Home and Auto Owners of Toyota Cars in Rebellion Over Accidents Caused by Sudden acceleration. - Page 27

**HemiEd** · 12:48 PM

Owners of Toyota Cars in Rebellion Over Series of Accidents Caused by Sudden Acceleration

Anyone else been following this story? They had a pretty graphic show on nightline about it last night.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Runawa...ory?id=8980479

Refusing to accept the explanation of Toyota and the federal government, hundreds of Toyota owners are in rebellion after a series of accidents caused by what they call "runaway cars."

Share
Department of Transportation: underlying defect causes accelerators to stick.

More PhotosSafety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OF THE RUNAWAY TOYOTAS STORY.

Toyota says the incidents are caused by floor mats becoming stuck under gas pedals, but owners say that's not what happened to them.

Watch the full report tonight on 'World News with Charles Gibson' and 'Nightline'.

"I'm absolutely certain that in my situation, it was not the floor mats," Elizabeth James told ABC News. She was driving her Toyota Prius outside Denver, CO when she says it suddenly shot up to 90 miles an hour, even though her foot was on the brake and not the gas pedal.

"I kept going faster and faster," James said. "And all of a sudden… my foot was pressing on the brake super, super hard and I wasn't slowing down."

James and some other Toyota owners suspect the accidents have been caused by some kind of glitch in the electronic computer system used in Toyotas that controls the throttle.

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2...at-recall.html

**TrebMaxx** · 03-29-2010, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JD10367

If one person says their car accelerated out of control, I blame the person.

When hundreds say it, I blame the car. Especially since fatalities have occurred, and some have reported the problem post-"fix".

For Toyota or anyone to blame it all on floormats or old people is reeruned. Especially when, in today's world of electronics, it's very clear that something could easily be tricking out the electronically-controlled accelerator.

I've never owned a Toyota. Before this, I would've. Now? No. If I can choose between Toyota and, say, Honda and Nissan, I think I'll choose the company WITHOUT the history of possibly killing me.

We recently had to replace my wife's vehicle that was totaled. We probably would have went with Toyota if for not all the problems with the accelerators. Nissan took the sell instead.

Brock · 03-29-2010, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HemiEd

A tempest?

"With more than 3,000 complaints to U.S. regulators of random sudden acceleration problems in Toyota models, several researchers say single-event upsets deserve a close look."

Step right up, one and all, be the first on your block to experience the randomness of control. It is a thrill you will not soon forget!

You don't have to like it, but the market has spoken.

**HemiEd** · 03-29-2010, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brock

You don't have to like it, but the market has spoken.

I am trying to connect the dots on your post, since it does not have a link, or date.
Yeah, I am sure they are still selling well in Japan, because they do have consumer loyalty over there, and no report issues with the problem.

Maybe it was this article? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...336776374.html

"There were no more complaints after the company announced [the recall], probably because of a lack of reports of fatal accidents" in Japan involving the braking software, he said.

Still, Mr. Mizuno cautioned that quality issues could yet crimp Toyota's growth in its home market if the company's reputation continues to be tarnished by the auto maker's recall in the U.S. amid unintended-acceleration problems. "This Toyota issue is still far from calming down," said Mr. Mizuno, citing another hearing involving Toyota executives in the U.S. set for Tuesday.

Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, was grilled last week during congressional testimony in the U.S., with several lawmakers accusing the world's largest car maker by sales volume of misleading the public over its recall. Toyota also has received a subpoena from a U.S. federal grand jury and the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, asking for documents related to the sudden-acceleration issues in its vehicles.

dilligaf · 03-29-2010, 11:31 AM

I believe that Ford is also still selling cars in spite of their cruise controls catching fire and burning homes down.

Brock · 03-29-2010, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HemiEd

I am trying to connect the dots on your post, since it does not have a link, or date. .

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brock

Some rebellion.

