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Toyota Halts Sales of Popular Models - Accelerator Stuck Problem Recall

3593 messages,  Last post on Apr 14, 2013 at 5:57 PM

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What is this discussion about? Toyota Camry, Toyota RAV4, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Avalon, Toyota Tundra, Toyota Sequoia, Pontiac Vibe, Automotive News

Messages Page 19 of 361

#172 of 3593 Re: Toyota Denied Sudden Acceleration Problem For More Than 5 Years [revit] by kdhspyder

Jan 30, 2010 (9:56 am)

Replying to: revit (Jan 30, 2010 8:58 am)
BTW, how is your Camry treating you?
 
CTS and Toyota are making the same statement on the gas pedals. Both have said that the posssibility of it occurring is very very rare, Both have said that no injuries or deaths have been caused by the potentially faulty pedals. Accuracy is important.
 
With this quote you are distorting facts:
Four years later -- in June 2008 -- the Detroit Free Press and the Motor Authority reported that Toyota had dismissed additional customer complaints that the popular Toyota Tacoma pickup truck had been experiencing the same sudden acceleration issue as other Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
 
It was the NHTSA that closed all the complaints on the Tacomas. They found none of them credible and found no causation.

#173 of 3593 Re: What is Toyota doing?????? [deltheking] by revit

Jan 30, 2010 (9:56 am)

Replying to: deltheking (Jan 30, 2010 9:23 am)
We can hear you ! Why are you shouting ?
 
Just amazes me how some people just still don't get it and would still go out and buy one of the recalled vehicles? What other automaker in the past year has been forced to stop selling their cars?

#174 of 3593 Toyota is ALWAYS quick to blame their suppliers by revit

Jan 30, 2010 (10:00 am)

Problem is not the mats; the problem has been traced to a contaminated metal bushing in the pedal assembly that sticks after fairly short usage; IMO, the assembly is too poor a design to be used in such a vital location...it's made of plastic but should be made of metal. And, the bushing should be replaced by sealed ball bearings.
 
This appears to be an engineering failure followed by a coverup and that speaks poorly of the company. Toyota is ALWAYS quick to blame their suppliers on any recall or other problem, and they never admit their own fault.

#175 of 3593 Re: Toyota is ALWAYS quick to blame their suppliers [revit] by kdhspyder

Jan 30, 2010 (10:04 am)

Replying to: revit (Jan 30, 2010 10:00 am)
Problem is not the mats; the problem has been traced to a contaminated metal bushing in the pedal assembly that sticks after fairly short usage; IMO, the assembly is too poor a design to be used in such a vital location...it's made of plastic but should be made of metal. And, the bushing should be replaced by sealed ball bearings.
 
Where does this 'out of left field' statement come from? But you're right, in these potential cases the problem has nothing to do with the mats.
 
Source? Expert knowledge of the subject?

#176 of 3593 Re: Toyota is ALWAYS quick to blame their suppliers [kdhspyder] by dmathews3

Jan 30, 2010 (10:06 am)

Replying to: kdhspyder (Jan 30, 2010 10:04 am)
He stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

#177 of 3593 Re: Toyota is ALWAYS quick to blame their suppliers [revit] by wwest

Jan 30, 2010 (10:10 am)

Replying to: revit (Jan 30, 2010 10:00 am)
"..It's made of plastic..."
 
Like the new Boeing DreamLiner...??

#178 of 3593 Well there's no reason to stop... by iluvmysephia1

Jan 30, 2010 (10:17 am)

selling this one, because it's not built for any of our consumption quite yet.
 

 
Toyota FT-86
 
Work just mushes on for Toyota as they plan on creating a new performance division. Either in addition to or replacing TRD, as the article on Edmunds Inside Line announces. Just a small diversion from all of the confusion and anger perpetrating towards the Japanese automaker right now.

#179 of 3593 Toyota mostly quiet about recall, frustrating drivers: 'I'm stuck with this by revit

Jan 30, 2010 (10:17 am)

By Emily Fredrix And Erin Mcclam, The Associated Press
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Toyota executives have been virtually silent amid a recall of millions of their cars because gas pedals can become dangerously stuck. For their customers, oh, what a feeling - fear, frustration, confusion and anger.
 
Since Tuesday, when the Japanese automaker said it would stop making and selling some of its top-selling models, the company has had few answers for dealers and drivers - most notably about when Toyota owners could get their cars fixed and hit the road without worrying.
 
"I'm stuck with this car," said Tony Raasch of Hales Corners, Wis., who said he hit another driver in his 2010 Corolla two weeks ago when the car suddenly accelerated. "I really don't know what to do. I just feel - I guess - ripped off is the best way to put it."
 
Toyota first recalled 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. and 270,000 in Canada, including the popular Camry and Corolla, because of faulty gas pedals. Later in the week, it expanded the recall to Europe and recalled 1.1 million more in the U.S. because of floor mats that can catch the accelerator.
 
