OT - do you know what neutral does?

[tim eh?]

man oh man - I just watched another runaway toyota on the news. There was an audio recording of his panicked discussion with a dispatch officer.

dispatch: Have you tried putting in neutral?

driver: ...no

dispatch: Can you try doing that now?

driver: ... uhhh

Toyota - Darwin's finest warrior.

[Ferret]

This whole toyota runaway thing gets me unspeakably mad every time I hear of it.

It's not hard to stop a car, even if it's an auto!

[Ross]

"Toyota - Darwin's finest warrior"
^^should be a bumper sticker^^

The media is using the term sudden acceleration in the same sentence with Toyota Prius.
Now THAT'S funny

[Ferret]

The media is using the term sudden acceleration in the same sentence with Toyota Prius.

Yeah, I saw an amusing news report the other day, where someone said basically just that with a massive blast of sarcasm.

It was a report on the "runaway" where the media reported a police cruiser having to physically stop a Toyota. When the officer filed a report it differed - what had really happened was the cars contacted AFTER they'd got onto the shoulder and almost stopped.

[BennyM]

Anyone else find all these Toyota reports unusually....convenient? ...especially for the (once) Big Three? I wonder how much of a hand other auto manufacturers had in hyping or even staging SOME of these incidents. I'm not loyal to Toyota, but this whole ordeal does seem to be specific to the North American market.

[Ferret]

Anyone else find all these Toyota reports unusually....convenient? ...especially for the (once) Big Three? I wonder how much of a hand other auto manufacturers had in hyping or even staging SOME of these incidents. I'm not loyal to Toyota, but this whole ordeal does seem to be specific to the North American market.

Yeah, Toyota are in hot water with the american big three at the moment for this:
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/09/a...ril-over-toyo/

I think most of this is just bull with people trying to make a quick buck and/or open the door to litigation. Typical.

Dont forget though, it could be down to a component that's produced stateside and is used only in US spec cars, it's dependant on where the part was sourced from...

[Black 535i]

http://toyotasimulator.com/

It's a hoot!

[Russell]

Anyone else find all these Toyota reports unusually....convenient? ...especially for the (once) Big Three? I wonder how much of a hand other auto manufacturers had in hyping or even staging SOME of these incidents. I'm not loyal to Toyota, but this whole ordeal does seem to be specific to the North American market.

NPR had a study of acceleration issues by manufaturer and by year. it reveals that Toyota is not the heavest offender by a fairly large margin. Not much publicity on the report however. Makes you wonder about various agendas of media and Washington.

[SnakeyesTx]

Found this article about two weeks ago when this was just starting to smell a little funny ... think some of you will find this rather interesting :

The part in question, a sticky accelerator pedal, is not made by Toyota, but by the Elkhart, Indiana-based company CTS. CTS supplies the same part to Ford, GM, and the U.S. military. So why is LaHood picking on Toyota? Could it be an attempt to capture market share for the (essentially) government owned GM? Or is it warning to Japan over its insistence that the U.S. pull out of its base in Okinawa?

Oh an about that "neutral" question...

What about just keying the engine off? Are people that stupid to forget how to key a car off? I know most Toyota drivers around me love to do 27 mph everywhere and make me late for everything, but if ANYTHING, I thought Toyota's came out of the factory with the brakes partially applied all the time with how slow some of these retards drive them!

[Tiger]

That's true about the American manufacturer for the accelerator. Can you imagine how it can be miscontrued when the congress demands an explaination from Toyota president?

"But we didn't make that part... an American company made them... they made it for all other american cars too...."

"What? Are you anti-american or something"

"Just stating the fact..."

Speaking of which my friend owns a Cadillac STS...2007 and he has the same problem... twice so far.