Owners of Toyota Cars in Rebellion Over Accidents Caused by Sudden acceleration.

[HemiEd]

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."


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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

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Brock

Really, all of this is just simple-minded, irrational hatred for superior products, brought on by unjustified feelings of loyalty toward dying, deadhead companies. Dead from the neck up. All it really elicits from me at this point is a chuckle.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/toyota-a...floor-mat.html


Toyota Avalon displays unintended acceleration without floor mat
01/15/2010, 3:26 PM
By Mark Kleis

In a rather bizarre instance, a driver reportedly began to experience unintended acceleration from his Toyota Avalon and was able to drive the car to a nearby dealer with the vehicle still displaying wide open throttle, despite having the floormat removed. Dealer techs witnessed the problem and have reportedly offered to repair the vehicle free of charge.

According to a report from The Safety Record, on December 29, 2009, the driver of a 2007 Toyota Avalon experienced a bizarre case of sudden and unintended acceleration while driving on the highway, just miles from a local Toyota dealer. The driver managed to switch the vehicle between Neutral and Drive multiple times, while en route to the dealer in order to show the dealer the problem as it was still occurring.

The driver was able to reach the dealer, place the vehicle into neutral, and allow it to continue operating at wide open throttle. The dealer sent out a tech who verified that the floor mat was removed, and pushing the gas pedal had no effect on the acceleration. The dealer was unable to stop the wide open throttle and was forced to shut the vehicle off.

This incident was apparently not the first for the driver, either, who had been to the dealer before about the problem. The first time the unintended acceleration occurred, the driver was able to slow the vehicle with the brakes and switch the vehicle into neutral – where the engine continued to hit maximum rpms. At the time of the first incident, dealer diagnostics revealed no problems in the computer.

The dealer eventually offered to replace the throttle body, accelerator pedal and associated sensors free of charge for the driver after the second incident.

This incident may prove to be a crucial step in finding the true cause of the many reported cases of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Toyota began its largest-ever recall in 2009 to replace the floor mats and accelerator pedals in over 3.8 million vehicles that could experience unintended acceleration. Critics and survivors of unintended acceleration cases argued that the problem was not a result of the floor mats or accelerator pedals, but instead insist that the computer controlling the acceleration of the vehicle is at fault.

The Safety Record also reported on a one-car crash that occurred in Dallas, Texas the day after Christmas involving a Toyota Avalon. According to the accident report, the vehicle inexplicably left the road and ended up crashing through a fence, and landing upside down in a pond – killing all four occupants. The floor mats were found in the trunk of the car – ruling out the possibility of the floor mat causing the accident.

The official cause of the Dallas crash has not yet been determined.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/com...ed-in-accident

SOUTHLAKE, Texas - Members of the Southlake community are mourning four people killed in a weekend car crash . Two of the victims died Saturday and the remaining couple died Sunday.

All four people were pulled from a Toyota sedan that landed upside down in a pond at about 11:20 a.m. Saturday morning, near the intersection of Lonesome Dove Road and Burney Lane.

Investigators said the car drove through the intersection and a fence, before landing in the body of water, which is approximately 6 feet deep.

Southlake DPS officers and the Grapevine Fire Department braved the frigid water to free all four trapped victims.

The deceased have been identified as:

* Monty Hardy, 56, of Southlake
* Hadassah Vance, 35, of Euless
* Wendy Akion, 38, of Irving
* Sharon Ransom, 56, of Grapevine

It was not clear what caused the crashed but an investigation was ongoing. In particular, detectives were exploring the possibility that the vehicle's accelerator pedal was stuck.

Toyota recently recalled millions of vehicles because of that issue.

[Extra Point]

The drive-by-wire method of contolling throttle plate angle is totally dangerous. The cost to change all these vehicles could be devastating, but mandatory. Seems that the command signal for accelerating must be due to a short in the board, and the boards need to be redesigned and replaced. Whether the board is in the throttle assembly or external, or integral to the PCM, this shit needs to be fixed.

[HemiEd]

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-bea...-80761142.html

Floor Mats Ruled Out in Fatal Southlake Crash: Police

Cause of wreck that killed four is still unclear

Recalled Toyota floor mats had nothing to do with a car crash that killed four people in Southlake the day after Christmas, police said Tuesday.

Four people in a Toyota Avalon drowned when the car went off the road, through a fence and landed upside down in a pond.

The four, all Jehovah's Witnesses, were doing religious work at the time.

The car was one of more than four million recalled by Toyota, after federal safety regulators found a problem with the car suddenly accelerating.

The automaker said the problem is caused by the floor mat pushing against the gas pedal.

Southlake police said the floor mat in the car that crashed was found in the trunk and was not inside the vehicle.

"That's the thing we've been able to rule out pretty much for sure,” said Lt. Ben Brown.

