Toyota shuts down production and halts sales

thsmith

Toyota's stock is at $71, any guesses how low it will go and at what point would you buy ?

Jstas

Ford's stock was down to $6 this time last year. Wish I had money to buy some stock back then. I'd have picked up a thousand shares at that price. I would have almost doubled my money in a year. It closed at $11.06 a share yesterday.

Then again, it's 52 week low was $1.50 a share and it's 52 week high was $12.14 a share. It would have been a rough year for shareholders but they would reap massive benefits if they stayed in it through the bad parts.

Jstas

More bad news...

From Jalopnik...

Toyota To Recall 2010 Prius In U.S., Japan

The Nikkei News Service reports Toyota will recall 270,000 Priuses in the U.S. and Japan, targeting only the 2010 Prius in today's most recent example of beige biting back.

Toyota earlier today acknowledged design problems with the brakes in its prized gas-electric hybrid, but said it was still deciding how to inform customers and whether a recall is needed.

It looks like they've made a decision — a voluntary recall. Probably a smart move from a PR level.

So what does this mean to us as enthusiasts? Well, it's another **** in Toyota's beige-colored armor and maybe a wake-up call in the fight against beige and bland. Fight the power, people.

An anonymous source at Toyota tells Danny at PriusChat "A fix for the 2010 Prius brake issue is on the way." It is unknown if the fix will be in the form of a full-fledged recall or a SSC. [via PriusChat, MSN]

http://jalopnik.com/5464593/toyota-to-recall-2010-prius-in-us-japan

Jstas

This is interesting, the Technical Service Bulletin for the Toyota pedal fix.

http://jalopnik.com/5465002/toyota-recall-the-tsb-toyota-didnt-want-you-to-see/gallery/

AsSiMiLaTeD

I was looking around on the jalopnik site, they are so anti-Toyota it's absurdly funny. I'm not saying anything they are saying is inaccurate, but when you are so openly biased it does tend to eat into your credibility a little.

I'm actually going to add that site to my favorites, it's like TMZ for autos!!! I assume they're out of Detroit, they have the time on their website as Detroit, 12:27 PM, awesome!

Oh, and you gotta love the Pirelli calendar they have posted on their site, that's NSFW by the way). How can you NOT trust news from an organization with nekkid pics on their website?!

EDIT: It's not just Toyota they seem to be against, I think it's everything, truly awesome!

Jstas

Jalopnik is like Autoblog. A news aggregator. They do their own stories but for the most part they do editorials on other news stories. I only post articles from them when the original article cited is unclear or needs a subscription to see it. But, sometimes, Jalopnik scoops everyone else.

I don't think they have an anti-Toyota bias. I think they have an anti-bland bias. The Toyota stuff is what has been in the news constantly for over two weeks so of course it's going to be all over an automotive news site.

But they are equally dismissive of bland things from Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, Ford, GM and so on. They are completely dismissive of Chrysler as a whole. Hell, the have their own racing series, "The 24 Hours of LeMons" (pronounced "lemons") where the car cannot cost more than $500 to be able to be a race entrant. That alone speaks volumes to their take on the subject matter and their demographic as well.

If you want a Toyota leg humping site, go to http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/

It's not really the "truth" as much as it is a bunch of angry "journalists" that take pleasure is just being as sour, dismissive and hateful as humanly possible. Probably why I like reading it so much.

AsSiMiLaTeD

^^^ See my edit above, I noticed it's not anti-Toyota, it's anti-everything, I suppose anti-bland is a better description. It's actually an interesting site, and something I wouldnd't have come across otherwise.

Jstas

Stories like this:

http://jalopnik.com/5465001/ford-issues-immediate-fix-for-defective-2010-shelby-gt500-tires

are why I read Jalopnik.

Jstas

Toyotathon...of Death commemorative merchandise from TiRD

http://www.cafepress.com/DonkeyStop/7057075

Jstas

ABCNews is in on the act now

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyotas/revolving-door-us-safety-agency-toyota-representative/story?id=9747342

Jstas

I was hoping to be able to let this die but, no, Toyota won't allow it!

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/02/toyota-corolla-to-be-probed-for-steering-problems/1

From USAToday...