The Nikkei [sub] reports that Toyota’s domestic output in Japan rose 119.6 percent on the year to 309,933 units in February, up for the fourth straight month. Toyota’s exports increased 106.9 percent to 150,232 units, the second straight monthly improvement. Sales in Japan grew 49.9 percent from the previous year to 149,604 units last month, up for the seventh month in a row. Toyota’s overseas output was likewise unimpressed by the avalanche of auto-accelerating autos. It improved 58.8 percent to 345,247 units, marking the seventh consecutive month of growth.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toyota-what-me-worry/

Exports are exports. I don't know why you're having so much trouble connecting the dots, it's stated very plainly.

**HemiEd** · 03-29-2010, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brock

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toyota-what-me-worry/

Exports are exports. I don't know why you're having so much trouble connecting the dots, it's stated very plainly.

Well Genious, since you clearly referenced a time period, it just might be appropriate to know what that time period might consist of. Was January 2010 the 7th month, or the 5th. No idea from your post, none. They export to a lot of destinations, not just the U.S.

I could give a shit, what someone in New Dehli is driving or buying.

ILWarpaint · 04-05-2010, 03:39 PM

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday that documents obtained from the Japanese automaker showed that Toyota knew of the problem with the sticking gas pedals in late September but did not issue a recall until late January. The sticking gas pedal recall involved 2.3 million vehicles.

"We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations," LaHood said in a statement. "Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families."

For those reasons, LaHood said, the government is seeking fine of $16.375 million, the maximum penalty possible. In 2004, General Motors paid a record $1 million fine for responding too slowly on a recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles over windshield wiper failure.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...enalty-toyota/

Brock · 04-05-2010, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Well Genious, since you clearly referenced a time period, it just might be appropriate to know what that time period might consist of. Was January 2010 the 7th month, or the 5th. No idea from your post, none. They export to a lot of destinations, not just the U.S.

I could give a shit, what someone in New Dehli is driving or buying.

Urine idiot.

New car sales in the United States by recall-hit Toyota Motor Corp in March soared 40.7 per cent from the same month last year as the company regained its second-largest market share for the first time in three months, a US research firm announced.

With sales of 186,863 units, Toyota posted a market share of 17.5 per cent, up 4.7 percentage points from the previous month, surpassing Ford Motor Co and closing in on General Motors Co. by just 0.1 percentage point, according to Autodata Corp.

**Bugeater** · 04-05-2010, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brock

Urine idiot.

New car sales in the United States by recall-hit Toyota Motor Corp in March soared 40.7 per cent from the same month last year as the company regained its second-largest market share for the first time in three months, a US research firm announced.

With sales of 186,863 units, Toyota posted a market share of 17.5 per cent, up 4.7 percentage points from the previous month, surpassing Ford Motor Co and closing in on General Motors Co. by just 0.1 percentage point, according to Autodata Corp.

Could that have anything to do with the fact that Toyota suspended sales of many models during the month of Feb?

**HemiEd** · 04-06-2010, 11:47 AM

They are finally getting somewhere, the truth is coming out.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...hood-says.html

Toyota Hid Pedal Defect, Violating Law, U.S. Says (Update1)
April 06, 2010, 10:15 AM EDT

By Angela Greiling Keane and Alan Ohnsman

April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. “knowingly hid a dangerous defect” that caused its vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly, the U.S. said, for the first time accusing the world’s largest automaker of breaking the law.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed a record civil penalty of $16.4 million, the most the government can impose. The fine recommended yesterday escalates the confrontation between Toyota and LaHood, who initially praised the carmaker for its handling of recalls the company attributed to faulty accelerator pedals.

The fine was announced the week after Toyota reported U.S. sales rose 41 percent in March, signaling the company may be recovering from global recalls of more than 8 million vehicles. Toyota waited at least four months before telling U.S. regulators that gas pedals might stick, LaHood said in a statement yesterday. Companies have five business days to report safety defects, the Transportation Department said.

