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Automotive News & Views Toyota in decline in 2009?
3715 messages, Last post on Dec 02, 2009 at 8:36 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: 210delray (Nov 08, 2009 4:53 pm) I still don't understand why the officer: 1. Did not put the car in neutral. That is the biggest question in my mind. It would be the first thing I would do, long before the car got to 120 MPH. I was expecting the NHTSA or CR or somebody to test that aspect. What happens if you try shifting out of gear at 100 MPH+ in an ES350 with the throttle stuck wide open? The CR tests were worthless in duplicating this situation and the NHTSA only took pictures and identified the floor mat as being the wrong one. They also said the brakes were burnt up from trying to stop. I don't remember any guard rails. Only a gravel ditch on either side that would probably cause you to roll at that speed. Exiting onto 52 would get you into even heavier traffic. I believe he was trying his best to avoid other vehicles. I believe we are being kept in the dark on the black box. Is it a bombshell for Lexus? I cannot imagine that it takes over 2 months to decipher what it holds. Will this go down like the other fatal accidents in Toyota built vehicles?
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 08, 2009 6:43 pm) |
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http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/default.aspx Basically says that the NHTSA still has found NO evidence of unintended acceleration except for when the floor mats were unsecured or incorrect. So, it still is a floor mat issue.
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Replying to: mcdawgg (Nov 08, 2009 7:29 pm) Regulators slam Toyota over 'no defect' claim U.S. auto safety agency rebukes an assertion that it found nothing wrong in vehicles involved in a massive recall over incidents of unintended acceleration. Federal safety regulators have sharply rebuked Toyota Motor Corp. for issuing "inaccurate and misleading" statements asserting that no defect exists in the 3.8 million vehicles it recalled after a Lexus sedan accelerated out of control in San Diego County, killing four people. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a statement Wednesday that the recalled Toyota and Lexus vehicles do have an "underlying defect" that involves the design of the accelerator pedal and the driver's foot well. In response to the NHTSA statement, Toyota said it was "never our intention to mislead or provide inaccurate information." The statement added that it was still developing "vehicle-based" remedies to prevent unintended acceleration events, in which motorists say their vehicles suddenly speed out of control. Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons suggested last month that these remedies might include changes in the placement of the pedals, or a change to the engine control software in the vehicles' onboard computers. On Wednesday, however, Lyons declined to comment on any specific fixes. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-recall5-2009nov05,0,7645994.story?t- rack=rss
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 08, 2009 7:35 pm)
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Replying to: mcdawgg (Nov 08, 2009 7:36 pm)
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Gee, I wonder if there's anything ELSE going on at Toyota besides this investigation into an event that happened two months ago? 100 posts a day and nothing new has been said for days. Hey gagrice, this has been the "cover-up decade" at Toyota. Toyota IS the new GM (which leaves me unsure what the "new GM" is...). I think that might be what you want to hear, and I think it's a safe statement. But it would be neat to talk about other Toyota news as well... In a way, it's kind of fascinating to watch these two mega-corporations gradually get themselves in more and more trouble as cost-cutting increases to the max and beyond (which was news this week at Toyota: they are projecting much smaller than expected losses this year now, due to a VERY successful, VERY aggressive cost-cutting program initiated 12 months ago; you have to wonder what costs they had left to cut after the devasatation they wreaked across the line in the 90s) while quality and design fall to the lowest common denominator in a misguided quest to remain the biggest... 
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 08, 2009 10:25 pm) In ~7 weeks this discussion will be past its sell by date. 
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 08, 2009 6:12 pm) Right, it's pushbutton, and uses mechanical connections. However, it does have some safety features built in. If you press reverse going at a forward speed of more than 10 mph, it'll just go into neutral. And if you try to press 1st or 2nd at too fast of a speed (I think 50 and 75 mph, respectively, or somewhere close) it won't downshift. That's to keep from over-revving the engine, but in an emergency situation where you need to slow the thing down, I guess that would work against you. However, you can throw it into neutral at whatever speed you want. And if you had to kill the power, it wouldn't be too hard to haul it down from a high speed. Power steering assist is negligible at highway speeds in most cars...you really only need it in tight, slow, cornering situations, parking, etc. And while you'd probably use up your vacuum reserve pretty quickly, it has beefy 12" drum brakes at all four wheels that will more than do the job. If you lose power, you're actually better off with all-drum brakes, because they require much less pedal effort from the driver. As for the parking brake, it does clamp down on the driveshaft. However, I do know, from experience, that the engine can over-ride the brake. Years ago, I drove my grandmother to the grocery store in the car. I hadn't had the car very long, wasn't quite used to its idiosyncracies, and forgot to release the parking brake. Drove it about 2 miles to the store with it on. Back in those days, you had to pay extra if you wanted a warning light to remind you that the parking brake was on, and whoever bought originally bought this car didn't spring for that! I don't think I did any permanent damage, though. That was 19 years ago, and the parking brake still works fine today (even if the real brakes don't!  )
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Automotive News & Views Toyota in decline in 2009?
