The more I think about this whole Toyota thing (http://www.nhtsa.gov/PR/DOT-16-11), the more pissed off I get - and I don’t even own a Toyota. After a year of trashing the company’s cars, the government is just saying, “oops, my bad” and shrugging their shoulders (http://the…ear-later-). This could have happened to any car company. I know they’re big corporations, but WTF?
I know I can’t be the only person who feels this way ((http://www…ta-apology), amirite?
You’re right, but don’t hold your breath. Actually the media is more to blame, they love this kind of thing. Almost killed Audi with the same stuff years ago. And that guy in LA with the ‘out of control Prius’ has been found to be a repeat fraudster.
On the other hand, as some others have observed, the sudden uncontrolled acceleration was reported in ~1 Toyota per 100,000, yet NHTSA actually tested only nine Toyotas for evidence of an electronic glitch. Given such a small sample, it is very possible that the nine cars that were tested are not afflicted with electronic problems that are present in other Toyotas.
Some of the “SUA” cases were traced back to a problem with floor mats.
Others were attributed to problems with the gas pedal and related hardware.
And, it is believed that some of the cases were the result of driver error, i.e.–those who can’t distinguish between their gas and brake pedals.
However, that still leaves a number of cases where no explanation has been figured out as of yet.
Perhaps we will never know.
One thing I base my opinion on is the sharp reduction in reported events, once the floor mat and gas pedal changes were made. If the cause was actually electronics or programming errors, the ‘SUA’ events should have continued unabated.
I think that is a silly thought.
There is/was quite obviously an issue - exploited like crazy in the media, yes. But the issue is there. Those recent reports tell me absolutely nothing whatsoever - partly for reasons mentioned by VDCdriver. If you don’t know what the “problem of induction” is, look it up.
Its an even sillier thought if you try to imagine an completely inactive government who stands around saying “oh, there’s no problem there” while there is a general public - who that government is supposed to represent - hanging around in a tizzy about this. Do the government can’t win. Ignore what a lot of people ask for and its uncaring and ineffective. Try to do what a lot people ask for and now its the big bad wolf.
Toyota Should Get In Line. There Is No End To The Businesses Which This Administration Owes Apologies.
CSA
This is not the first time this has happened.
Ask Audi.
“Washington” has a responsibility to try to protect its citizens from potentially hazardous products.
Unfortunately, “Washington” doesn’t seem to have a mandate to protect its citizens from their own stupidity.
The problems with Audis were all owner-oriented.
It appears the problems with Toyotas may be owner-oriented, too. Surprise!
I think it’s interesting that the whole thing has gotten very quiet. I haven’t heard of a runaway Toyota in months. I guess they’re all OK now.
If there was a problem there would still be a problem. Not everyone took his or her Toyota to a dealer for the recall.
It’s unlikely that there ever was much of a problem in the first place.
Does “Washington” owe Toyota anything?
IMHO, No.
“Opps, my bad,” does not quite do justice to the situation.
Can’t you find something more important to be “pissed” about?
Was there an actual drop?
Toyota’s rate of complaints for sudden acceleration skyrocketed starting in 2002, but the stories didn’t break until 2009. Then the rate went through the roof, largely from what I believe was false complaints, but also surely some from people with legitimate complaints that had never filed a complaint with NHTSA before (this happens with EVERY recall or problem that hits the news).
You certainly don’t hear the stories anymore - but has the rate of complaints dropped back to pre-2002 levels or has it just dropped back to where it was prior to when the stories hit the news? The former would be proof that their fixes worked. The latter would simply show that the attention hogs weren’t out in full force anymore.
Do they owe Ford an apology for attacking the Pinto, which had a serious defect but had a lower overall fatality rate than almost any other compact of the era?
Toyota had a safety problem that they admittedly hid and tried to cover up. Was it the case that these vehicles were accelerating out of control all over the place? No - but Toyota’s rate of complaints was many times what it should have been PRIOR to the news outlets picking up these stories. Might the problems have been fixed? Certainly. I don’t believe that studying 9 vehicles is sufficient to say no, there is no problem, and neither do the NASA engineers who did the study (http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2011-02-09-toyota09_VA1_N.htm).
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if they solved MOST of the problems, but not all. Our extended family has a Camry with a Denso pedal that Toyota has said they know of no problems with - the sensor in that pedal failed and as a result the car bucked and surged. Not out of control racing down the freeway by any stretch of the imagination, but enough to jump a few feet. Toyota should know about that one. If a Throttle Position Sensor can fail, their gas pedals can fail… and they sell replacements…
I don’t think Toyota is owed anything. Had they been upfront when they discovered problems, the press would have been far kinder to them.
I hope you are the only one. A problem was noted, several possibilities were evaluated, and two were found to be likely reasons for unintended acceleration. What’s the big deal? The system works, and you are outraged? I see your government at work and doing a good job.
Oh those poor, poor abused corporations. (sniff, sniff) If only we would let them freely partake in their pursuit of public service. I feel so bad for them. They do no wrong - ever. That is obvious. Its too bad that governments, attempting to look out for their pesky constituents, continue to be the sole cause of all that is terrible in the world.
So here’s how you have to fix it. A huge amount of what our government does is actually in response to demands from its constituents. So its easy - get rid of the constituents. Abandon democracy altogether. Get rid of the the rights of the citizenry. Put extreme right wing ideologues in charge to rule according to extreme right wing ideology. They will do no wrong which means that we don’t have to worry about the rights of citizenry. If anyone had anything to say its obviously because they’re just wrong. Once there are no other organizations powerful enough to challenge corporations, we hit Utopia. I’m all over that.