Posted on 03/13/2010 12:29:13 PM PST by GOP_Lady
>>But the press conference alone makes it clear Sikes’ story didn’t wash. Journalism schools are supposed to teach that skepticism is paramount. “If your mother says it, check it out,” goes the old adage. Yet comments on Web sites across the country reveal that practically everyone thought the Prius incident was a hoax—though they couldn’t prove it—except for the media.<<
The most important line in the whole story - and the REAL story itself.
>>However, I’m not sure that I completely trust Toyota on this one.<<
Beyond the philosophical “you shold never completely trust anyone except God”, what evidence supports your misstrust?
>>Yes, I was thinking the same thing. When you look at how Barry rose to prominence by smearing rival Jack Ryan for Illinois Senator you can see the same strategies now being applied to the car industry. <<
Yes, but what works locally does not work nationally - especially with the internet. Just ask Kerry about his Christmas in Cambodia and how that played out for him on the national stage. ;)
The cop car and the Prius never touched. Also, it was demonstrated that a Prius with a fully engaged throttle could be easily stopped by hitting the brakes, and in a relatively short distance. The brakes significantly over power the engine. And as the article pointed out, even a car with a 500+ horsepower engine was able to be stopped in 900 feet with a fully engaged throttle.
Sikes is gonna be in big trouble here. This is looking more and more like the Duke LaCross case, sans the corrupt DA.
Did you read my first post on this thread about our Prius that caught fire? If not, go back and read that. That’s why I don’t trust Toyota.
Halliburton is an oil services company, not an oil company. There is only one other company on the planet large enough to bid against Halliburton on many huge projects (Schlumberger from France).
You do understand it was just an analogy to point out the hypocrisy of the Left, correct?
Yes, and on that point we agree. I’m still rankled by the uproar over giving Halliburton no bid contracts in Iraq, when the only other choice was a French company.
I guess no one’s ever heard if cruise control.
You’re preaching to the choir. I have no issue with Halliburton.
And the no-bid-contract privilege was not questioned when it was in place under Slick Willy “I gave missile-guidance technology to the ChiComs” Clinton.
That was done through Loral, not Halliburton.
I was actually just getting ready to respond to that. If you google any car made, and I mean ANY CAR, looking for problems, you will find plenty of people that think that car maker is the devil incarnate. And they all have personal experience to back it up.
I know. I’ve done just that - and with some of the most trusted names out there.
Fact is, with millions of cars sold, there will be rare problems caused by, dare I say it, malfunction. There is always risk of malfunction of every part of a car, no matter how remote. And here is the kernel regarding your issue and the dealer - if it is rare, then even though the dealership may have heard about it, they may have absolutely no experience with it.
Also, and this is the 800 lb gorilla in the room, ALL companies that make potentially hasardous products exercise risk assessment when releasing products based on cost. If a company KNOWS a certain design feature will result in “X” deaths but would cost “n” do mitigate, if “n” is high enough and “X” is low enough, they will do nothing other than put money aside for the occasional lawsuit payout.
Otherwise, we would have no convertibles or motorcycles.
I forgot to add: How many Prius batteries actually caught on fire?
I googled and came up with a bit:
Edmonds: http://townhall.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f12cc22
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-batteries-none-the-worse-for-wear-cga.htm
Interestingly, Toyota has avoided Li-Ion batteries partly BECAUSE OF the fire risk.
I wasn’t implying that missile-guidance technology was given to the ChiComs through Halliburton.
That is one of my nicknames for Slick Willy Clinton.
Is this actually your car at post 11?
http://townhall.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f12cc22/10
I’ve noticed this sort of thing before. And I was even a part of one. I found multiple sites regarding a problem with a car and eventually discovered that a lot of them were the same people posting the same problem at different sites. It was serious to them and somewhat obsessing, for obvious reasons, so they (again, I did it) talked about it at several sites.
I came across the edmonds site by searching prius battery fires and just a minute ago noticed the photo’s there are the exact same address as the photo you posted.
They would be one in the same. We posted our photos on edmunds. We didn’t post on other car sites. Edmunds is a good one.
I know our insurance company had lawyers involved in our case. They called us for information.
Our warranty was still on our battery, but Toyota didn’t pay a dime because we hadn’t taken our Toyota for the service thing they sent out.
I think Toyota should have recalled the Prius’. They knew about our problem and it could cause fires. Yet, they’ve never told Toyota owners about the problem.
One Prius caught on fire in someone’s garage and burnt it down. I don’t think anyone was killed, but that’s still pretty scary.
There is also a fix for the problem, so I don’t know why they just didn’t issue a recall.
My husband bought another Prius, but I make him park it outside. I don’t want another Toyota. I like my Honda Odyssey. I’ll stick with either Honda or I might go with Ford for the next car.
>>One Prius caught on fire in someone’s garage and burnt it down. I don’t think anyone was killed, but that’s still pretty scary.<<
I agree, but I take a more pragmatic approach. As one reporter said regarding the accelerator, and I’ll add regarding the battery, “worrying about your throttle sticking is like worrying about getting a spider bite when you climb the ladder to clean your gutters.” It is ignoring the obvious risk while fretting over the much less likely. He mentioned in his article that while roughly 30 people died in these “stuck accelerator” accidents, over 23,000 died in Toyotas in other accidents. And just like the battery fire, many of those involved could do nothing about it.
I did notice in one of your posts that you got one of the first Priuses, and acknowledge that is always a risk when you are “first”. I DO think the issue regarding your fire is not the safety of the car, but how Toyota is treating you. Frankly, I would assume you would win a settlement in court, but they are making you go that route. It is one of the less comely parts of the way our system works.
Interestingly, when I did research on one of my cars, I found out that honda has some problems of its own. Not common, mind you, but those burned by it feel the same way you do about the Prius. I found similar problems with other makes.
There seems to be a small number of people, for every car make out there, that have been treated terribly and think the brand is dangerous or management is not responsive. The internet allows all of this dirty laundry to be aired. I think that is a good thing.
I felt that by putting our story out there then at least I’ve done my best at trying to prevent someone’s garage from burning.
I also hope it makes car companies more responsive.
I think the role of the government in all of this is making sure that a car dealership is being honest and honoring it’s responsibilities.
I do think the government has been too involved in the current Toyota recall. It’s been very strange.
I agree with everything in your post and think you definitely did the right thing
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