Toyota Prius Speeds Out of Control on SoCal FWY

malorn: Do you have nothing better to do with your time than sit on your nice person all day and night and look up Toyota crashes on the internet, and post them here like you're doing some important service?

Are you trying to tell us that no GM made cars have been involved in crashes recently? Get real. And you're also trying to make it sound like basically any Toyota vehicle involved in a crash is now suddenly because of unintended acceleration. Only fools like you would believe that nonsense. If someone is a nut (which is a large demographic these days) and they crash their Toyota, what do they blame it on now? Unintended acceleration. And people like you just eat it up.

I find it even more amusing that you are absurd enough to be posting all this while bragging about owning 4 GM vehicles. As far as I'm concerned, nothing you have to say has any validity. Now go look up some GM crashes. Oh, I suppose that wouldn't be any fun though.

 

FWIW, at a stoplight driving home last night I was able to reach down and grab the accelerator with my right hand while keeping my head high enough to see out the windshield. I'm about 210 pounds and over 50.

So, plausible.

 

I am sorry I have offended you mr 10 posts. Do you work for Toyota or Exponent?

 

8000 to 12000 people die in GM vehicles every year in this country.

 

Can you tell me how this is relevant? Since GM has by far the most vehicles on the road, I would be astonished if more people didn't die in GM vehicles than any other brand. You seem a little more defensive this morning. Be honest, you thought this would be over by now.

 

One is far more likely to die in a GM vehicle than in any other brand. The numbers don't lie. Comparing the 8000 - 12000 deaths annually to isolated cases ( which might number 39 or 52 depending on which source one reads ) clearly shows how much risk there is - or isn't - in this whole misrepresentation.

If one side can cherry pick facts then both sides can do so.

The facts will come out, Sikes will be investigated, life goes on.

 

What exacty are you comparing? Are you saying 8-12000 deaths in GM vehicles annually and 39-52 in toyotas? I hope that is not what you are saying.

I don't have to cherry pick anything to say that Toyota has a uge problem that is not going away anytime soon. they have to step up to the plate and fix the cars or someday you will be selling something else.

toyota has gotten away with some inferior product for years and lived on its reputation, look at the tundra mess. The gas tanks and spare tires can fall out?

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...toyota-expanding-tundra-pickup-truck-recall/1

 

I bought this guy's story yesterday - but this is yet another hole IMO. When did he try the pedal pull-up? not at a stoplight, but when his car was 'out of control flying down the highway at 80+mph'. Was able to try that - but cannot follow a simple direction by 911 dispatcher and the CHP officer to reach up and flick the level into neutral?????? A bit too convenient IMO. And if this guy had his brakes applied for the full time, not only would they be burnt-smelling, they'd be flaming metal-to metal. So what was he doing most of the "trip" - navigating thru traffic at deadly speeds waiting for CHP to show (and get on video with witnesses...) I just cannot buy it. I did mid afternoon yesterday, but with what is out now....nope.

 

The retired doctor donated a deathtrap so someone else could be injured or killed? Doesn't seem like such a great idea. I wonder how many other vehicles he owns and how much his tax accountant said the Prius was worth...

I don't know what his motivation was since I'm not psychic. But I know that people don't always tell the truth to themselves much less others about their motivations.

 

Malorn and I are not exactly bosom buddies, but he is exactly right when he states that Toyota is in a world of hurt. This is a no-win situation: if Toyota finds problems, then they have quality issues; if they don't find problems they are guilty of a cover-up. They can't win.

The best possible outcome is that this shit storm eventually ends before the damage is irreparable, people eventually stop thinking about it, and Toyota can try to slowly rebuild. Even this best case scenario is pretty disastrous.

Tom

 

Hey malorn, I hope you realize that the more of these incidents that are all of a sudden popping up everywhere then the more likely it is that they are driver errors.

