Did anyone else just see the story on Toyota on NBC?

[Ject]

If no one saw this re-creation of whats causing the problem Check here! Very informative!!!
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/video/...toyota-9914148

[a_Username]

Turn on CNN right now. Toyota is getting destroyed...

Edit: It's over. They were basically talking about experts studying the unintended acceleration claim fixes not making sense. "Amateurish" was a word that an expert called Toyota's testing of electronic parts.

Edit v2: Now they're talking about Toyota's influence over the agencies of safety.

[nova]

Originally Posted by PQ

Fact is, a lot of people will panic. Wether it's elementary to you or me, it isn't to many. Bonnie drives a Lexus and I have made sure she knows what to do in this event but if it happens at the right moment (or wrong moment) NONE of us would be safe.

When all this started coming out back around October, me and a bunch of guys at work all quizzed our wives about what to do in the event the car runs away with you. You know "Think quick. Your car is accelerating on its own, what do you do?"

Out of a dozen guys we'd all be widowers...

[kwicslvr]

From the Woz's interview when trying to get in touch with toyota:

"Toyota is difficult too, but after some phone calls I managed to express some of my situation. Unfortunately my iPhone dropped the calls twice and I never got a reference number but they may have some sort of ticket open."

Pretty comical coming from Apple's cofounder.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Bert

I haven't seen the interviews, but my personal (admitedly somewhat uniformed) opinion is that this whole thing is being blown way out of proportion. It's like when the big guy on the block aka the one to beat shows a little weakness, all the others jump on it and say "see, I told you he wasn't so great!"

I don't have the exact numbers handy, but statistically Toyotas are still much safer than the average . . . even if you attribute every single fatality in a toyota to a vehicle fault, obviously a very conservative assumption, they are still well below the average.

Again I did not see the interview . . . but I do not understand how somebody can have their car going over 100 mph for 6 minutes and not think to step on the brakes? or put it in neutral? or turn off the ignition? and again I don't have the details handy, but I've seen an article that said the brakes will always overcome the engine; I'm sure some of you might be familiar with this from power braking or the imfamous "brake stand"

While this may be blown out of proportion, soooo many of their other problems have been under reported for years while domestic makers were getting bashed left, right, and center for poor quality and reliability. Is that fair to GM, Dodge, and Ford? Toyota is getting what it deserves for its other problems like rusting truck frames. Keep in mind that over the last few years, Toyota has had more cases of unintended acceleration than every other automaker combined. The problem is real.

Safety, please provide evidence that Toyota's fatalities are 'well below average'. I know you said you don't have the stats on hand, thats fine. Go find it. And to qualify for 'well below average' I will expect something like a 25% reduction.

In the case of that woman, I believe that particular car has a push button start, which is difficult to turn off since the only key is a fob. Additionally, I just saw on the news that she said that the car was put into neutral and reverse, and both feet were on the brakes. It didn't do anything but keep going.

Originally Posted by Waco

Ford had the Pinto...GM had the gas tanks outside the rail on their trucks. I know there was bean counting going on with the Pinto, not sure about the GM truck gas tank issue.

Is that the one from 15-20 years ago where the investigative reporters faked the explosion to 'prove' how easy it is to do?

[Rogue Leader]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Is that the one from 15-20 years ago where the investigative reporters faked the explosion to 'prove' how easy it is to do?

Thats correct... the trucks were rigged, there was a huge lawsuit from GM vs the tv studios over it.

[songsj]

"Drive by wire" is a term not only used for accelerators. Some day most car functions may be drive by wire, steering, BRAKES, cooling etc. Maybe these Toyota's have partial drive by wire brakes. That may account for the lack of braking power. Maybe more than one electronic system is failing. If I were programming a cars computer I may not want the brakes to engage at WOT. If you think about it the only 2 times you would want that is brake reving a car for burnouts, or with a throttle malfunction.

[first one]

Originally Posted by Bert

I haven't seen the interviews, but my personal (admitedly somewhat uniformed) opinion is that this whole thing is being blown way out of proportion.