Police said there are many other possible causes, including human error or, as some safety experts have suggested, another defect that causes rapid acceleration.

"We can't really rule that out,” Brown said. “The investigators are looking at everything they can.”

Police identified the driver as Monty Hardy, 56, of Southlake. The passengers were Wendy Akion, 38, of Irving; Sharon Ransom, 56, of Grapevine; and Hadassah Vance, 35, of Euless.

An autopsy found Hardy died from drowning and detected no heart problems or other medical condition, police said. The road was dry at the time of the accident.

A Toyota spokesman, John Hansen, said he could not speculate on what went wrong.

He acknowledged the floor mats in some models, including the one that crashed in Southlake, can get wedged near the gas pedal, causing rapid acceleration.

“There has been speculation there are other causes of unintended acceleration,” Hansen said. “Our position is we have been able to find no other cause.”

Toyota’s solution is to replace the mat and the floor cushion under the carpeting and to shorten the pedal, he said.

The company has urged owners of recalled models to remove the floor mats and put them in the trunk until they can go to a dealer to fix the problem.

[Param]

so ur sayin i shouldn't drive toyata huh

[HMc]

Is there any evidence at all at this stage that the dallas accident was a result of a faulty vehicle (be it a stuck throttle or any other fault)?

[Bwana]

Christine? It sounds like "ota" has some serious issues to work out.

[JD10367]

While it's fun to bash Toyota over this, in general foreign cars are still looked upon as more trustworthy than American cars. However, we should also keep in mind that this was not always the case. Not too long ago, "Japanese" was synonymous with "cheap". (I think they used to use recycled steel left over from WW2 or something, and their cars would rust out.) Toyota was considered a cheap low-level car company; now it's not. Datsun (Nissan), same thing; now, it's not. Honda. Et cetera. People laughed at Hyundai when they first came over from Korea; now, I would think they outsell most American companies. People laughed at Kia, most recently; Kia is now making inroads towards respectability.

So, instead of everyone using the moment to bash Toyota as they deal with their own "Belichick went for it on 4th and 2, huh huh huh" moment, perhaps we should spend more time figuring out how to raise the respectability of U.S.-made cars.

As for the rampant acceleration, it makes me glad I bypassed the Toyota Yaris and got a Smart instead. I don't have to worry about rampant acceleration. If the throttle opened wide, it really wouldn't make much of a difference.

[Earthling]

For the life of me I can't understand how the floor mat could cause acceleration unless it was on top of the accelerator pedal and pressing it down. I have both foreign and domestic vehicles and have no agenda. I will be sure to talk to my daughter and niece about what they should do if an acceleration issue happens while they are at the wheel and thank you for this heads up.

[Earthling]

I watched more of the videos and see what Toyota is claiming...That the mats are catching the edge of the accelerator pedal and forcing it down that way. Like one gentleman in the video stated "that is probably the cause of some of these accidents" but many occured with the absense of those mats. Anyway, its a very good thing to be aware of.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by Earthling

For the life of me I can't understand how the floor mat could cause acceleration unless it was on top of the accelerator pedal and pressing it down. I have both foreign and domestic vehicles and have no agenda. I will be sure to talk to my daughter and niece about what they should do if an acceleration issue happens while they are at the wheel and thank you for this heads up.

I had a 2008 Grand Prix as a company car and I had it happen at least five times and that's exactly how it happened. I would hit the gas and if the mat was to far up, it would catch on the pedal and I would be going like a bat out of hell. No big deal, I would just reach down and give the mat a tug, problem solved. In this Toyota case however, it's not the mat causing the problem.

[Bwana]

Another thing I don't understand, is the brakes have more doninance than the engine. Even if the engine is going all out, people should be able to use the brakes to stop, pull over and shut off the key. If you don't panic, there shouldn't be a death involved.

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by Bwana

Another thing I don't understand, is the brakes have more doninance than the engine. Even if the engine is going all out, people should be able to use the brakes to stop, pull over and shut off the key. If you don't panic, there shouldn't be a death involved.

Crowded city streets or busy highways + crucial seconds passed before most people figure out what's happening + the fact that most people are stupid drivers = death.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by JD10367

Crowded city streets or busy highways + crucial seconds passed before most people figure out what's happening + the fact that most people are stupid drivers = death.

That would explain it.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Bwana

Another thing I don't understand, is the brakes have more doninance than the engine. Even if the engine is going all out, people should be able to use the brakes to stop, pull over and shut off the key. If you don't panic, there shouldn't be a death involved.

Greg, I guess some of these incidents have happened on some pretty bad stretches of road.

Toyota is going to install a band-aid, even though there is not a problem.
http://jalopnik.com/5446129/toyotas-...t-fiery-deaths

[teedubya]

I think I saw a Toyota "Quality" ad the other day. I chuckled. Nice Try.