Toyota Corolla steering problems prompt complaints to Feds

UPDATE: Federal safety officials say they will look into complaints from Toyota Corolla drivers about difficulty with the steering on their vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received about 80 complaints from drivers of 2009 and 2010 Corollas. Many say their cars can wander when they drive on the highway, making it hard to stay in lanes.

Just as Toyota moves from one crisis, the Prius recall, it now can move to yet another: mounting complaints about electric power steering on 2009 and 2010 Corollas.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is thinking of opening another investigation, Automotive News reports. This time, it would look into possible power steering defects in the Corolla, the nation's second best selling car last year with 874,000 sold.

Toyota has received 83 complaints about power steering problems, 76 of which caused the car to veer right or left at speeds over 40 miles an hour, the News found. The reported defect has resulted in 10 accidents and six injuries. Reporter Neil Roland writes:

Complainants have compared the movement to being buffeted by strong winds, sliding on black ice, or hydroplaning. They said that after trying to straighten the car, it can overcorrect -- requiring the driver to use a tight, persistent, two-handed grip on the wheel to travel in a straight line.

"If you take your eye off the road for a second, the car will drift into another lane," said one driver an Oct. 18 complaint. Another describes it as the most terrifying thing that ever happened to them.

The Corolla is already one of eight models that Toyota stopped selling until its accelerator pedal assemblies could be retrofitted to stop unintended acceleration.

But that's not all on this subject!

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/09/toyota-corolla-reportedly-suffering-from-steering-woes/

From Autobog...

Toyota Corolla reportedly suffering from steering woes *UPDATED

by Jonny Lieberman on Feb 9th, 2010 at 4:01PM

Will it ever stop? Yo, we don't know. And yes, we're quoting Vanilla Ice because... well, at this point in the never ending Toyota tale of woe, why not? Anyhow, there have been 83 complaints about the power steering systems in 2009 and 2010 Toyota Corollas, most of which are claiming that the car will veer to the right or left at speeds over 40 mph. Coincidently, the Corolla is one of the eight Toyota models affected by the production and sales stoppage. The alleged problems have purportedly caused 10 accidents and six injuries. Here's the gist:

Complainants have compared the movement to being buffeted by strong winds, sliding on black ice, or hydroplaning. They said that after trying to straighten the car, it can overcorrect -- requiring the driver to use a tight, persistent, two-handed grip on the wheel to travel in a straight line.

Of course, you should always have a tight, persistent, two-handed grip on the wheel. That's known as driving. Not that people aren't actually experiencing problems with late model Corollas, but this kinda reminds us of the Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic.

If you don't know, in the 1950s Seattleites began complaining en masse about pits (or holes) appearing in their windshields. Everything from hoodlums with BB guns to sand flea eggs to a million watt radio antenna to atomic testing were thought to be maybe causing the pitting. Also, shifts in the earth's magnetic field and even gremlins (the fictional creatures, not the AMC product) were blamed.

Finally, after a full investigation Seattle Police Sergeant Max Allison announced that the windshield pitting was, "5 per cent hoodlum-ism, and 95 per cent public hysteria." This happened on April 15, 1954. All reports of windshield pitting stopped on April 17. Is this related to reports about the Corolla's power steering ills? More closely than we might think, we think.

UPDATE: There might be a little fire under all this smoke. Our friends at AOL Autos have also been reporting on this breaking story, and have discovered this:

" notice the steeering wheel sometimes pulses only when my cell phone is...docked to the right of the steering wheel," wrote one Corolla driver in an official complaint on June 26, 2009. "It's strange I can sometimes tell if my Blackberry is going to ring or get an email. The steering wheel seems to shake or try to steer on its own. This is similar to my other 2009 Toyota Corolla that I resold to the dealer. I wonder if more shielding is needed to reduce any interference."

If that's the case, we take back what we said about Seattle.

Now I can attest to this first hand. I went to visit my sister in Vermont last year. They have a 2009 Toyota Corolla. Just before my Blackberry for work would go off, the car's steering wheel would jerk around. Not a whole lot but enough to be quite alarming to the point where we pulled over when it happened a 4th time. We quickly realized what was going on because the steering wheel was still doing it when the car was not moving. We took turns calling my Blackberry to see what would happen. At least now I know I wasn't insane and the dealer we questioned about it was either lying or honestly had no clue about it.

