Friday, March 5, 2010

Toyota's Wild Ride


Damn! Here I was feeling confident behind the wheel of my recalled Toyota, because I had the recall "fix" done on the accelerator pedal.
But news reports are trickling in that "fixed" Toyotas involved in this particular recall, are still doing the acceleration out of control, post fix. 60 reports, so far of post fix failure.

This leads experts to believe it is a computer/electrical issue, and not
a physical accelerator pedal issue.
38 people have died in the meantime.

Now I am back to worrying if the vehicle I am driving, might be a death trap!
There is real anxiety when you drive the car. I find myself letting up on the accelerator pedal, and waiting anxiously for the speedometer arm to begin to lower.


More than 60 drivers have complained of sudden acceleration incidents despite the fact that their cars were repaired by Toyota Motor Corp. in the current recalls, new data released Thursday show.

The latest figure, released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, significantly increases the total number of complaints involving repaired vehicles, which was less than 10 on Tuesday. The new complaints allege several accidents and at least three injuries resulting from runaway unintended acceleration despite the vehicles' undergoing a series of modifications at Toyota dealerships designed to resolve the issue.

In response to the rising number of complaints, federal regulators said they would contact each motorist to find out more about what happened. NHTSA also said it would ask Toyota for similar complaints it may have received from customers. The agency does not normally verify individual reports, posted anonymously on its database.

"If it appears that a remedy provided by Toyota is not addressing the problem it was intended to fix, NHTSA has the authority to order Toyota to provide a different solution," the agency said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Toyota said it had already repaired more than 1 million vehicles under the recall campaigns.

NHTSA said this week that it had received at least 52 reports of fatalities linked to sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles."


I don't want a congressional hearing on the matter.... I want the vehicle fixed properly so it is safe.

3 comments:

D.K. Raed said...

They need to figure out what's causing it so it can be fixed. That research needs to be conducted WHILE the hearings are going on, not stopped during hearings! It's not a minor issue. If the cause is not found very quickly, it is death.

BTW, due to your descriptions, I now give Toyotas a wide berth on the freeways!

nonnie9999 said...

if toyota can't figure out how to testify at hearings and figure out the problem at the same time, they need to get out of the car manufacturing biz.

Lulu Maude said...

God, what a letdown. Toyota used to embody reliability. Now I worry about my buddies in their Priuses. LA Times reported somebody being rescued from their stuck Toyota in today's edition.

Needing to be rescued from a Toyota is just so wrong.