't familiar with the car and in a panic you might not recognize this gate as a viable option. I only tried it because I was testing everything. Wasn't my car. So, there is a functioning, non computer locked out neutral. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Jellymoulds Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Autoblog... Toyota has known about reports of unintended acceleration for years and has received over 2,000 such complaints. Citing statistics from Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., the lawsuit alleges that there have been 16 fatalities and 243 injuries from Toyota and Lexus crashes attributed to runaway vehicles. LINK Can't understand how anybody would want to buy a car from Toyota ever again, when cant be trusted to report or recall their cars when they have life threatening problems with them. Shame on you Toyota putting profits before the safety of its customers. Toyota cant be trusted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PREMiERdrum Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Don't know if anyone else has been following the 2 Runaway Toyota threads over on GMI, but our friend Brady Holt (aka DC Car Examiner) has made some very interesting (and fairly pro-Toyota biased) comments, including placing the blame in the CA accident 100% on the driver for "not knowing how to operate a vehicle." They make for an interesting read, and have certainly changed the way I'll read his reviews, if I read them at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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