The department’s action showed “safety matters and they’re going to be tough as nails,” Joan Claybrook, a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in an interview. “That’s very appropriate. They caught Toyota red- handed.”

The Toyota City, Japan-based carmaker’s American depositary receipts, each equal to two ordinary shares, fell 47 cents to $80.79 at 10:11 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had declined 3.4 percent this year before today.

‘We Now Have Proof’

“We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations,” LaHood said in the statement. “Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families.”

Toyota received a letter from NHTSA yesterday asking for the fine, Mieko Iwasaki, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for the carmaker, said by phone today.

“We are considering how to respond to it,” Iwasaki said. “Toyota is working toward making safe, reliable and high- quality cars to satisfy our customers and responding sincerely to customers’ comments.”

LaHood has increasingly faulted Toyota’s response since Jan. 28, when he said he had “no criticism” of the company and Toyota “did what they’re supposed to do.”

Toyota in January recalled about 2.3 million U.S. cars and trucks for sticky accelerator pedals.

The penalty could “very possibly” be the first of multiple fines, said Claybrook, former president of Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.

‘They Screwed Up’

NHTSA cited documents obtained from Toyota in saying the company knew about the pedal defect since at least Sept. 29, the day it told distributors in 31 European countries and Canada to make repairs to resolve sticky-pedal complaints.

“NHTSA wants to make it clear that it was Toyota that was at fault and the agency did its best within the system,” said Alan Baum, an auto industry analyst at Baum & Associates in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He said Toyota probably won’t contest the fine, “since they’ve essentially said they screwed up.”

At a February congressional hearing, Toyota’s U.S. sales chief Jim Lentz told lawmakers “we failed to promptly analyze and respond to information emerging from Europe and in the United States” about the sticky pedals.

Toyota has two weeks to accept or contest the proposed fine, Olivia Alair, a Transportation Department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. If Toyota contests the penalty and a settlement isn’t reached, “it would go to court,” she said.

‘Firepower to Attorneys’

“One of the biggest reasons to fight the fine would be to defend themselves from the language used by the Department of Transportation,” Ed Kim, an industry analyst for forecaster AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, California, said in an interview. “That would seem to provide some firepower to attorneys that are suing the company.”

The proposed penalty won’t have “any meaningful impact” on Toyota’s earnings, Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Efraim Levy said today in a report.

“We nonetheless maintain our view that near-term sales and profits will likely remain burdened by the financial and public relations issues stemming from the recalls,” said Levy, who is based in New York. “However, if fixed, we think many customers will forgive.”

NHTSA’s largest civil penalty to date was a $1 million fine for General Motors Co. in 2004 to settle charges that the company failed to conduct a timely recall involving windshield- wiper failures in about 581,000 vehicles.

‘Industry, Government Failed’

“Both industry and government failed the test of putting the safety of America’s drivers first” in the Toyota recalls, Representative Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, one of three panels that has held hearings on Toyota actions, said in a statement yesterday.

The proposed NHTSA fine may help consumers suing Toyota over sudden acceleration, said Houston attorney W. Mark Lanier, who has filed class-action and individual lawsuits related to the claims.

“Toyota is spending millions of dollars on public relations right now to sway consumers or a potential jury pool,” Lanier said in a phone interview. The fine “is free publicity that counters Toyota.” The penalty probably couldn’t be introduced in court because “it’s not like a criminal finding in that there was due process,” he said.

Toyota is facing at least 177 consumer and shareholder lawsuits seeking class-action status and at least 56 suits claiming personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden acceleration incidents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Lanier has filed two personal injury cases and is considering filing about 100 others, including a dozen involving deaths, he said.

--With assistance from Yuki Hagiwara and Makiko Kitamura in Tokyo and Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan. Editors: Steve Geimann, Terje Langeland

To contact the reporters on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net; Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

**HemiEd** · 07-12-2012, 03:19 PM

The saga continues, as it apparently will for a while. link

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau

Did Toyota get off too easily after it was largely cleared by a pair of investigations looking into the maker’s problems with so-called unintended acceleration?