Blackberrys are notorious for copious amounts of interference. Their antennas and transmitters are very powerful for their size and can interfere with many things. It usually creates a sound like broken up Morse code on my stereo at home if I am near one of the speakers when it goes off.

If the "drive by wire" electronics are that susceptible to a cellphone, who knows what else can cause issues. Cellphones, even Blackberrys, are pretty low on the interference/background noise scale in the RF world.

Danny Tse

Being the owner of a 2009 Corolla S, I've never encountered any gas pedal or steering problem (with just cell phone or Bluetooth headset). No floormat issue either. A rattling of my dashboard? Yes....and I have Toyota's TSB on it already.

tonyb

I've had Toyota's and Honda's for the last 15 years,still have them today. My kids have had GM cars and have gone through a combined 6 cars in the same period. In every Sunday paper,in the auto section,they list all the recalls. Every Sunday,there is a recall from some auto maker,american and foreign, but never seem to get the press that Toyota has. Granted,they did have missteps in handling it, but I would not think twice about buying another one.

polktiger

tonyb wrote: »

I've had Toyota's and Honda's for the last 15 years,still have them today. My kids have had GM cars and have gone through a combined 6 cars in the same period.

I don't quite follow what your point is here. I know several (3) Lexus drivers (always and only buy Lexus) that change cars every 3 to 4 years. So, over the past 15 years they have each been through 4 to 5 different Lexus vehicles.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Yeah, the Lexus drivers are probably upgrading for a different reason...

nooshinjohn

More toyota news... the lawsuits begin.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/suing-toyota-get-in-line.aspx?gt1=33009

tonyb

polktiger wrote: »

I don't quite follow what your point is here. I know several (3) Lexus drivers (always and only buy Lexus) that change cars every 3 to 4 years. So, over the past 15 years they have each been through 4 to 5 different Lexus vehicles.

Those are probably the ones who lease their cars,if they didn't like them,they would not stay in that brand. My point is that my Lexus and Honda are owned,my kids cars were owned, but had to keep getting different cars because of mechanical problems that made them too costly to keep. Different strokes....I guess. Just as a side note,I am a firm believer in maintenance, so many younger folks I see simply do not keep up with it. With out it though,no car,american or foreign is going to last too long. Some just have to have that new car every 4 or 5 years, never getting out from under that car payment every month.

polktiger

tonyb wrote: »

Those are probably the ones who lease their cars,if they didn't like them,they would not stay in that brand. My point is that my Lexus and Honda are owned,my kids cars were owned, but had to keep getting different cars because of mechanical problems that made them too costly to keep. Different strokes....I guess. Just as a side note,I am a firm believer in maintenance, so many younger folks I see simply do not keep up with it. With out it though,no car,american or foreign is going to last too long. Some just have to have that new car every 4 or 5 years, never getting out from under that car payment every month.

Actually, only one one leases, and I tell him all the time to dump that "program". The others write the check - don't finance or use home equity. Those two just like driving a new car and can afford it.

In your original post you did not clarify that your kids had been through so many cars due to mechanical failure, despite being dilligent in maintenace. My intention was to point out that merely looking at the frequency that a person turns over their vechicle has many factors influencing it, and many times it has nothing to do with the quality or reliability of the car they are disposing of. Without much difficulty you will find many people that have owned and driven both domestics and foreign cars for well in excess of 5 years. I think if someone were to actually dig into the statistics, they would find that turn over has more to do with the charteristics of the vehicle owner than the car they drive.

Jstas

More Toyota fun!

Well first things first. Seems Toyota is "fixing" about 50,000 pedal assemblies a day. Good for them. At this rate they should be done some time around August.

In other news though, Honda thinks this will have a riple effects.

Honda CFO fears Toyota woes will have ripple effect on other automakers
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/11/report-honda-cfo-fears-toyota-woes-will-have-ripple-effect-on-o/
(original article is on the WSJ site which requires a subscription.)

