Posted on 02/10/2011 10:20:57 AM PST by SgtHooper
Federal highway safety officials on Tuesday absolved the electronics in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles for unintended acceleration, and said driver error was to blame for most of the incidents.
The findings of a 10-month-long study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration identified three main causes for sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. Two of them—sticky accelerator pedals and floor mats that trapped the throttle in an open position—were the subject of a series of Toyota recalls.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
A lot of people will be crying in their beer as their imagined largesse from the law suits just went out the window.
Does no one remember that this exact same situation happened to Audi or Volvo back in the 80’s, and the eventual finding was exactly the same?
Now they can work on the cause of those ‘SUV’ accidents.....
Yet another example of Rules for Radicals on display.
Certainly food for thought, no doubt about it.
Gotta get those GM sales up somehow.
I well remember the thunderous volume of MEDIA coverage of the “terrible damage being wrought by TOYOTA”. The president of the company had to appear before Congress, and was vilified. The Politicians carried on like it was Pearl Harbor #2.
I’ve been searching and listening for a comparable coverage of the result of the governments “official” study into the causes of this “terrible” problem.
(SOUND OF SILENCE)
The right people sold high, bought low, and now are going to enjoy the return to high sell off levels. You don’t spend $10,000,000 to run for a job that pays $184,000 per year because you’re a nice person in touch with the common man ya know..........
Bingo. I would not be suprised if BMW is next with that lobbyists X5 SUV where she was in the tuck, it hit the bench and the coolant ignited off the HID headlight heat. It all sounds absurd and sounds like she was whacked by someone.
Look at Big Insurance and little insurance companies. Look at BP or the coal industry.
Corporations never really know if the government will hate them or love them. The uncertainty caused by such things means that hiring is kept at a low level. It's the only type of risk management that makes sense right now.
Will the lawyers give back the money from the lawsuits?
What's that you say? Cars don't read newspapers? Gee, how did we get all those copycat incidents?
Too bad. I’m sick of the Toyota snobs.
I think we had commercial slander promoted by the left wing press. Toyota would be well advised to sue for damages.
This is just an opinion here. I have a ‘97 GMC truck. I have noticed that I can, if not paying attention, place my foot on the brake and the throttle at the same time. It seems that the brake pedal is too close to the throttle to begin with. Remember the old cars where the clutch and brake pedal were further to the left on sat higher? To use the brake in those cars, you had to actually lift your foot up higher and place it on the brake pedal. Also, in today’s cars, the brake pedal is much wider. If they would cut down on the size of the pedal and move it over and inch or two, set it higher, it may solve the problem. Just a thought here.
I wonder who was in on shorting Toyota and/or picking up their stock cheaper?
Yep it was Audi. My Dad got a nice 5000 coupe cheap thanks to the nonsense.
It was Audi. It absolutely ruined them in the USA. And the problem just like this, was Driver Error -- hitting the accelerator instead of the brake(1). From that point in the 80's the next Audi I saw and was in wasn't until 2002.
(1) There was huge accident in Chicago with a woman driving her Audi. She ran through a Street Fair, the 'Old Town Art Fair' iirc. Hundreds of paintings and people were in the street. I can't recall how many were killed but a lot were injured and countless Paintings destroyed.
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