Toyota: "Oh What a Feeling!" (We're Fucked!)

[Sorcerer]

Well I'm outta here guys, the fourm moderator seems to have it out for me must be because I actually have a clue.

It's funny how a moderator would post things unrelated to the thread, just to bash someone personally.

I'll go lurk on a forum where people actually make constructive educated criticism!

peace

[chefcraig]

Well I'm outta here guys, the fourm moderator seems to have it out for me must be because I actually have a clue.

It's funny how a moderator would post things unrelated to the thread, just to bash someone personally.

I'll go lurk on a forum where people actually make constructive educated criticism!

peace

Don't take it all that hard, man. Give it some time and you'll soon enough be able to discern between who to take seriously around here and who is just yanking yer femur.

[ELVIS]

Well I'm outta here guys, the fourm moderator seems to have it out for me must be because I actually have a clue.

It's funny how a moderator would post things unrelated to the thread, just to bash someone personally.

I'll go lurk on a forum where people actually make constructive educated criticism!

peace

That was easy, later...

[Little Texan]

More bad news for Toyota...apparently the Prius has the same problem as the other cars that have been recalled.

Link

Runaway Prius driver: 'I was laying on the brakes but it wasn't slowing down'

Regulators and Toyota say they'll investigate James Sikes' wild ride east of San Diego, where he reached speeds of 90 mph weaving in and out of traffic before a CHP officer came to his aid.

By Richard Marosi and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

March 9, 2010 | 1:33 p.m.


Reporting from El Cajon and Los Angeles - James Sikes bought his Toyota Prius in 2008 and 53,000 miles later the car was driving fine. But on Monday afternoon, when he accelerated to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 east of San Diego, the car kept going.

"The gas pedal stuck open all the way," said Sikes, 61, a real estate agent from San Diego.

For 30 miles, Sikes said, he swerved in and out of traffic, narrowly missing a big rig and trying desperately to slow the vehicle down, at one point reaching down with his hand to pull back on the gas pedal. The brakes were useless.

"I was laying on the brakes," Sikes said, "but it wasn't slowing down."

The "nerve-wracking" experience, he said, ended when a CHP officer, responding to his 911 call, instructed him through a loudspeaker to apply his emergency brake in tandem with the brake pedal. Sikes pressed down, hard. "My bottom wasn't even on the seat," he said.

When the Prius, which had reached 90 mph, dropped to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a stop. There was nothing else he could have done to stop the car, Sikes said.

"If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone."

Sikes recounted his ordeal during a news conference held in front of a Toyota dealership Tuesday as a federal safety agency said it was sending two investigators to San Diego County to probe the incident.

"They're special crash investigators and they're going to gather the details from the car and find out what the potential causes of any problems are," said Karen Aldana, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Sudden unintended acceleration has been alleged as the cause of 56 fatal accidents involving Toyotas in the U.S. going back as far as 2004. Toyota has issued about 10 million recall notices worldwide recently to address sudden acceleration, braking and other problems in its vehicles, including Sikes' Prius

Sikes on Tuesday said he received a recall notice, but when he brought his Prius in for service about three weeks ago, the dealer in El Cajon said his car wasn't part of the recall. Sikes, who said he didn't read the letter from Toyota, couldn't specify what problem the recall was addressing.

The dealer, Toyota of El Cajon, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, said Monday it would send a field technical specialist to investigate what happened. By Tuesday morning, Sikes said he had yet to hear from the manufacturer, and that his calls to Toyota's toll-free number turned up a busy signal.

At the Toyota dealer in El Cajon where he went to pick up a loaner car, Sikes said he was still a little shaken by the incident. A longtime owner of Toyotas, he said the Prius had just received a maintenance check and everything appeared to be fine.

When the accelerator stuck, he said he weighed all his options. He feared turning the car off in the middle of traffic, expecting the steering wheel to lock. If he shifted into neutral, he worried that it would slip into reverse. The floor mat, he said, wasn't interfering with the gas pedal.

"It was accelerating out of control. Period," said Sikes.

Sikes said he had never had a problem with Toyota vehicles. But when his friend showed up this morning to take him to the dealer in a Prius, he hesitated. "It just felt funny," he said. "I love Toyotas. I will not drive a Prius again."