News flash Honda, if you have nothing to hide and are actually making decent cars, you have nothing to worry about.

Still, related news, Akio Toyoda pens an op-ed piece for The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803078.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Interesting read. Shame I don't believe a word of it.


But this has also been a source for political strife as well.

Group of governors take issue with Obama administration handling of Toyota recalls
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=11959822

And lastly, for all of you who thought that this couldn't possibly affect Toyota negatively, in the midst of State Farm complaining that they told the NHTSA about this problem back in 2007, Kelly Blue Book has dropped used car values on Toyotas across the board. Not once but twice in one week and they said that they likely aren't finished slashing prices yet.

State Farm alerted NHTSA to Toyota issues in 2007; KBB lowers resale values

State Farm story: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE61751H20100208
KBB story: http://economy.kansascity.com/?q=node/5988

Jstas

You thought the Cevy Volt dancers were embarrassingly bad?

Well, meet the Toyota Avalon singers!

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Gag me with a spoon.

Roy Munson

60??

Roy Munson

Interesting take on the recall.

Terence Corcoran: Toyota fights media thuggery

Posted: February 10, 2010, 1:18 PM by NP Editor
Terence Corcoran, Toyota, recalls

J.D. Power’s surveys fail to find unusual safety issues. Why now?

By Terence Corcoran


Toyota is already the victim of one of the most irresponsible and destructive bouts of media thuggery in history. It won’t get better for the company in the days ahead, although it does get a break today: Thanks to snow in Washington, a scheduled ritual Congressional executive humiliation proceeding against Toyota had to be postponed. The media, meanwhile, continues its daily rampage.

The expected recall of the hybrid Prius yesterday, to fix an alleged quirk in the computer-driven anti-lock braking system, was quickly followed by news that the Toyota Corolla is under inquiry for faulty steering. Exactly who made what complaints about the steering wasn’t clear, but it didn’t really matter. First it was the gas pedal acceleration problem, then the brake problem and now a steering problem. Since all car owners have complaints about their cars, every Toyota in existence will soon have to be deconstructed.

Here are some samples from the BBC blog site. “I own a Toyota Camry 2006 model. I have experienced problems with the brakes in the snow that nearly caused an accident,” writes Arun from New Jersey. Aside from telling Arun to move to Florida where it doesn’t snow, what’s to be done? Is this worth an inquiry? Another: “We have a 2005 Camry. The car has developed a slight shudder when accelerating and decelerating. I have not contacted my dealer, but plan to do so soon.”

Once this snowball starts rolling, everybody starts contemplating all the perceived quirks and problems their vehicle might have, even imagining a few new ones that were previously unnoticed. See how that anti-lock break shudders when you jam it down — must be something wrong. In Toyota’s case, there was little remarkable about its product history until one of its Lexus products crashed in San Diego while a passenger in the vehicle was making a 911 call claiming the accelerator had jammed. The report of that crash, and the 911 recording, created a gruesome story that flew through the Internet and the media.

Even though it is far from clear what caused the Lexus to crash, it is now the pivotal event in the media’s relentless and escalating portrayal of Toyota as a company that has been lax in responding to safety concerns. Again, there’s no evidence for this, but the reports keep on coming. Time magazine yesterday posted a story “Toyota’s Safety Problems: A Checkered History,” purporting to show a “growing list of safety issues” between the company and U.S. government highway officials regarding accelation-related problems. Over 25 years, until October 2009, the magazine lists 12 incidents in which officials investigated and esssentially found nothing. There are certainly more evaluations in recent years, but none lead to any conclusive signs of a problem. The complaints are all found to be “ambiguous” in cause and nature. In September 2006 a driver filed a complaint to the National Highway Transport Safety Agency about “engine surging” in his Camry. The NHTSA spent six months investigating and testing the driver’s car, but couldn’t find anything.

Today, any complaints by any drivers seem to be enough to rate a report or an inquiry. No analysis is being done to determine whether these acceleration, braking or steering issues are genuine, and if genuine, what might reasonably be done to fix them. This is just gang regulation by the media.

