Toyota's Woes

[East Detroit]

Drivers shouldn't have to be constantly ready to put their Toyota in neutral to not die.

They knew about this since 2004 and did nothing except try to blame the floormats when people started dying.

Even the idiots on the Today show said today that its a floor mat issue, so I guess the big lie is working for them.

[Zacha341]

Agreed. When a company tries to hide a major flaw and it comes out this way it's worse... And not amount of "damage control" will fix it. Recall the big Audi accelerator issue that broke the media in the 80s or was that the 70s?

I wonder if Lexus is having the same problem?

Drivers shouldn't have to be constantly ready to put their Toyota in neutral to not die.

They knew about this since 2004 and did nothing except try to blame the floormats when people started dying.

Even the idiots on the Today show said today that its a floor mat issue, so I guess the big lie is working for them.

[davewindsor]

I wonder if Lexus is having the same problem?

In the class action lawsuit from November link I posted above, the fatality involving the California Highway Patrolman as a driver who called 911 was in a "Lexus ES 350 sedan on Highway 125, when the vehicle inexplicably accelerated to speeds exceeding 100 mph. According to a 911 call of the incident, Saylor was unable to stop the Lexus before it crashed and burst into flames, killing him, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law. This, however, is not the only fatal crash resulting from sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., has reported at least 16 fatalities and 243 injuries in crashes."

And did they halt production of the Lexus line? Nope.

[bailey]

In the class action lawsuit from November link I posted above, the fatality involving the California Highway Patrolman as a driver who called 911 was in a "Lexus ES 350 sedan on Highway 125, when the vehicle inexplicably accelerated to speeds exceeding 100 mph. According to a 911 call of the incident, Saylor was unable to stop the Lexus before it crashed and burst into flames, killing him, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law. This, however, is not the only fatal crash resulting from sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., has reported at least 16 fatalities and 243 injuries in crashes."

And did they halt production of the Lexus line? Nope.

Has anyone explained why a CHiP could not figure out that shifting into neutral would have stopped the vehicle? I'm not looking to 'blame the victim"...however, I'm just speaking from my own personal view that if my brakes weren't doing the trick, the next move is to shift to neutral.

As to the MSMs hard on for all things japanese...what is the over under on the time it takes for the Dateline or 20/20..or whatever, exonerating toyota and placing total blame on the US parts manufacturer?

[RO_Resident]

Has anyone explained why a CHiP could not figure out that shifting into neutral would have stopped the vehicle? I'm not looking to 'blame the victim"...however, I'm just speaking from my own personal view that if my brakes weren't doing the trick, the next move is to shift to neutral.

From some reports, the gated shifter in the ES350 may have lead to some confusion.

[Zacha341]

Yikes! Who could find 'neutral' with this configuration! The Toyota's I've driven were pre-1995 models where the gear shift was a "straight" in-line set up. This would take some thinking about in contrast to the straight down D to N configuration. I've never figured out why 'automatic' trans cars try to imitate the fancy work of a stick shift... why? Cause it looks cool? It still ain't a stick. I drove manual sticks for years and enjoy them for that experience and advantage in the snow etc. But when I drive an automatic I want my gears in a simple row without all the NEEDLESS TURNS and twists!!

From some reports, the gated shifter in the ES350 may have lead to some confusion.

[Zacha341]

No they did not. Thank you for restating that... I'd missed that info in the thread.

In the class action lawsuit from November link I posted above, the fatality involving the California Highway Patrolman as a driver who called 911 was in a "Lexus ES 350 sedan on Highway 125, when the vehicle inexplicably accelerated to speeds exceeding 100 mph. According to a 911 call of the incident, Saylor was unable to stop the Lexus before it crashed and burst into flames, killing him, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law. This, however, is not the only fatal crash resulting from sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., has reported at least 16 fatalities and 243 injuries in crashes."

And did they halt production of the Lexus line? Nope.