Three days after the recall announcement, there was still no indication of how long it might take to get the affected Toyotas fixed or whether that would involve repairing the gas pedal systems or replacing them altogether.
 
It took until Friday for CEO Akio Toyoda to make his first public comments about the recalls. Buttonholed by a camera crew at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he told Japanese broadcaster NHK: "I am very sorry that we are making our customers feel concerned."
 
In its worst crisis in recent memory, the company has communicated with the public mostly through a series of very limited statements. One spokesman, Brian Lyons, said initially he was restricted to describing the problem as "rare and infrequent."
 
The company said it began shipping gas pedal parts to its dealers Friday, but could not say when they would arrive. Toyota said details on the fix will be made available sometime next week.
 
Among Toyota's famously loyal customer base, frustration and anger mounted through the week.
 
Laurie Strong, a nurse from Bristol, R.I., drives a 2010 Camry and said she noticed the gas pedal seemed too sensitive - "0 to 40 in a parking lot" - when she bought the car last summer. She went to the dealership Wednesday and refused to drive it anymore.
 
Strong, who was ultimately given a Kia, said she had repeatedly dialled a Toyota hot line only to get a message saying it could not handle calls. A Toyota customer for years, she now says she's put off.
 
"I would be less upset and less confused if I had a person on the other end of the phone who could talk to me and tell me what my options are - what they think quite honestly, what the time frame for figuring this out and putting this into motion."
 
It made for a maddening week for Toyota dealers, too. Jason Stewart, general manager of a dealership in North Palm Beach, Fla., said he doesn't know what to tell customers and has found out more about the problem from watching the news than from Toyota.
 
"People on the phone, they're very scared," said Douglas Lima, the service manager at Toyota Central in downtown Los Angeles. "I received phone calls screaming and yelling and using bad words. You just hear them out."
 
On Friday, Toyota's website was featuring bold, brightly coloured ads for its cars and trucks, like the Prius and the 4Runner. At the bottom of the home page was a small strip with a link to information on the recall.
 
Even some prominent rental-car companies went further than Toyota did, sending their customers emails throughout the week keeping them posted - in most cases saying they were removing all of the affected models from their fleets.
 
Toyota's response, by contrast, has left experts in crisis management scratching their heads. Some wondered why Toyota didn't mount a full-court press - full-page ads in newspapers, executives readily available to the morning shows, ramped-up customer service.
 
Toyota is certainly no stranger to advertising. The company alone - not its dealers - spent US$629.4 million on it in the first nine months of last year, according to Kantar Media, which tracks advertising spending.
 
A simple, honest, humble message would have gone a long way, said Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management. He said the company should have sent the word out online, by email, with letters - whatever it takes.
 
His suggestion: Toyota should say it was as surprised as anyone by the scope of the problem and deeply regrets the inconvenience, and pledge to get up to speed as quickly as possible and provide regular updates.
 
"Any time there's a threat to health or safety, there's nothing that creates bigger concern. Nothing that freaks people out more," he said. "You're dealing with very intense feelings, and that requires sensitive and appropriate communications."
 
The Associated Press requested interviews Friday with Yoshi Inaba, chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor North America, the company's top U.S. executive. It also requested interviews with other top executives. A spokesman said he would look into the request. Telephone and email messages left for the safety public relations team at Toyota were not returned Friday.
 
In the meantime, drivers like Johnathan Jones, who lives in Fort Mitchell, Ala., and has a 30-mile commute each way in his 2009 Tundra, will keep waiting.
 
"I've got a $30,000 vehicle and they don't even know how to fix it," he said, huffing. "To me, it's a big safety hazard with my children. I don't want to even put them in there."

#180 of 3593 Re: Well there's no reason to stop... [iluvmysephia1] by revit

Jan 30, 2010 (10:34 am)

Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Jan 30, 2010 10:17 am)
Yeah, but let's just home the Toyota FT-86 can stop.
 
Meanwhile, Toyota remains not allowed to sell most of its models:
 

#181 of 3593 Re: Is it just the gas pedal ? [kdhspyder] by maple2

Jan 30, 2010 (11:09 am)

Replying to: kdhspyder (Jan 29, 2010 8:40 pm)
This isn't Toyota's excuse. It's the action that NHTSA forced on Toyota so that stupid owners and others ( like stupid Lexus dealers ) would have a larger margin of error in case these morons decided to try to kill themselves and others by stacking multiple mats on top of one another.
  
Basically NHTSA is saying that some in the driving public are going to do stupid things. We're going to force you to try to compensate for these dopes by putting more space in the footwell - just in case someone does an idiotic thing like put an SUV All Weather mat into the footwell of a smaller sedan...then not secure it in place. This recall is the NHTSA thumping its chest
 
So IOW you are saying that toyota owners as a group are less intelligent than the rest of the population? Thanks for clearing that up, I always kinda suspected it
which would explain why it is only toyota having this problem

Messages Page 19 of 361

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