How else could Toyota go from being among the top-rated manufacturers by J.D.Power to being the producer of crash-prone vehicles filled with previously unnoticed problems? Steven Witter, executive director of automotive research at J. D. Power, told me yesterday that their sampling of Toyota failed to uncover any of the problems now being pinned on the company. “On the specific problems that the recalls are on, we’ve had people report these problems. But when we look at examples, such as the accelerator stickiness issue, for Toyota those problems haven’t occurred at an above-average rate in our data. Have they popped up? Yes. But have they popped up as an issue per se, no.”

If there’s nothing new, then what’s the issue? Mr. Witter says he thinks Toyota is the first auto company to experience a new Internet-based backlash. While there may be nothing unusual in Toyota’s track record or even its cars and safety history, the high-profile severity of a single accident can spin a safety issue out of control through the Internet and then the media. “What we’re seeing now is a sign of the times,” said Mr. Witter. With the Internet, events like the San Diego Lexus accident are posted and “people can go back and look at the coverage and listen to the 911 tape themselves. It’s going to happen more and more, even if it’s not high frequency, they are going to be sensationalized.”

No matter what Toyota did, it wouldn’t be enough. It quickly stopped the sale of half its fleet, but critics weren’t satisfied. “I do think there have been people in the press and even in the government who have jumped on Toyota a little harder than I think is necessary and made it a little bit bigger deal than it is,” said Mr. Witter. He said he sees “no evidence” that Toyota had known about these problems earlier and not done anything about them.

But the malicious attacks on Toyota continue. One auto writer has started to refer to “Throttlegate.” The real ugly scandal, however, is the elsewhere. Call it Mediagate.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2010/02/10/terence-corcoran-toyota-fights-media-thuggery.aspx#ixzz0f6UiEfgp

jflail2

I could care less about Toyota anymore, I'm just supremely impressed this thread made it 9 pages...

Roy Munson

It had help!

Jstas

Roy Munson wrote: »

Interesting take on the recall.

A long article was here

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2010/02/10/terence-corcoran-toyota-fights-media-thuggery.aspx#ixzz0f6UiEfgp

See, I don't agree that this is a "new" phenomenon. I believe that it's just more accessible now than it was years ago.

The media ran with other stories. We've gone over the ad nauseum in this thread alone. But this media blitz is nothing new and it's certainly not related solely to cars. Anything that becomes a media darling or demon gets excessive coverage. Fair or not.

What I do think is unique is that Toyota has been a media darling for a very long time. What is adding fuel to this fire is the perceived "fall from grace" to a media demon. There are many reasons behind it. The biggest one seems to be coercion of a government departyent for safety and Congress is involved because it seems that the NHTSA did not handle the original investigation properly. That and evidence that a Toyota employee, violated NHTSA employment policies and worked with NHTSA staffers to manipulate the study data to test away what the known issues were. That right there is grounds for outrage and who is to investigate that? The NHTSA answers to the government. Obama could have called them to the carpet on it but it seems Congress did it first. Maybe it does have to do with current ownership of Government Motors, who knows? But the bottom line is that the system was bucked and people have died because of it. I'm glad someone is investigating not only Toyota but the NHTSA as well and I hope someone loses a job over it because it never should have happened.

Jstas

jflail2 wrote: »

I could care less about Toyota anymore, I'm just supremely impressed this thread made it 9 pages...

Lotsa news. New stuff comes out daily.


The media circus is comical at this point.

jflail2

Jstas wrote: »

Lotsa news. New stuff comes out daily.


The media circus is comical at this point.

Oh agreed completely. I'm just impressed Polkies have been this civil to this point. Nice to see a long thread with lots of good information in it not turn into a flame war...

AsSiMiLaTeD

Heh, that's because John's the only one posting

Roy Munson

Another take on the recall.