That’s a possibility being raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, who has sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, questioning the results of two studies conducted for the agencies, in particular one done by NASA that found no evidence of electronic gremlins that might cause Toyota vehicles to race out of control.

“Key questions about the cause of unintended acceleration remain unanswered,” the veteran lawmaker wrote in a letter to NHTSA Director David Strickland.

Those questions have been supported by a raft of internal corporate documents also in the hands of TheDetroitBureau.com that suggest Toyota may, in fact, itself be worried that there are still yet unknown issues with some of its products.

Both the NASA study and a second one by the National Academies Science failed to substantiate claims by Toyota critics that the maker’s electronic engine control systems might be the result of Unintended Acceleration – also known as Sudden Acceleration – where a vehicle might surge out of control, possibly leading to a collision, injury or even death.

Toyota became enmeshed in a safety scandal when, in October 2009, a California Highway Patrol Officer and three family members were killed when a Lexus they were borrowing raced out of control, skidded off a freeway, crashed and burned.

The maker subsequently recalled 8 million vehicles in a pair of recalls, one targeting so-called “carpet entrapment,” where loose floor mats could jam the accelerator pedal, and another related to potentially sticker accelerator assemblies.

Late last month, Toyota extended the carpet entrapment recall to include nearly 134,000 additional vehicles, 2010 Lexus RX350 and RX450h crossovers. (For more on that story, Click Here.)

Despite the number of vehicles involved in those two recalls – which forced Toyota to briefly shut down some of its main assembly plants while waiting for the necessary replacement parts – critics of the maker insisted it had not addressed the major problem. But experts, including some on the NASA panel, also warned that it could prove near-impossible to track electronic gremlins that might only occur sporadically and then vanish without a trace.

Some pointed to a phenomenon known as “tin whiskers,” in which nano-sized threads have been known to grow at key junction points on electronic circuit boards. Such a possibility was raised repeatedly in the 177-page NASA report.

“This is a serious issue,” Grassley wrote in his letter to NHTSA’s Strickland, asking how often and how far it has been pursued.

Traditionally known for its seeming bulletproof reliability, Toyota took some unexpected shots as a result of the 2009-10 crisis – which saw key executives including CEO Akio Toyoda grilled by Congress and led to record fines for failing to respond to the sticky accelerator problem in a timely manner, as required by law.

The safety agency took some punishment of its own, however as a result of the Toyota scandal. Internal corporate documents showed that NHTSA went easy on Toyota by allowing it to avoid an earlier recall that saved the carmaker millions of dollars. That was a key reason Strickland agreed to empower two independent studies of Toyota’s Unintended Acceleration problems.

In the end, both NASA and the NAS attributed the vast majority of reported runaway car incidents – those not clearly linked to carpet entrapment or sticky accelerators – to driver error. In many cases that was backed up by evidence showing that, in one instance, a motorist mistakenly pressed down so hard on the gas pedal, rather than the brake, that it bent.

But the studies left open a slight window suggesting there could yet be issues unknown impacting Toyota’s electronics.

A spokesperson for NHTSA said the agency has received the Senator’s letter and “will review it carefully and respond appropriately.”

Meanwhile, the various legal actions that have faced Toyota by alleged victims of Unintended Acceleration continue to work their way through the courts.

Stewie · 07-12-2012, 04:11 PM

I'm amazed that my Camry is such a piece of shit. Bought in 2006 for the 2007 model year. I'm glad I'm alive and haven't spent $5K+ to make it right.

MagicHef · 07-12-2012, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HemiEd

in one instance, a motorist mistakenly pressed down so hard on the gas pedal, rather than the brake, that it bent.

That would be extremely embarrassing.

Pants · 07-12-2012, 05:46 PM

I still don't understand why people didn't just put their cars in neutral. Yeah, you'll blow your engine, but at least you won't die or kill anyone by doing it.

