The deluded statements about Prius brakes NOT being a safety issue

Well real close, however You like Black, where as I like RED!

Pretty much eveything else however, is the same

 

Toyota has a real image issue

I have a 2010 Prius IV with a solar roof and have never experienced the braking problem

However, I received the attached picture that is now circulating on the internet and I think it best sums up Toyota's image issue

 

I agree there is beginning to be an image issue out there. I've had several people ask me if I have had any problems with the Prius' brakes or if I was afraid to drive it...

Oddly enough no comments about the Lexus...more the Prius.

 

Everybody wants to take the Prius down. But everyone is green with envy. Get it? "Green..."

 

Can I throw cold water on something?

"Image issue"

There is no question that Toyota is taking a beating right now. That said, a lot of this stuff is just jokes and they're funny because it's topical and everywhere in the media. Last night SNL opened their news with a Toyota piece. It was actually kind of funny.

It's easy to internalize this stuff, to get involved and defend every instance where someone says something that is half-informed. I'm not so sure that the best way to deflect a lot of this isn't simply to laugh at it.

In fighting against every bit of it, I think we risk giving some of it more credence than it deserves. Case in point, the "runaway Toyota ramp" picture. I think it's kind of funny (would have been better if they had actually bothered to Photoshop in a Prius on the ramp). There's nothing more common and usually more tedious than email forwards. The people who take that crap seriously aren't going to be won over by an impassioned argument. They're looking for the cheap laugh wherever they can get it.

My sister-in-law works for the ad agency for Chevy. For years she's been waiting for something like this and she's practically peeing herself with delight (which she is barely concealing). Whatever, I'll let her have her fun. The truth still remains that Toyota makes many more far reliable vehicles than Chevy. I don't have to smack down every one of her jokes for that to continue to be true.

 

the first rule of the internet is and always will be

don't feed the trolls.

 

Here is the long view. There are 30 to 50 million Toyota owners in NA. 99.9+% of these owners has had no issues with

1. floor mats
2. sticky gas pedals
3. braking issues on their Prius'

As a result these 30+ million owners look at their own experiences and say 'So What, doesn't concern me.' and they continue to drive their perfectly good, solid, reliable vehicle until they're ready to get another one. Most likely if they are pleased with their current vehicle and the dealer's service area then they'll shop first there again looking to 're-up' with Toyota again.

Keeping these existing clients happy and in the fold will ensure that in the long run this too will blow over.

 

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Well put my friend.

 

You have to be kidding. The guy was an off duty CHP officer. Unfortunately, he didn't know Toyota's obscure and special ways to shut the car off. It was a loaner car from Lexus service, and they either didn't know either or didn't bother to tell him how to shut the thing off or put it into neutral as it was moving.

Toyota set themselves up for this travesty. Imagine having to take a hand off the wheel and hold down a button for three seconds as your car speeds out of control. Imagine shifting to (N)eutral and the piece of shit just ignores you as you fly faster and faster down the road to your death.

The accident took the guys family out, too, and the guy was a trained, tactically skilled driver in the best state police force in the U.S. If he couldn't handle that, the vast majority of other people wouldn't be able to survive either. Now you see why the L.A. Times is all over Toyota.

 

Yet the smoking gun in that whole tragedy was the older gentleman who two days before in that very same vehicle had the mat trap his pedal in exactly the very same way sending him off on a rocket journey down the SD freeways yet he was able to dislodge the mat and return safely to the Lexus store where he registered his experience...to the receptionist.

This older gentleman did everything right....and got home safely.

 

Every person who knows anything about cars knows to put the car in neutral if the throttle sticks. That is not some secret Toyota trick. This includes CHP officers who should be highly trained in all factors of vehicle dangers. I know because my ex-roomate and best friend is an officer and now flies helicopters for them and even he found it odd that the officer could not figure out how to stop the car.

Failure to do so by the CHP officer was inexcusable so for the sake of his family and reputation I would like to think there was a mechanical failure that did not allow the car to go into neutral.

IMO if you do not understand this important safety item then you should not be allowed to drive a car.....

 

That older gentleman is the Sully SUllenberguer of cars. Except I'm pretty sick and tired of hearing about Sully. That guy did his job and that's all. He's been praised enough.

 

Yes, that is very correct. What I meant, more clearly, is that Toyota's shifter design makes it difficult if not impossible to quickly put a moving car into Neutral. The (N)eutral position is as much a safety device as it is a diagnostic tool.

Office Mark Saylor was a safety expert for the CHP. (I refreshed my knowledge on this event.) He would have done everything possible under his control to get the vehicle stopped. Instead it burst into flames killing his daughter, wife and brother-in-law.

There is an interesting blog at the IEEE that discusses this issue: IEEE Spectrum: How Hard Should It Be To Stop a Runaway Luxury Car? .

It is my opinion that the 2010 Prius control design makes it difficult if not impossible to shut the car off in a safety situation. This, the reported accelerator problems and the admitted brake problems are a toxic mix.

 

I disagree. Do we have many reports of runaway 2010 Prius and failing brakes at high speed? We've heard potential problems with improperly installed floormats. We have had concerns with low speed braking but you make it sound like the car is going to go full throttle and crash because the brakes don't work. That is a very highly unlikely scenario given the reports I've been reading and the fail safe features incorporated into our cars. Have you tried to go full throttle then press on the brakes?

 

People are so busy disputing the Toyota-verified brake problem there is no acknowledgement of the bigger picture. The Prius is in my opinion the most advanced Toyota, the flagship for its modern technologies. There is progress to be made in helping Toyota correct basic, inherent design flaws, like the ignition switch delay that compound any other safety concern that arises.

I don't want to hijack this thread with discussions of other Prius problems with documented reports and personal experience. My point was just that problems compound. Thus, even if someone considers the braking problem minor (and a braking problem in a new car is no way minor) it compounds.

Bottom line, the brakes are a problem that will pop up when drivers least need and/or expect it.

 

I understand where you are coming from but there is a difference between correcting TSBs for minor issues (or even the current safety recalls) and huge catastrophic safety issues like you alluded to earlier. I'm all for owning up to faulty components or even correcting issues that make owners feel uncomfortable but please, lets not invent hypothetical scenarios that do not logically fit the data.