Posted on 02/08/2011 11:10:17 AM PST by OldDeckHand
WASHINGTON -- A government investigation into Toyota safety problems has found no electronic flaws to account for reports of sudden, unintentional acceleration.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
My husband’s 1 year old Ford F150 p/u ran away with us and we crashed into the back of a car. Floor mats were not the problem. It happened 3 different times, twice on one day. He traded it in that day. After checking it out the dealership said nothing was wrong with it and sold it to some unsuspecting sucker. It took me a couple of weeks to get over the shock of that day, glad no one was hurt (yet).
I’m the original owner of a 2001 Camry and I’m still driving it with 145,000 miles on it. My wife also bought a 2001 Camry, same color as mine, before we met in 2003. When we bought a house (we were both renting), I’m sure the neighbors were looking at our matching cars saying, “Jeez, check out these yuppies. They probably have matching jogging suits, too.”
We sold her Camry to a nephew who’s a good kid and got a 2009 RAV4. He’s still driving it. We really like the RAV. It has 28,000 miles on it, so time will tell. It sure handles better than the Camry in the snow.
The only thing we’ve had to do to the Camrys is the routine maintenance, brake job, some minor things like that.
We've had Corolla's, Tercel, and Siennas...currently have a 2000 Sienna with 204,000 miles on it. Body is beat up, side door has had mechanism rusted out...but it runs like a champ. It's our 3rd car...emergency and bad snow vehicle so it sits in the yard and waits for us. Sometimes we don't start it for a month at a time but the darn thing fires up everytime.
Another car is a 2005 Corolla.....I bought that one used and again not a problem at all with it.
We need the 4 WD! Awesome Car!
Thanks OldDeckHand.
What you didn't hear during the Toyota mess, was that there were just as many reports of American cars with *exactly* the same sort of problem. But they didn't get the press.
Just like the "issue" with Firestone tires back in the 90's. Firestone tires on SUV's actually had a ~lower~ failure rate than several other brands of tires. But Firestones were the ones that got the press. Why? 'cuz they had the contract for the Ford Explorer, and Ford sold a lot of those. It was also right about when the "evil SUV" started becoming the enemy du jour.
Turns out that all the tire failures on Explorers were pretty much in the summer... in a geographic band across Arizona... New Mexico... Texas... Louisiana... you get the idea. Plus: all of the tires were underinflated, and all the vehicles were heavily loaded.
Not mystery... really.
He did hit the brakes according to the NHTSA:
http://www.safetyresearch.net/Library/NHTSA_Santee_Inspect.pdf
“Rotors were discolored and heated, had very rough surfaces, had substantial deposits of brake pad material, and showed signs of bright orange oxidation on the cooling fins consistent with endured braking.”
“Figure 2. Rear Left Caliper and Rotor Exhibiting Signs of Endured Braking”
There is also the 911 recording in which he said, “There’s no brake.”
Ugh... bad patch of ice. I've had some snow and ice "adventures" as well, however - thank God - I've never been hurt, nor has any car I was driving been damaged. One near-accident that I somehow avoided I still cannot explain to this day. It was truly an Act of God that I walked away from it (shaking, but I walked away).
Two of our three cars are Toyota Camrys: One's a 1991, the other is a 1996 with over 250,000 miles on it! The third is a VW Passat. I'd definitely buy a Toyota again, but no more Volkswagens...
Braking did not stop my husbands Ford p/u. I was sitting right beside him and while he had the brake all the way to the floor the truck kept going.
I’m sure you believe that. I don’t know what to tell you other than the basic fact that the brakes on any Ford pickup will overcome the torque of the engine and stop the truck. All of them.
So is the EPA going to put out a new regulation for when nothing causes pollution from toyota vehicles?
If you were to take the time to watch the video at the link that I posted, you would see that the stopping distance for the car they tested without the throttle override was more than 500 feet from 60 mph (at full throttle). Normally, the stopping distance would be about 140 feet. An additional 360 feet can make a big difference in whether or not you have an accident.
They tested a second car that did have the override, and the stopping distance was essentially normal, even with a wide open throttle.
Also, there is the problem that was demonstrated in the video of the loss of brake power assist that happens if you pump the brakes with a wide open throttle. Once that happened, the driver was unable to stop the car.
Give 'em a week...
Thanks for posting that. What you did is exactly what to do in that case. There was an audio recording being played on the MSM for a while of someone in I believe a Toyota Sienna minivan who called 911 and claimed to be going over 100 mph because of an acclerator jam. He and his family were killed at an intersection.
I was just thinking about that case yesterday, and thinking that the man and his family died because he either didn't think or was panicked.
When all this was going on, I decided to see what would happen if I put the pedal of my Scion xB all the way to the floor, to see what unintended acceleration would be like.
I had a nice, long stretch of nearly empty highway in front of me, so I pressed the pedal all the way to the floor, which I hardly ever do, because I am a conservative driver.
Well, wouldn't you know, the dang pedal got stuck under the mat. Fortunately, since my car has no power to speak of, the only effect was that the engine started making a little more noise. I had plenty of time to reach down and pull the mat back, and drive on my way.
When they say- None at all then you know their is a cover up. I read first hand reports about this problem before it even became public. To say none of the faults are electronic is a lie. I will never buy a car that cannot be shut down except at the whim of a crashed computer. No manual control equals no sale to me.
So what kind of car would do that?
NPR pulled the from NHTSA’s complaint database all the complaints that were recorded prior to the stories breaking, and there were FAR more than 8 complaints.
bull.
Most of Toyota’s fines didn’t even come from unintended acceleration cases. And they all came because Toyota hid defects (and even admitted doing so!)
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