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[Chains]

Here's one about a disgruntled owner at a dealership.


http://www.tundraheadquarters.com/blog/2010/02/01/toyota-tundra-crashes-unintended-acceleration/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tundraheadquarterscom+%28Tundra+Headquarters%29

[porthole]

Here's a story about Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak and acceleration problems with his 2010 Toyota Prius: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10445564-64.html

My first thought is why does Wozniak drive a Pirius or any toyo 

[ultrafxr]

My first thought is why does Wozniak drive a Pirius or any toyo 

I imagine because it is 'green' and this dovetails nicely with the image they wish to project, jmo.

[Chains]

My first thought is why does Wozniak drive a Pirius or any toyo 

You would think he would travel in style wouldn't you?

[jimsmith94]

Well, he did get a $700 ticket for going 105 MPH in his Prius. 
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2007/08/21/steve-wozniak-receives-700-ticket-for-105mph-in-a-prius/

[flhse]

Well, he did get a $700 ticket for going 105 MPH in his Prius. 
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2007/08/21/steve-wozniak-receives-700-ticket-for-105mph-in-a-prius/

I'd imagine that was when the car took off by itself!  He said when he would put on the cruise control, the car will just start accelerating at times.  The ticket must be the Prius's fault.

 

brad

[skreminegul07]

Yup, floor mats have been getting tangled up with accelerator pedals for decades, probably throughout the history of floor mats.  Fortunately most auto companies started putting anchors in the floor and holes in the floor mat that locked over those anchors to prevent this sort of thing back in the 90's.  However, that doesn't help much if the aftermarket mats don't utilize the anchors, or if the owners and/or operators of those cars don't buy mats specifically designed to fit the car and then use the anchors properly.  Unfortunately, common sense cannot be legislated.  Also unfortunately, common sense isn't so common.

There will be examples of all kinds of "causes" for out-of-control Toyota's now that the media has finally paid some attention to problems with Toyota's.  Hopefully, a few examples of misplaced floor mats won't divert attention from the real issues.  I also noticed that lots of other folks who have been sitting in the weeds are now coming out and talking about issues with their Toyota's.  I saw one on the news yesterday concerning Apple co-founder Wozniak; it seems that his Prius has a tendency to take off on it's own when he engages his cruise control, so he is postulating for the news media that this shows there is an electronic issue.  

I think we will be seeing a lot more in the coming weeks and months about this little fiasco, at least until the media can come up with some dirt on one of the American companies to divert attention.

Jerry

Can't agree with you more.  My first thought is that I wish Automatic transmissions were never invented, so many morons and impaired drivers could not ever leave the dealership.  Sudden acceleration (I do not believe in ) would be a non issue, the car would not accelerate and you could step on the clutch.

I have a 2007 Camry.  Every year they send me the info regarding the floor mats, every year I call and the dealer doesn't have replacement mats.  Duh!
Now this.  I have 72ooo miles on my Camry and no issues with the gas pedal.  I do have an issue with a front end vibration, and it warps the rotor very quicly, 10-15K miles.  I was going to buy the AWD Fusion, but was told, buy a Camry.

One more thing, Toyota will come out OK.  I never thought Advil would survive.  Maybe Toyota will do a Datsun and rename the company.

Do the Lexi have this problem?

I have heard nothing from Toyota at this point.

I did have a bad 110 though, several of them.

I thought it looked bad that the blame was put on the American supplier of the part.  Isn't that the root of American car issues?

[grc]

.....................................

I thought it looked bad that the blame was put on the American supplier of the part.  Isn't that the root of American car issues?

That's something that shocked me coming from the Japanese, since they don't usually play those games in public.  And to be fair, they didn't really come right out and accuse the supplier of causing the problem, that was just more of the media printing unsubstantiated crap or drawing unwarranted conclusions.  I'm glad the supplier got out front and explained the design was totally Toyota's and that the problem only occurred after Toyota changed the design.  

I've been on both sides of the supplier/auto manufacturer equation, and I've found that both sides tend to screw up, but any manufacturer that points the finger at the supplier's all the time is pretty much FOS.  Some supplier's are given 'black box" contracts which means they design the parts, the tooling, etc. as well as build and supply the parts, and those folks do own the responsibility as well.  But most suppliers still just build parts to the manufacturer's specifications and designs.  If Toyota screwed up the redesign of the part, they can't blame that on the supplier.  Of course, once the media gives the public the impression it's a supplier problem, Toyota gets a free pass from many customers or potential customers.  Therefore you don't see them jumping in to clarify that this problem wasn't caused by CTS.

Jerry

[kraut]

if you were a supplier for Mercedes-Benz, even the tools you were obliged to use were designed, delivered and owned by Mercedes-Benz, suppliers were subject to unannounced inspections by Mercedes-Benz, some had the "pleasure" on a weekly basis - at least this was the case some years ago. I doubt this has changed. And the Japanese manufacturers used to be even worse. No chance to put the blame on a supplier ...

[Eqcons]

Heads will roll.  And the supplier of those accelerator pedals, CTS Corp., is in deep, deep chit for sure (as well they should be).

Woops!  CTS are my oldest customer.......  (They make HD parts too, guys!) 

Jim

[kraut]

German Media today:

"Washington/Toyota (dts Nachrichtenagentur) - United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood caused some irritations today advising Toyota-owners to just leave their cars at home. He later changed his mind and recommended to drive Toyotas to the dealers immediately: "My advice is: should you own such a car and be in doubt get it to Toyota today".  Some days ago the Japanese manufacturer Toyota recalled worldwide 4,5 Mio cars because of defect gas pedals. In addition production of 8 models in USA was stopped temporarily. US-factories will restart production probably not before next week. Economical impact on Toyota is already visible as in January only 99.000 cars were sold in USA Toyotas, that's 16 % less than in 2009. Additionally shares lost in Tokyo 5,7 % today, since January 1st that's 12,4 %."

[kraut]

Toyota has admitted the faulty brakes with Prius-models and states to have them corrected with all cars sold since end of January. They don't get out of the media in Europe.

[kraut]

latest news:


"... this thursday Toyota published the costs for the current recall with 180 Bil. Yen (2 Bil. $), two thirds of this amount is calculated for repairs and one third for reduced sales.

Yet the worlds biggest manufacturer of cars expects rised earnings for the business year ending 03/31. The company is expecting a net profit of 0,88 Bil. $. Before a loss of 2,21 Bil. $ had been expected. Toyota said the 3rd quarter 09/10 ended with a profit and exceeded expectations. The turn around was caused by cost reductions and increased shipments to Asia and USA/Canada which compensated for the strong yen as Toyota stated."

[grc]

Toyota has admitted the faulty brakes with Prius-models and states to have them corrected with all cars sold since end of January. They don't get out of the media in Europe.

Absolutely amazing that they still haven't got a clue.  After telling the world one day that they are unaware of any brake problem, they come out the next day and admit there was a design flaw but it supposedly has been fixed in production as of January.  Of course, it's not a major problem so they don't know if they plan to do a recall on this or not.  Are these people totally clueless, just plain ignorant, or so full of themselves that they just don't care how the customer's feel about all this?  I wonder more and more if Toyota and H-D aren't sharing management.

What I really hope comes out of all of this, other than the primary result of making sure the cars are fixed and safe, is the end of the 30 year free ride the media has given Toyota. 

Jerry 

[kraut]

@Jerry:

Japanese are, think and feel different. Publicly admitting a failure is something very, very difficult for them. Loss of face, you know. There will be severe consequences inhouse but a very low public profile.