Gee, and Toyotas all now come with stability control on the abs…consider at 90 mph if the computer decides to slam on the left rear brake only because your kid borrowed the car the night before and was making out so violently in the back, he kicked a panel in front of the yaw sensor. We ask for all those safety devices; except for Caddyman who stayed true. I’m guessing we may be giving over more vehicle control than the last astronauts did on their last trip to the moon.
If it was Ford or GM being discussed then a number of posters would be all over them for designing and manufacturing junk.
Matter of fact, it was only about 2 months ago this happened on CT when someone asked a polite, civil question about a recall on a GM car and got the “Recalls just prove that GM builds junk” lecture; especially from one particular poster.
Toyota knew about this problem years ago. Check the NHTSA site for complaints about this going back 5 years or more on all models.
Toyota tried to cover up a ball joint recall and got caught. Why would anyone think this issue would be any different.
Managment meeting behind closed doors with the lawyers and bean counters and cost analysis tells them they’re going to have to come clean or risk a billion dollar jury award; probably multiple times.
I don’t have a problem with mechanical faults that occur. All cars suffer them. My only complaint is that those who vilify a domestic car for a design fault are often plenty willing to look the other way when it’s Toyota’s screwup.
For the ones who think that Toyota always does the right thing, steps up to the plate voluntarily, always has the consumer in mind and whatnot, consider the latest which I’ve cut and pasted below.
Toyota executive vice president Shinichi Sasaki acknowledged Tuesday in a Nagoya, Japan, news conference that it took prodding from NHTSA officials for the company to decide on the U.S. recall.
Waterboy; I actually have a car that has not had any recalls. It’s a…2007 Corolla. Previous cars (good and bad), 1994 Nissan Sentra, 1988 Caprice, 1984 Impala, 1976 Granada and a few others had either recalls or technical bulletins to fix a problem.
Not that I worry about recalls, it’s when there is a real problem and the maufacturer refuses to issue one with a fix, that I get upset.
We even had our 1970s Corningware coffee percolator pot recalled, since the handle could give way and spill hot coffee! They actually gave us a discount on other Corningware products equal to the new value of the percolator.
TSM, I’m with you being uncomfortable with the proposed solution. They have shown a very rudimentary drawing of the parts and the interference points. If you ask me, that design is suspect from the get go. Granted, we have only been shown a scrubbed and simplified view of the assembly but I don’t like any design that relies on a tapered fitment of parts that could easily bind up from; manufacturing tolerance stack up, corrosion or wear, heat expansion of parts, torsion of the assembly due to poor support structure etc.
In any complex machine, there are going to be things that get overlooked even with modern CAD systems that can do so much design verification for us. In the end, these are designed by humans and we make mistakes. My pencil has an eraser on it too! IMO, it was only a matter of time before they got stung like any manufacturer of complex machinery can. I judge them more on their response than the fact they ultimately made a mistake. Compared to the rest of the bunch, I’d give them a pretty good mark for their efforts so far.
I don’t think you have to worry about punitive measures being meted out. Some heads are gonna roll and, unlike their western counterparts, the Japanese firms usually have the upper management falling on swords before the workers…
All I have to say is your not that smart! It does not take weeks to make an accelerator pedal. Thousands of pedals are made every day. Furthermore, the accelerator was in the middle of an upgrade before this happened.
You also must not do much research because if yod did, you would know that those accelerator pedals from that company also is supplied to Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda. Furthermore, if you really want to be more intelligent go to NHTSA and look at any given model and make. Every manufacturer has a least a couple of current recalls (some very severe) right now.
Wake up to what is fact versus fiction. There have been two cases which is why Toyota decided to be proactive unlike some of the other manufacturers (i.e. Ford with their tire problem that caused thousands of accidents. Second, Ford again takes the reign. Model year 1993-2004 with cruise control units that caused fire. Oh look again Ford. In 1996 when ignitions caught on fire. GM is next in line. In the 80’s when suspension bolts came loose and caused sterring malfunctions. Audi that denied there was any problem with their acclererator pedal. And my personal favorite goes to GM. In the 60’s where their engine was twisting away from the actual frame of the vehicle.
The point is if you want to pick on Toyota at least get your facts straight and do not try to pretend like every other manufacturer has problems. If you honestly believe what you are saying that it scares me that you may actually be on the road driving because who knows what type of vehicle you think is safe.
Toyota did the right thing by doing what they did. Toyota customers are smart and know that every manufacturer has problems and that Toyota always takes the proactive approach. I wish every manufacturer had the integrity that Toyota does. I also wish that every manufacturer did not have to grovel to get money to stay afloat and then to let us pay for it for the rest of our lives but that’s right it has already happened!
Apparently, “you’re” not that smart either. There’s a difference between “your” and “you’re.”