Brock · 07-12-2012, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HemiEd

They are finally getting somewhere, the truth is coming out.

Toyota Hid Pedal Defect, Violating Law, U.S. Says (Update1)
April 06, 2010, 10:15 AM ]

LOL Yeah, it won't be long now. We've got em right where we want em.

11-04-2009, 11:44 AM
HemiEd Supporter Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ozarks Casino cash: $3180564	Owners of Toyota Cars in Rebellion Over Accidents Caused by Sudden acceleration. Owners of Toyota Cars in Rebellion Over Series of Accidents Caused by Sudden Acceleration Anyone else been following this story? They had a pretty graphic show on nightline about it last night. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Runawa...ory?id=8980479 Refusing to accept the explanation of Toyota and the federal government, hundreds of Toyota owners are in rebellion after a series of accidents caused by what they call "runaway cars." Share Department of Transportation: underlying defect causes accelerators to stick. More PhotosSafety analysts found an estimated 2000 cases in which owners of Toyota cars including Camry, Prius and Lexus, reported that their cars surged without warning up to speeds of 100 miles per hour. CLICK HERE FOR MORE OF THE RUNAWAY TOYOTAS STORY. Toyota says the incidents are caused by floor mats becoming stuck under gas pedals, but owners say that's not what happened to them. Watch the full report tonight on 'World News with Charles Gibson' and 'Nightline'. "I'm absolutely certain that in my situation, it was not the floor mats," Elizabeth James told ABC News. She was driving her Toyota Prius outside Denver, CO when she says it suddenly shot up to 90 miles an hour, even though her foot was on the brake and not the gas pedal. "I kept going faster and faster," James said. "And all of a sudden… my foot was pressing on the brake super, super hard and I wasn't slowing down." James and some other Toyota owners suspect the accidents have been caused by some kind of glitch in the electronic computer system used in Toyotas that controls the throttle. http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2...at-recall.html Last edited by HemiEd; 11-04-2009 at 12:48 PM..
Posts: 33,451

03-29-2010, 11:31 AM	#394
dilligaf AKA bigpepe Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Idaho Casino cash: $7544958	I believe that Ford is also still selling cars in spite of their cruise controls catching fire and burning homes down.
Posts: 1,222

04-05-2010, 03:39 PM	#397
ILWarpaint **************** Join Date: May 2002 Location: West Central Illinois Casino cash: $10004900	Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday that documents obtained from the Japanese automaker showed that Toyota knew of the problem with the sticking gas pedals in late September but did not issue a recall until late January. The sticking gas pedal recall involved 2.3 million vehicles. "We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations," LaHood said in a statement. "Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families." For those reasons, LaHood said, the government is seeking fine of $16.375 million, the maximum penalty possible. In 2004, General Motors paid a record $1 million fine for responding too slowly on a recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles over windshield wiper failure. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...enalty-toyota/
Posts: 96

