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Automotive News & Views Toyota in decline in 2009?
3864 messages, Last post on Dec 09, 2009 at 11:15 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 03, 2009 7:40 am) Geez, you could say the same about dumb GM customers using Dex-Cool, causing their plastic intake manifolds to leak. How about those dumb Ford customers not turning off their engines when exiting the car, which allowed the transmissions to self-shift from Park to Reverse? |
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Replying to: 210delray (Nov 03, 2009 7:30 am) Toyota claims 431 complaints and 51 crashes attributed to runaway acceleration. I don't call that insignificant. Do you really think the NHTSA investigated each of the 431 complaints or even the 51 crashes? The only reason they bothered with the ES350 runaway crash is all the publicity surrounding it. A veteran CHP officer and his family killed by a defective Lexus. The brakes did not stop the car. That is the bottom line the ToyLex fans would like to shuffle under the rug.
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 03, 2009 8:19 am) Or to put in into neutral. Terrible tragedy, just terrible. But the driver is partly at fault. There is no doubt of that. If this causes ToyoLex to fix an unknown, underlying problem that saves future lives, then all is well. But the entirety of the blame is NOT on the car, or it's systems.
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Replying to: larsb (Nov 03, 2009 8:28 am) Blame the driver for sludge. Possible. Blame the driver for shift lag in transmission software. Possible pattern expecting rapid acceleration after slowdown and downshift demand. But blame the driver for not putting the car in neutral? Blame the driver for not shutting the car off? The car should have had an intuitive shutdown procedure most likely a key or keylike switch that initiated shutdown without playing PC games. Incidentally, the idea that some pose that PC like shutdown of holding the Start button for 5 seconds may lead to software maldesign that some are trying to shut down talk about. This morning my HP laptop didn't show a screen on startup and wouldn't react to any inputs such as cmd-alt-del. The hard drive just didn't access. Also I couldn't shut down by holding the Start button for 5 seconds like usual. I looked on the back to see if it said "Toyota" anywhere... since it wouldn't shut down. 
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 03, 2009 8:36 am) Now, if anyone else who has followed this story at all is ever in that same, unfortunate situation ( and if you are blaming Toyota design, there are hundreds of thousands of these cars on the road with potentially this problem ) they might survive it, or at least stop the car before it ends in a fatal crash. Myself, that would have never happened to me. I know that any time a car would have tried to "accelerate wildly" that putting the car into neutral is the first option. It's automatic in my mind. A no-brainer. Very sad that the CHP did not do this. But the case might save other lives, so although completely unfortunate for the family, it might save future lives, if there is indeed an "uncontrolled acceleration" problem which has yet to be diagnosed.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 03, 2009 8:36 am) Well, what do you do when the proverbial horse has left the barn? I think all manufacturers use pushbutton starts in at least their highline models. I also believe all use a single button, except ironically for Audi, which has separate stop and start buttons. I like the feature in my son's Prius; no fumbling with keys. |
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| I don't know... seems that Toyota has always had some issues as have all manufacturers... but is this now a crack in reliability that is taking more scrutinity given that there are others (not just Honda) creeping up in the reliability department? | |
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Replying to: larsb (Nov 03, 2009 8:46 am) You say this would be your first option. Are you saying that putting the car into neutral might not work? What would be your "plan B"?
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Replying to: doggrandma (Nov 03, 2009 10:50 am) Don't know how true or untrue that assertion might be. But if true, that is a truly scary scenario. Option "B" would be to hold down the power button for three seconds to turn the car off, then deal with the aftermath of that decision after the car is actually slowing down. |
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then plan A should be to tug the mat (or other obstruction) away from the gas pedal! plan B is stick it in neutral. Actually, if more people drove stick shifts (shameless plug here), just pushing in the clutch will do the trick.
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