34 people have died!!! How is it being blown way out of proportion? Geez

[Camaro_hx]

Originally Posted by Blakout

I just saw the story and I never knew that Toyotas don't have a physical throttle cable connecting the gas pedal to the engine. It's some type of electrical sensor. Am I dumb or did anyone else just find that out?

Also... let's hear some opinions on Toyota's problems... Think they knew about it and tried to keep it under wraps for a while? Or do you think they're really trying to be a sincere company and fix the issue as soon as they found out?

450 customers returned their toyotas within 1 month in January here in Kuwait regarding subject phenomenon.

Toyota brand name is TOTALLED! lol

[Bert]

Originally Posted by first one

34 people have died!!! How is it being blown way out of proportion? Geez

That is definitely a tragedy, I am not saying it isn't . . . (I thought the number was 19, still a tragedy either way) ; I am very sorry for those people and their families, friends, etc.

I do understand that it is not "fair" to those 19 or 34 or however many people to think of them as statistics, but how many people are killed in car accidents every day? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it is a big number . . . and who knows how many of those could be attributed to some kind of vehicle fault if you looked a them . . .

I couldn't find the accident statistics that I read, but I think they were in Industry Week, here is a related article:

http://www.industryweek.com/articles...94.aspx?Page=2

Another angle on this whole thing is that Toyota more or less started the "lean manufacturing" movement, aka "Toyota Production System" and that approach has produced big benefits for a lot of manufacturers; But now that whole approach is also being questioned. That's why it is getting so much attention in Industry Week.

So yes I do understand / agree that they have a problem (or maybe several problems), but I don't think it's like every toyota on the road is about to drive itself off a cliff . . . and it needs to be put into perspective.

hmmmmm . . . . oh no, I just realized a big problem . . . I was planning to buy myself a new Camaro, and my wife was going to take the 2006 Camry . . . now I have to reconsider whether I want her driving that death trap . . . maybe I'll have to buy her the Camaro and beg to drive it on weekends . . .

[2001ragtop]

You can just see the BIG 3 execs doing cartwheels, jumping up and down, like they won the lottery (behind closed doors).

In public you will their stern faces concerned about safety though.

luckily our debt is to china not japan.

[MrIcky]

Originally Posted by Hopper

Again, not true on all cars. Many cars have undersized brakes that the torque of the engine at WOT easily overcomes. This, combined with momentum of the vehicle, can make the brakes useless.

As Class1E pointed out though:
"Normally, you are 100% correct. In fact, Car and Driver did a test in their March 2010 issue to determine the braking distance of a V6 Camry at closed throttle and WOT. Their results:
70 mph, closed throttle: 174 ft
70 mph, WOT: 190 ft
100 mph, closed throttle: 347 ft
100 mph, WOT: 435 ft"

The surprise factor is definitely part of this, but something isn't quite right. I think we have a real event that is being compounded by opportunism.

There were 7689 traffic deaths in 2009 and somewhere between 19-39 deaths that may possibly be attributed to this Toyota issue over the last 8 years (so 2.5 to 5 per year?).

Toyota really f'ed up their PR and damage control and gave up their credibility. Right now no one is really sure how big or small the issue is- it's just an assumption that all Toyota's will run you off the cliff despite statistics that say otherwise because Toyota wasn't proactive.

[Dr Jkel]

[QUOTE=clg_98ta;1514609]I saw it... Toyota is going to have a hard time recovering from this. I was stunned by that lady describing how her Lexus accelerated to 100 mph and for 6 minutes nothing she did would slow it down.



Why didn't they shift it out of gear, or is this not possible?

[a_Username]

[QUOTE=Dr Jekel;1517161]

Originally Posted by clg_98ta

I saw it... Toyota is going to have a hard time recovering from this. I was stunned by that lady describing how her Lexus accelerated to 100 mph and for 6 minutes nothing she did would slow it down.



Why didn't they shift it out of gear, or is this not possible?

In the interview she said that she tried to switch to every possible gear, but the car continued to accelerate.