[twonabomber]

so let it go into reverse. not like it's gonna all of a sudden go 90 backwards.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101029/ts_nm/us_toyota_litigation

nice

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Toyota secretly bought back from U.S. consumers vehicles it found with speed-control defects as part of a strategy to hide unintended-acceleration problems from safety regulators and the public, a revised lawsuit claims.
The repurchase transactions included strict confidentiality agreements barring consumers from disclosing the problem to anyone and from suing the automaker, according to the amended class-action complaint.
The new complaint also cites internal company records documenting instances in which Toyota Motor Corp technicians or service managers replicated speed-control problems like those reported by customers.
And it says the company's confirmation of at least one clear-cut case of sudden unintended acceleration was concealed rather than reported to federal auto safety regulators.
The enlarged lawsuit, now more than 700 pages long plus hundreds of pages of attached exhibits, was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, south of Los Angeles.
It builds on a case consolidated over the summer from dozens of consumers and businesses claiming economic losses, including diminished vehicle resale values, stemming from complaints of Toyota cars and trucks racing out of control.
The thrust of the lawsuit is the contention that Toyota ignored evidence of speed-control problems in its vehicles for most of the past decade and failed to install a brake override system it knew could have prevented accidents.

[Nitro Express]

I like the looks of those new Ford Mustangs. Cars all look the same and the Mustang has nice looks. I don't know if it's a good car but Ford didn't take bailout money and they are a US company. I won't even bother to look at a GM or Chrysler product anymore. For practical transportation I always liked Volkswagens. My wife drives the Phaeton and it's a great car.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

i like the car bodies that nationwide is using now, the mustang actually kinda looks like a mustang

[PETE'S BROTHER]

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1752/spider-webs-prompt-mazda-recall-of-50000-cars/

Mazda is recalling about 52,000 Mazda6 sedans, because yellow sac spiders like to build their nests in part of the fuel system.

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"A certain type of spider may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction of the line," Mazda said in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


Yellow sac spider (Credit: Eran Finkle)
The evaporative canister vent line runs from a charcoal-filled canister that cleans air coming out of the gas tank. Blockage of the line can prevent air from getting into the gas tank as the gasoline is used, resulting in negative air pressure inside the tank. That can lead to a crack in the gas tank and the possibility of a fire.

There have been 20 reported cases of spider infestation in the Mazda6 -- all have been in cars with 4-cylinder engines, none with V6's. No actual fires are known to have been caused by the spiders, according to Mazda's letter.

Dealers will inspect and, if necessary, repair the fuel system in the cars. A spring will also be installed to prevent spider intrusion, according to the letter.

Letters will be mailed to owners of affected vehicles beginning at the end of this month.

It's unclear why this particular spider -- the yellow sac spider -- seems to prefer the Mazda6, company spokesman Jeremy Barnes said. All modern cars have the same type of equipment.

"Maybe they just like cars that go 'Zoom-Zoom," he said. "We honestly don't know."

[Terry]

Meh.

My next car will still probably be a Camry.

[TAKIN WHISKEY]

I have had eight Toyotas in the last eleven years and never had a single problem with any of them. Of course, I lease them for 36 thousand miles, then get another one, so I'm driving them new all the time, but never a single problem. Currently, I have a 2011 Camry SE, my wife has a Camry XLE and my youngest daughter drives a Corolla S. If I didn't work for a Toyota dealership and drive Toyotas, I would probably work at a Honda dealership and drive Hondas.

[Hardrock69]

Toyotas are dependable like a motherfucker.

[sadaist]

Toyotas are dependable like a motherfucker.

Yeah. I still love the late 80's / early 90's pickup models. SR-5 I think they are. They are like the older Honda bikes both 3-wheelers & 2-wheels. Oil & gas is all you need for that fucker to last forever.

[TAKIN WHISKEY]

Yeah. I still love the late 80's / early 90's pickup models. SR-5 I think they are. They are like the older Honda bikes both 3-wheelers & 2-wheels. Oil & gas is all you need for that fucker to last forever.

Yeah, the engines on those trucks were awesome but the bodies would rust out before you could kill the engine. Toyota, Honda and Datsun/Nissan all had rust problems in the eighties and early nineties.

[Terry]

One of the most reliable cars I ever had was a 1990 Toyota Turcel Japanese import.

That little rice-burner always started up, lasted over 200,000 miles before I encountered any major problems with it and got awesome gas mileage.

The dealer back then told me "just remember: with these imports, make SURE you get the oil changed...don't wait until you've passed 3,000 miles...get it changed every 2,500 to 2,750 miles or so...I don't care if you get it changed at the dealership or at a Jiffy Lube, just make SURE you get it done."

He never elaborated why, and I didn't ask. I just did it.

I miss that little blue Turcel fucker!