Take a look at some of the incidents malorn has been linking :
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=844075

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpps/news/national/south/woman-crashes-her-lexus-into-a-house-_3264311

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/new_york_state/toyota-prius-crash-in-westchester-20100309

http://www.bristolpress.com/articles/2010/03/09/news/doc4b97126c4e8c3857690644.txt

Notice something in common here. All are driveways or car-parks at low speed. Drivers (especially elderly as most of these are) generally do NOT floor their accelerators in such driving situation. What they might sometimes do is to hit the accelerator instead of the brake!

This actually does occur most commonly in low speed manoeuvres like this, where the driver is not paying as much attention as they normally would. One especially common factor in brake accelerator mix up is when the driver is twisting their body to reverse or to grab the parcel that they're about to deliver from the passenger seat etc.

Look at all those links posted by malorn and make up your own mind as to whether they're most likely toyota malfunctions or whether they are just driver errors being blamed on a convenient scape goat. I know what I think.

Look at this quote from the RAV4 car park crash for example :

Notice how she's keen to make sure she mentions that her foot was really on the brake. In reality it is very unlikely that after the impulse of mounting the kerb and smashing into the building that the driver's foot would have maintained full contact with the pedals anyway.

 

I had a lenghty conversation yesterday with a toyota dealer and he echoed your comments exactly. He thinks there is a rare electronics problem that Toyota must know about. Unless they step up and fix that, this will never end for Toyota. It will just get worse and worse.

 

I was thinking driver error(especially on the older drivers) until I found the thread on here from last spring. This can't all be driver error and coincidence.

Wild Rides - Page 1 - News - Houston - Houston Press

 

Simple.

You choose to highlight a few isolated instances ( 39 or 52 ). You don't care to look at all the data.
I choose to highlight many more instances ( 8000 to 12000 deaths in GM vehicles ). I don't care to look at all the data either.

That's called 'cherry picking'. But the fact remains that more Americans die in GM vehicles every year than die in a few isolated instances of allegedly defective Toyota's.

 

I think it's a part of our mythology today- the JFK conspiracy, OJ, all RC priests are pedophiles, any kind of radiation causes cancer, the earth is/is not warming and we are/are not contributing to it, American auto makers could make good cars if they had good workers, Obama was really born in Kenya and is a secret Muslim. Toyota like Audi will never be the same, no matter what they do or don't do. If they found the problem and fixed every car, someone would still put their foot on the wrong pedal (as it was with the Audis). Maybe in 20 years...

 

The folks die in GM's because of driver error, alcohol, bad weather etc. Folks are dying in toyota's for other reasons, notice the title of the thread we are currently posting on, on a Toyota-based website.

 

Is it your assertion that no Toyota crash is caused by driver error, alcohol (a form of driver error), or bad weather, etc?

 

What, they're digging up those false allegations from 30 years ago? It was proven that it was American driver error then, and will be again.

For the last 30 years, I've refused to buy any vehicle built in N.A., especially those that have been touched by UAW slugs. I restrict my purchases to vehicles built in Germany or Japan.

The last decent cars built in N.A. were 40 years ago.

 

Re: Run Away Prius

I agree, it's all just seem to convenient...Gen II Prius's have been on the road since `04, and this conveniently happens now? If this guy was just trying to get out of a ticket...Toyota needs to exploit that just like every little thing against them is being exploited. Or this is a stretch, but perhaps it's something much bigger...it's just too convenient. If I were Toyota, I'd pay a PI to follow this guy around...see if he starts enjoying some big payout, this is just too perfect. What's this guy's past, how long did he own the car, who owned it before him, etc. If it's a proven scam on any level, it needs to be highly publicized.

On the other hand, if everything checks out...then this is really scary everyone. It would mean Toyota has NO FLIPPIN CLUE what is causing the accelerations and that any later model Toyota could have this potential prob.

 

Of course not, probably 99.5% are caused by those things. It is the other .5% that everyone is concerned with. If you happen to have family in the .5%, it would be very troublesome.