Why so few "runaway Toyota" incidents in the rest of the world?

I agree with your points. I would add two additional. Six - The unions are largely responsible ... Toyota's (except the Prius) are mosrtly assembled in the South by non-union workers.
Seven - American suppliers are inferior. Just think of the consequences to the economy if Toyota would cease all American assembly.

 

lol, mate, we already know the answer to that!

You're from Oz and the Aussies know that Toyotas are the best cars in the world! I believe they out sell Ford and Holden.

Here in pom land we're quickly coming to the conclusion that Toyotas are the best too - esp now that they don't rot away from all the salt on our roads. Most of my taxi driver colleagues are going the Toyota route because they are bomb proof (not literally of course) and will hack a hard life.

A full answer to why these problems only seem to occur in the US would be too long and in depth for me to answer and I also don't want to offend our American friends (this is their forum after all).

 

I have read about 10 different articles on multiple sites, and they all go back to one incident with one woman. Apparently all the news sites jumped on this, which was news in Japan - just like the huge news of the guy who was braking while going around a corner, hit a manhole, and his Prius had the brake issue and bumped the car in front of him. That was very well known in Japan.

I posted a long post in another thread about the differences in car culture in Japan, and my personal opinions on why there are fewer issues here, but the thread was buried a bit I think. Here is the link to it.

People are very quick to assume that Japanese people and media would just sit around and blindly ignore problems because Toyota wants them not to be there. That people in Japan are all quiet little sheep happy to accept any story fed to them by officials or the government. Or that we somehow have no rights because we are not the great USA...
Japan is not China.

Japanese media is just as gung-ho about making stories big, getting viewers, and all that fun stuff. With the low crime rate here and the lack of time dedicated to that on the news, you will hear about any hint of scandal for months on end. Any small thing is blown bigger and bigger. But there must be something there to start with.

 

Thanks for your link to your other post, Tamyu. Very informative!

 

I'll give you one example. When I took my test in Belgium in 1987 I had to:

a) Undertake a minimum of 15 hours with a recognised driving school.
b) Take and pass a multiple choice theory test (sit down class room kind of stuff).
b) Take and pass a manoeuvre test (course laid out in test centre, included parallel parking, reversing down a narrow passageway, backing into a garage ect)
d) Take and pass a 1/2 hour practical test on the roads.

It has got far more difficult since then. For example in the UK at the same time the test comprised a practical driving test with questions asked during the test and some manoeuvres. Now the current UK test requires:

a) a Driver Theory Test
b) a Hazard Perception Test
c) a Practical Test which incorporates vehicle safety questions

It is very common for people to fail on the first or second attempt.

In the UK, as in much of Europe, there are strict annual checks of cars (in the UK over 3 years old) to ensure road worthiness. It becomes increasingly uneconomic to maintain older cars to these standards and ensures they are scrapped.

 

There is one very positive aspect that no one has discussed.

Consider that EVERY Prius wreck in America will be reported!! Then consider how few reports there are. What 2-3 a week? If every other vehicle wreck was reported as every Prius accident is reported, the newspaper would be so heavy you could not pick it up.

 

And just to provide some US context, when I got my permit and license in NJ..

You had to do 6 hours of behind-the-wheel training. This mainly covered basic vehicle operation, merging onto a highway, and parallel parking. You can forego this if you're over 18 and don't want to get a permit.

You had to take a written test. A disproportionate amount of the test was about drinking and driving, e.g. how much it takes to get drunk and the penalties for DUI. There are some questions on basic signage and right-of-way.

You take a basic visual test. Then there is the "road" test. In NJ the road test isn't even on a road. It's on a state-owned course that is used only for driving tests. The test consisted of a stop and right turn, a left-hand curve, a left-hand turn, parallel parking, 3-point turn, a left-hand turn, another left-hand curve, a stop and left-hand turn, and a stop. It's a joke. You probably don't even get above 15 mph.

 

When I took my driving test in North Dakota (circa 1974) I had to drive once around the block, all right turns, and then pull into a parking space where I did not have to back up. There was also a written test and an eye test.

 

You are what you are as I'm what I'm.
No, you are NOT idiots, you have your identity: good or bad.
Your culture is different from that of Europeans or the Asian ones.
But sometimes are you surprising us, nevertheless I'll never forget than my soft life is due to a lot of american guys whose loosed their own while the 2d WW.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

Many of us Americans are also often shocked and surprised by the things said and done by other Americans. I suppose the same is true everywhere.

Tom

 

... a German driver’s license costs [over $2000], after a minimum of 25-45 hours of professional instruction plus 12 hours of theory, and such a license is good for life...

... The test for a German driver’s license includes questions about the mechanical aspects of an automobile, in addition to the usual examination on the rules of the road...

Driving in Germany & Europe | The German Way & More

 

Latest incarnation of the "balloon boy" phenomenon.