Also, Toyota did decide to be “proactive.” They’ve been ignoring this issue for quite some time. They were forced to deal with it.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/02/lahood.toyota.recall/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+(RSS%3A+Top+Stories)
(Note: I’m not bashing Toyota here, I don’t think they are any worse [or better] than any other automaker.)
Aren’t you also a base jumper in your spare time?
I am glad you were able to find one grammatical error in my writing. I am glad that you believe what the press says especially since they have been known to tell the truth! Maybe if you really want to know what is going on you should work for the company or for the federal government instead of pretending that everything you read is the truth.
“GM is next in line. In the 80’s when suspension bolts came loose and caused sterring malfunctions. … And my personal favorite goes to GM. In the 60’s where their engine was twisting away from the actual frame of the vehicle.”
Can’t you find anything more recent? If GM has no major recalls that they neglected in the last 20 to 30 yeears, they must be solid citizens.
The press reported that Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, said in an interview that Toyota had no intention of issuing a recall until a US DOT representative went to Japan and cajoled them into it.
I don’t pretend that everything I read is the truth, and this includes what I read from you. Grow up. (And, that wasn’t your only grammatical mistake, just the worst one.)
I don’t think that Toyota is being really bad here, but I don’t think that they are saints either.
Yeah, I originally complimented Toyota on doing the right thing. Then a couple of days later read about the NHTSA pushing a reluctant Toyota that was “safety deaf”, or perhaps blind. Now the LaHood guy is saying to Congress that owners of recalled Toyota’s should not drive the cars at all until they are fixed.
Not looking good at all for Toyota. The crown of perfection is cracked and falling apart.
Toyota? Integrity?
Perhaps you missed this statement yesterday from a Toyota exec.
Toyota executive vice president Shinichi Sasaki acknowledged Tuesday in a Nagoya, Japan, news conference that it took prodding from NHTSA officials for the company to decide on the U.S. recall.
The word “prodding” in the automotive dictionary means stonewalling, obfuscating the issue, and looking the other way until backed into a corner from which there is no escape.
You must have also missed the story about 2 Toyota execs being arrested for conspiring to cover up a ball joint recall or the lies about the number of reports (in Japan) being submitted to the police about failure incidents.
You really have no clue as to what is going on in the automotive world and if you think this problem is something new then I advise you to go to the NHTSA website, pick a year and model of Toyota and sift through the complaints. You will find a huge number of runaway engine complaints going back for quite a few years.
Eventually what goes around comes around and that’s where it’s at today; backed into the corner.
My prior post is out of sequence but the poster mentioning the Ford tire problem is apparently unaware the tires are not the problem; it’s underinflation and that’s on the car owner. Check the stinking tire pressure once every oblivion and this problem won’t occur.
The poster apparently gleans their automotive knowledge from news blurbs and urban myths because that Audi thing is an utter crock.
Did they do a car chase where DeVito and Midler were pushing their car trying to catch up to some criminals that are Olympic runners pushing theirs down the road, all the while Vegas, Pintos and Geos were speeding past them? 
Most recalls in my experience have been minor issues for the cars I have owned, and could not even guarantee I followed up on any, except those the dealer fixed when brought in for service. The toyota issue is more serious than a tailgate may not open if etc. I hope the fix fixes it, unlike a pinto where there was no fix, or was there?
Hee, hee,hilarious.
Back in Yugo days, our local newspaper interviewed a man who was a Yugo fanatic. He owned like three or four, so he could cannibalize, and he said they really were a great car, and he didn’t understand why people didn’t trust them. He had taken a 200 mile round trip with one of his, and it didn’t fail once. The really funny part was, he was serious. We had folks in the area who routinely went for 200 mile bicycle rides; I did a week ride in company which was hundreds of miles and my bicycle did not fail once. Hee, hee.
Toyota’s quality program came from Professor Demming. Don’t project GM and Chrysler quality standards with Toyotas.
Toyota may not specifically care what happens to us, but their #1 goal is to have a quality car. Because they know that is the only reason they are in business.
So, I for one believe the poster who said they have to follow careful plans to do a major fix like this.
On the other hand, I have an 8 year old Sienna with 165,000 miles. I hope to drive it to 300,000 miles. But, it would be neat if enough people panicked and I could get a 2 year old one with 30,000 miles for $5000. Hee, hee!!
I have a real problem with that tragedy of the cop whose family died at 120 mph. An experienced cop? Couldnt get it into neutral? That blows my mind.
And the one unanswered question, maybe someone else can tell me. How fast was it going when it stuck full throttle? 35 mph, or 110 mph? I’d really like to know.
“Don’t project GM and Chrysler quality standards with Toyotas.”
Sure you can. Buick has one of the best reliability records today. They set their sights on Lexus, and caught up. Other GM cars and trucks have excellent quality too. They have not caught up across the board, but they are trying. When asked about Buick catching up with Lexus, the head of GM quality control said it was a start, not an end.
It’s kind of hard to know about a problem like this, as prototypes are not being made in the same quantities as a while ago and the problem manifests at 10000+ miles.