They were stepping on the gas instead of the brakes. That’s actually a pretty good metaphor for the Congress and spending. And we’re about to crash into something.
17 thoughts on “Toyota, Exonerated”
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They were stepping on the gas instead of the brakes. That’s actually a pretty good metaphor for the Congress and spending. And we’re about to crash into something.
Comments are closed.
I don’t remember if it was Mercedes or Audi, but in the early 80’s they had this happen too. There should be a way for Toyota to recoup from the goof balls they paid already.
Rand, you need a new category for stories on the obvious: Filed under:”No shit Shelock!”
You knew this woud be the outcome, I knew it, most of your reader knew it.
The tools in the the media were clueless.
I actually had a gas pedal stick once, in an old VW Bug.
I heard the engine racing, put it in neutral, reached down, and pulled up the gas pedal by hand. End of problem.
The first chance I got, I put some oil on the mechanism. It never happened again.
You want an engine to race? Try an old Dodge Dart with a bad throttle return spring. The front wheels would come off the ground and turning off the ignition switch didn’t even slow it down.
My first car.
Schtump, you’re thinking of the Audi 5000. A real travesty suffered by that company, when their only real crime is making $40k luxury cars that break down.
Jalopnik had an interesting theory. They guessed this outcome correctly months ago, and said this was the price Toyota is paying for making bland, unengaging cars that attract owners who are neither interested in nor proficient at driving.
Pfui, it has nothing to do with Toyota per se. They just made the mistake of being GM’s most successful competitor when it became Government Motors under the aegis of the boys from Chicago. You need to buy a Chevy Volt, not a Toyota Prius. A GMC truck, not a Toyota. Or else.
I’ve driven a number of cars that have really poor ergonomics in seats, pedals and steering wheel. I’m completely not surprised that there may be some issues with a car like the Prius which has many design decisions which are different just for the sake of being different.
Something I’ve always wondered: are left handed people also left footed?
Trent, generally we are.
I found this line at the end of the WaPo article to be the most telling (even if it was said by a guy at Edmunds.com and not the plaintiff):
“The fact that they couldn’t replicate unintended acceleration doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, whatever the cause. It’s very hard to prove a negative.”
That, plus the fact that Toyota is in direct competition with GM, is a VERY compelling reason to take on the case and create a class-action suit out of it. Millions of Toyota owners end up with $5 each when the dust settles, law firm ends up with $40M, and they knew it was a slam-dunk case from the start because of how hard it is to prove a negative.
I’m with Carl. While I don’t think the government made up the whole business, I do think, well, that they didn’t let a crisis go to waste.
Since the Audi experience was the first thing to popped into my mind, the fact that the government didn’t urge caution before jumping to conclusions but rather led the Chicken Little charge is telling.
Der Schtumpy Says:
February 9th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
I don’t remember if it was Mercedes or Audi, but in the early 80′s they had this happen too.
Yes, as pointed out earlier in this thread, that was the Audi 5000. I remember watching a “60 Minutes” segment on the issue and they demonstrated the problem. The car was sitting idling and suddenly the accelerator went straight to the floorboard by itself. Later, I learned that “60 Minutes” had some guy rig the car to do that, just like how the NBC guys rigged a Ford pickup truck’s gas tank to explode a few years later.
I actually had a gas pedal stick once, in an old VW Bug.
Back in 1976, I was a lineman at a local airport. One of our fuel tanker trucks had a throttle that frequently stuck. It was a bit unsettling to be driving with 2000 gallons of 100 octane aviation gasoline with the throttle stuck wide open. Fortunately, I was able to turn off the ignition (no locking steering wheel), stomp the accelerator a few times to unstick it, and restart the engine without stopping.
Slightly OT, but Rand did mention it. Toyota was vindicated that the problem they had was not systemic. As I saw somewhere else, Toyota acknowledge a few flaws in the design, but they weren’t causing the problems described in various lawsuits. The drive by wire throttle wasn’t an issue as many tried to make it out to be. The problem was poor drivers.
However, the problem with Congress stepping on the gas is a bit more systemic. There are way too many mechanisms that exists which make spending far easier than stepping on the brake and saving.
One point about this is that a larger-than-normal proportion of people pushing the wrong pedal in one particular model of car means that the ergonomics of the pedals are poorly designed; for example, brake and accelerator abnormally close together, or the whole assembly shifted to the right compared to other cars. Maybe it’s because they designed for Japanese, who being smaller than Westerners on average probably have smaller feet.
Poorly-designed pedals probably shift the line between acceptable and poor driving, in terms of consequences.
The pedals on my 2000 Avalon had nothing wrong with them. The only complaint I had with the car was the front suspension bottomed out too easily (I drove highway 49 between Sonora and Lockeford at the time.)
Other than that I loved that car (now owned by my ex.) I never did believe Toyota had a real problem and always suspected it was Govt. Motors.
Concur with Ken. My 2010 Rav 4 has nothing wrong with the pedals. The ride feels like a conestoga wagon crossing the plains, but I never had a problem finding the correct pedal.
I have a Sienna (or, rather, my wife does). No issues.
From my days heel-and-toeing a manual transmission, I prefer to have the accelerator and brake close together – even since I’ve wussified into an automatic…