 

I learned to drive in NJ, and I don't remember the 6hrs of driver training being required. My high school did a half year drivers ed course. No actual driving involved, but it may have met the training course requirement.
The 6hr training did give a discount on insurance, which made it a must.

 

I don't know. What I know is that whatever it is the americans are almost destroying a company on no evidence whatsoever. Just crashes with no direct evidence of failure or reproducibility of the defect that caused the accident.
Taking a license in the US is extremely easy, sure, but that is not a good reason.
The problem is that in the US you can sue anybody, anytime and get money out of it. It is a lawyer governed country. This is good for some things, but sometimes it does get out of hand. There are many cases in which non-Americans raise their eyebrows thinking how on earth person XYZ has got so many million of dollars instead of being ushered out of the courtroom with the judge saying "you are wasting my time, you m***n". (anybody remember the hot coffee case??? since then we are deforesting faster to put an extra layer of paper on cups, that yes! surprise, have very hot beverages inside!!! thanks US for that - and yes, it is useless - the rest of the world was OK before that episode...).
Apart from this blah-blah - the only difference I see between the US and the rest of the world are the frequencies on which mobile phones work. If an EMI intereference (which is very difficult to reproduce accurately) is the cause of the Prius malfunctions, then this could be the reason it happens in the US and (apparently) not elsewhere...

PS: in Germany they would probably love to put some dirt on non-german manufactured cars - nothing is happening, also because the Americans are taking care of it for the rest of the world....

 

My Mother when she took her test in Louisiana in 1977 (couldn't use her European license) and all she did was back out of a parking space and drive around a supermarket parking lot. When she drove back into the space the examiner said "I knew you'd pass, you looked over your shoulder before you backed out."

To be fair to tests in the States, you have a lot more open space and less congestion (bar of course the major conurbations). We pay a lot for the privilege of driving, but we have the option of public transport if we should chose not to. In general Americans do not so access to private transport has to be relatively cheap.

I have my doubts about many of the claims - especially in light of what happened to Audi in the 1980s.

Found this - seems to reflect a lot of other articles...

Auto Accidents Caused by Mechanical Failures

 

Thanks - the article at the foot of your post is well worth reading.

 

And we have so many people who want their 15 minutes of fame. And/or they want some easy money.

 

This sounds very much like what is required to get a license in Japan.
First you must attend an accredited driving school - Usually about $3000 USD in fees for the school.
In the school I took 50+ hours of instruction, including driving on expressways. The written test for school graduation was a 2 hour thing, with many many pages asking lots of detailed things about laws. I was also required to do "worst scenario" reaction simulation - there was a driving simulator that would put you into a bad situation and you had to properly respond and do what would cause the least damage in a real time frame instead of just writing on paper.
I was required to know mechanical things about the car, but not any actual maintenance. It was to know how things worked, how to check if they were working, and how to know when there was a problem. For example like checking tire pressure, lights, oil and fluid levels, etc.

After all the test for that was done, I received a certificate that I was able to take to a driving center to take their paper test (Long and detailed) and driving test (about 20 minutes on course maneuver test - really a token test to check that the results from driving school test were valid. The test there was far far more in depth.)
Only then could I receive my license. Most people do not pass on the first try. There were some people who had failed multiple times. It is a big deal and not easy.

At the first renewal of my license, I was required to take a refresher course covering any laws that had changed or been added... Then take another test to check I had not forgotten things and that I had learned the new regulations. If you do not pass that, you have to take more classes (I think like 3~5 hours? I passed so don`t know...)
For the next renewal it is just a video refresher covering laws without a test if you have had no accidents or infractions. If you have, I believe there is a 3 to 5 hour course required before you`re allowed to renew.

It isn`t easy to get a license at all.

ETA; When someone has an accident, the driving school they attended is notified and after so many black marks the school will come under inspection for not properly teaching. There is a list of schools with accidents you can check to see if one school is not as good as another. I believe that if there are too many accidents by students a school can lose it`s accreditation...

 

Just as an aside, in the UK Learner drivers are not permitted onto Motorways. This means that most drivers in the UK have never had any practical instruction as to how to drive on Motorways, namely:

• Using the slip road to accelerate to merge into traffic, or slow down once they're off the motorway.
• Lane discipline.
• Maintaining consistent speeds.

An awful lot of drivers on UK Motorway stick in Lane 2 of a 3 lane motorway in the mistaken belief the inside lane is for slow traffic only, forcing anything faster to squeeze past in the outside lane. On the M25 (the London Ringroad) and other 4+ lane motorways you see them trundling along in the next but one outside lane and, as you can't pass on the inside in the UK, you have 2+ lanes of empty lane with everyone trying to get past on the outside!

I am a whole hearted supporter of compulsory motorway driving lessons, as in other countries. I know that some driving schools take their charges onto dual carriageways which have the same speed limit (70mph), but they are generally only 2 lanes and lack the slip roads of motorways.