04-06-2010, 11:47 AM	#400
HemiEd Supporter Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ozarks Casino cash: $3180564	They are finally getting somewhere, the truth is coming out. http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...hood-says.html Toyota Hid Pedal Defect, Violating Law, U.S. Says (Update1) April 06, 2010, 10:15 AM EDT By Angela Greiling Keane and Alan Ohnsman April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. “knowingly hid a dangerous defect” that caused its vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly, the U.S. said, for the first time accusing the world’s largest automaker of breaking the law. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed a record civil penalty of $16.4 million, the most the government can impose. The fine recommended yesterday escalates the confrontation between Toyota and LaHood, who initially praised the carmaker for its handling of recalls the company attributed to faulty accelerator pedals. The fine was announced the week after Toyota reported U.S. sales rose 41 percent in March, signaling the company may be recovering from global recalls of more than 8 million vehicles. Toyota waited at least four months before telling U.S. regulators that gas pedals might stick, LaHood said in a statement yesterday. Companies have five business days to report safety defects, the Transportation Department said. The department’s action showed “safety matters and they’re going to be tough as nails,” Joan Claybrook, a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in an interview. “That’s very appropriate. They caught Toyota red- handed.” The Toyota City, Japan-based carmaker’s American depositary receipts, each equal to two ordinary shares, fell 47 cents to $80.79 at 10:11 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had declined 3.4 percent this year before today. ‘We Now Have Proof’ “We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations,” LaHood said in the statement. “Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families.” Toyota received a letter from NHTSA yesterday asking for the fine, Mieko Iwasaki, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for the carmaker, said by phone today. “We are considering how to respond to it,” Iwasaki said. “Toyota is working toward making safe, reliable and high- quality cars to satisfy our customers and responding sincerely to customers’ comments.” LaHood has increasingly faulted Toyota’s response since Jan. 28, when he said he had “no criticism” of the company and Toyota “did what they’re supposed to do.” Toyota in January recalled about 2.3 million U.S. cars and trucks for sticky accelerator pedals. The penalty could “very possibly” be the first of multiple fines, said Claybrook, former president of Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group. ‘They Screwed Up’ NHTSA cited documents obtained from Toyota in saying the company knew about the pedal defect since at least Sept. 29, the day it told distributors in 31 European countries and Canada to make repairs to resolve sticky-pedal complaints. “NHTSA wants to make it clear that it was Toyota that was at fault and the agency did its best within the system,” said Alan Baum, an auto industry analyst at Baum & Associates in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He said Toyota probably won’t contest the fine, “since they’ve essentially said they screwed up.” At a February congressional hearing, Toyota’s U.S. sales chief Jim Lentz told lawmakers “we failed to promptly analyze and respond to information emerging from Europe and in the United States” about the sticky pedals. Toyota has two weeks to accept or contest the proposed fine, Olivia Alair, a Transportation Department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. If Toyota contests the penalty and a settlement isn’t reached, “it would go to court,” she said. ‘Firepower to Attorneys’ “One of the biggest reasons to fight the fine would be to defend themselves from the language used by the Department of Transportation,” Ed Kim, an industry analyst for forecaster AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, California, said in an interview. “That would seem to provide some firepower to attorneys that are suing the company.” The proposed penalty won’t have “any meaningful impact” on Toyota’s earnings, Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Efraim Levy said today in a report. “We nonetheless maintain our view that near-term sales and profits will likely remain burdened by the financial and public relations issues stemming from the recalls,” said Levy, who is based in New York. “However, if fixed, we think many customers will forgive.” NHTSA’s largest civil penalty to date was a $1 million fine for General Motors Co. in 2004 to settle charges that the company failed to conduct a timely recall involving windshield- wiper failures in about 581,000 vehicles. ‘Industry, Government Failed’ “Both industry and government failed the test of putting the safety of America’s drivers first” in the Toyota recalls, Representative Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, one of three panels that has held hearings on Toyota actions, said in a statement yesterday. The proposed NHTSA fine may help consumers suing Toyota over sudden acceleration, said Houston attorney W. Mark Lanier, who has filed class-action and individual lawsuits related to the claims. “Toyota is spending millions of dollars on public relations right now to sway consumers or a potential jury pool,” Lanier said in a phone interview. The fine “is free publicity that counters Toyota.” The penalty probably couldn’t be introduced in court because “it’s not like a criminal finding in that there was due process,” he said. Toyota is facing at least 177 consumer and shareholder lawsuits seeking class-action status and at least 56 suits claiming personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden acceleration incidents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Lanier has filed two personal injury cases and is considering filing about 100 others, including a dozen involving deaths, he said. --With assistance from Yuki Hagiwara and Makiko Kitamura in Tokyo and Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan. Editors: Steve Geimann, Terje Langeland To contact the reporters on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net; Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
Posts: 33,451

