I was leaving a Home Depot parking lot this past weekend and ended up in one of those "you go, no you go" with a pedestrian. I rolled down the window to tell him he was the pedestrian and had the right of way in the crosswalk and with a good natured laugh, he said "I didn't want to walk in front of a Toyota as I didn't know if it would stop" so I told him I keep a steel pipe in the car to put out the window and drag on the ground in case the brakes fail.
I wouldve replied, "oh shoot its happening!" and turned the steering wheel in his direction and pin him against the building.
Well now you can tell them that the lady in NY was found to be at fault. Computer 'black box' evidence shows she was on the gas, not on the brake AT ALL. And Sikes? 'forensics' showed that he is a lying SOB. Rear brakes hardly touched, and he was on and off the front brakes. That, by itself is probably more 'believable' proof to a lot of people than the subsequent tests that showed the car was working fine and if you stomp the brake at full throttle, it shuts down. It would be interesting to hear from what should have been hundreds of people on the road that he was presumably screaming past for 20 minutes. And I find it 'funny' that a guy living in So. Cal. where the 'effective' speed limit is 75 MPH was all wigged out telling the operator on the 911 call he was going 81 MPH. Please. If the road wasn't crowded, he was being passed at that speed. I wish the media would put as much attention on the dis-proven cases as they have on the 'OMG' cases that have not recurred and can not be recreated in the vehicle. Sikes gave them everything they need. They were all over the 'balloon boys' parents after the hoax was surfaced.
would love to see Sykes get a speeding ticket, a fine for false 911 time, and sued by Toyota for a few million. Oh, and billed for the testing Toyota and the Fed had to do on the car!
LOL I'm sure the people behind me kinda wish I would have some kind of acceleration problem and get moving. But I'm happy to stay at the speed limit and get 58 mpg. I did get a call from my dealer today about a recall. I wonder what that's about. I will call next week and find out.
Who's to say he won't be! Oh I've got an idea. Class action law suit against him people? for loss of value, emotional stress blah blah blah? Where's a lawyer when you want one?
The guard where I work had been making negative comments every day about my Toyotas (I have two of them) until I finally told him I would knock him out if he said the word "Toyota" again. Not a word since then. I know this is not very hippie-like but I couldn't take any more of his stupidity. He drives a Ford Ranger 4WD that gets about 20 mpg. What a dumba$$.
Ford is a good company, and the Ranger is an excellent truck. I have one myself. Why do you think he is a dumba$$? He made a perfectly valid choice, and that's the backbone of our society...personal choice. We chose the Prius...he chose differently. He has that right...as do we. Who the h*** do you think you are, threatening him? Get off your high horse and realize that people have the right to make their own choice, whether or not that choice agrees with yours. Did it ever occur to you that his bashing may be a direct result of your own lousy attitude towards him? Just based on your previous post, you already strike me as rather annoying. In my own social circles people ask me if my car is OK, not to *bash* the Prius, but because they've heard about the dangers of driving a Toyota on the news. My friends care about my well being, and want to make sure I remain safe and healthy. "There was a recall on the Prius...does it affect yours?" It's a matter of attitude and intent, more than anything else...but I don't mind them asking if my car is OK. It just shows they care, and that makes me feel loved. Chuck
I just tell folk that its "Simple Physics" so I modified my car to shoot an anchor out its nice person, and it will now stop on a dime.
I've got a better one for you, but first a brief background. About 6 months ago, for the fourth time, I had to deal with the service dept where I bought my 2006 Prius. My Prius seems to like to take off like a rocket every so often. I haven't been in the car when this has occurred but this last time it started to happen while it was in the garage. For three years I have been insulted, humiliated and whatever else the service people do while your back is turned when they do the rest to your face. "Nobody at Toyota has ever heard about this problem" and "This sort of problem has never been reported to Toyota" were the initial responses three years ago. The truth was that Toyota was already frantically searching for a solution. It has eluded them. In the past six months I have tried to get a message to Toyota's corporate management. After seeing it occur and seeing how it happened I evaluated what I had seen and took a guess about what could cause it. As long as I don't mention the acceleration problem my dealer's service staff are willing to answer questions. The acceleration problem has occurred in clusters each time they have happened. We were right at the begining of a cluster. Believing I might have a solution I conducted an experiment. My Prius is now a very well behaved car. The cluster was cut short. It looks like my diagnosis was correct. I have not reversed what I did and then sit in the car so I could start it up and see if I could recreate the acceleration problem. Toyota is turning a "deaf ear" towards me. They won't admit I ever had the problem so I couldn't possibly have diagnosed and the corrected it. I'm content with knowing my car's problem has stopped.
So are you going to stop patting yourself on the back....and tell us what you found, did to "fix" the problem... and what the problem was in the first place!
Perhaps we Prius owners are the best source of information about the reliability and absence of unanticipated acceleration problems for our cars. I do my best to let people who ask know that I have never experienced any unanticipated acceleration or any type of braking problem in my Prius, although I routinely average between 52 and 59 MPG on a tank of gas.