07-12-2012, 03:19 PM	#401
HemiEd Supporter Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ozarks Casino cash: $3180564	The saga continues, as it apparently will for a while. link By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau Did Toyota get off too easily after it was largely cleared by a pair of investigations looking into the maker’s problems with so-called unintended acceleration? That’s a possibility being raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, who has sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, questioning the results of two studies conducted for the agencies, in particular one done by NASA that found no evidence of electronic gremlins that might cause Toyota vehicles to race out of control. “Key questions about the cause of unintended acceleration remain unanswered,” the veteran lawmaker wrote in a letter to NHTSA Director David Strickland. Those questions have been supported by a raft of internal corporate documents also in the hands of TheDetroitBureau.com that suggest Toyota may, in fact, itself be worried that there are still yet unknown issues with some of its products. Both the NASA study and a second one by the National Academies Science failed to substantiate claims by Toyota critics that the maker’s electronic engine control systems might be the result of Unintended Acceleration – also known as Sudden Acceleration – where a vehicle might surge out of control, possibly leading to a collision, injury or even death. Toyota became enmeshed in a safety scandal when, in October 2009, a California Highway Patrol Officer and three family members were killed when a Lexus they were borrowing raced out of control, skidded off a freeway, crashed and burned. The maker subsequently recalled 8 million vehicles in a pair of recalls, one targeting so-called “carpet entrapment,” where loose floor mats could jam the accelerator pedal, and another related to potentially sticker accelerator assemblies. Late last month, Toyota extended the carpet entrapment recall to include nearly 134,000 additional vehicles, 2010 Lexus RX350 and RX450h crossovers. (For more on that story, Click Here.) Despite the number of vehicles involved in those two recalls – which forced Toyota to briefly shut down some of its main assembly plants while waiting for the necessary replacement parts – critics of the maker insisted it had not addressed the major problem. But experts, including some on the NASA panel, also warned that it could prove near-impossible to track electronic gremlins that might only occur sporadically and then vanish without a trace. Some pointed to a phenomenon known as “tin whiskers,” in which nano-sized threads have been known to grow at key junction points on electronic circuit boards. Such a possibility was raised repeatedly in the 177-page NASA report. “This is a serious issue,” Grassley wrote in his letter to NHTSA’s Strickland, asking how often and how far it has been pursued. Traditionally known for its seeming bulletproof reliability, Toyota took some unexpected shots as a result of the 2009-10 crisis – which saw key executives including CEO Akio Toyoda grilled by Congress and led to record fines for failing to respond to the sticky accelerator problem in a timely manner, as required by law. The safety agency took some punishment of its own, however as a result of the Toyota scandal. Internal corporate documents showed that NHTSA went easy on Toyota by allowing it to avoid an earlier recall that saved the carmaker millions of dollars. That was a key reason Strickland agreed to empower two independent studies of Toyota’s Unintended Acceleration problems. In the end, both NASA and the NAS attributed the vast majority of reported runaway car incidents – those not clearly linked to carpet entrapment or sticky accelerators – to driver error. In many cases that was backed up by evidence showing that, in one instance, a motorist mistakenly pressed down so hard on the gas pedal, rather than the brake, that it bent. But the studies left open a slight window suggesting there could yet be issues unknown impacting Toyota’s electronics. A spokesperson for NHTSA said the agency has received the Senator’s letter and “will review it carefully and respond appropriately.” Meanwhile, the various legal actions that have faced Toyota by alleged victims of Unintended Acceleration continue to work their way through the courts.
Posts: 33,451

07-12-2012, 04:11 PM	#402
Stewie MVP Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: West of the Equator Casino cash: $1809901	I'm amazed that my Camry is such a piece of shit. Bought in 2006 for the 2007 model year. I'm glad I'm alive and haven't spent $5K+ to make it right.
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07-12-2012, 05:46 PM	#404
Pants Time Keeps On Slipping Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Overland Park Casino cash: $5659900	I still don't understand why people didn't just put their cars in neutral. Yeah, you'll blow your engine, but at least you won't die or kill anyone by doing it. __________________ "Turn the channel to 26!"
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