Target Toyota: Why the Recall Backlash Is Overblown

By James B. Meigs, Editor-in-Chief, Popular Mechanics
Published on: February 9, 2010



To judge by press accounts and statements from government officials, those innocuous-looking Toyota sedans and SUVs in millions of American driveways are somehow kin to the homicidal '58 Plymouth Fury in the Stephen King novel "Christine"—haunted by technological poltergeists and prone to fits of mechanical mayhem. In the midst of three major recalls, Toyota has been hammered by daily newspaper and TV pieces suggesting it has been slow to address safety problems. U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood announced that anyone who owns one of the recalled vehicles should "stop driving it." (He quickly backpedaled on that pronouncement, but warned, "We're not finished with Toyota.") Displaying a previously undisclosed concern for the safety of American owners of foreign-badged automobiles, the UAW quickly piled on. And now, Toyota's North American president Yoshi Inaba must submit to ritual humiliation at the hands of the U.S. Congress in a hearing on Wednesday.

Does Toyota—or any car company—deserve this? Well, if they are knowingly selling an unsafe car, yes. But is that what's going on here? Not so fast. There's no question that unintended acceleration is a serious problem that needs to be fixed. But a little perspective is in order. As Popular Mechanics automotive editor Larry Webster has pointed out, every major carmaker receives occasional reports of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA). In the last decade, the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency logged some 24,000 SUA complaints. Less than 50 of these red flags were investigated. Why so few? The main reason is the nebulous nature of SUA. Often the problem occurs once, never to happen again. It's tough to fix a defect that can't be replicated. And then there's the driver variable. As awful as this is to think about, it's been shown that sometimes drivers simply mix up which pedal they're pushing. In the late 1980s, the Audi 5000 was the target of a barrage of SUA allegations, lawsuits and press reports (including a notorious "60 Minutes" episode that was later discredited). Then, as now, there were accusations that mysterious electronic gremlins somehow took over the car. In the end, NHTSA concluded that driver error was the only likely explanation for the incidents.

But many safety concerns do have validity, and every carmaker has conducted numerous recalls involving critical safety features of their vehicles—brakes, steering, airbags, seat belts, and more. Still, the fact that some safety problems don't emerge until cars have been on the road for months or years is not a sign that automakers are criminally cavalier about safety. Quite the opposite. The safety issues that lead to recalls generally occur in very small numbers, often barely rising above statistical noise. Toyota's unintended acceleration problem, for instance, involved a handful of cases in literally billions of miles of driving.

As those cases come to light, it is necessary for carmakers to take action, and it is natural for consumers to be concerned. But the intensity of the backlash against Toyota is almost unprecedented. Here's what is being missed in most of the coverage of the issue: All cars are inherently dangerous. They propel their fragile human cargo at high speeds over unpredictable terrain. They combine thousands of parts that need to interact flawlessly—in environments ranging from Death Valley heat to Fairbanks cold—in order to maintain safe operation. Their radiators contain scalding fluids; their batteries are full of toxic acid; and their gas tanks hold explosive power equivalent to more than 100 sticks of TNT. And, by all accounts, Americans drive those cars faster than ever, on increasingly congested roadways.

Nonetheless, driving gets safer every year. Fatalities per mile driven have fallen more than 25 percent since 1994, in part because cars themselves are safer. Compared to those of 20 years ago, the typical vehicle today has better brakes, better steering and more (not to mention smarter) airbags. Electronic stability-control systems have helped prevent countless accidents. Still, even the best cars are far from perfect. And much of the outrage over Toyota's troubles seems based on the unrealistic expectation that cars should be infallible. That's an unattainable goal; even well-designed components can wear out and fail in unexpected ways. Recalls are not a sign that carmakers are indifferent to the safety of their customers. On the contrary, recalls are part of the process by which automakers address safety or reliability issues that are often fairly subtle.

So why did Toyota's safety issues become front-page news when similar recalls by other automakers barely made the business pages? One is the scary nature of unintended acceleration itself, which taps into our almost instinctual fear that our machines will suddenly turn on us (HAL, anyone?). Another was the horrific 911 call from the passenger of a Lexus that crashed in Santee, Calif., in August of last year. And then there was timing. Toyota responded first to the problem of shifting floor mats (the likely culprit in the Santee crash), and only later to the much more subtle issue of accelerator pedals that are slow to return to idle. Those are two unrelated problems that needed to be addressed separately. Perhaps in a different climate, Toyota could have convinced the public that the accelerator pedal recall was an example of extreme diligence in pursuit of safety. Instead, the second recall struck the public as an admission of culpability—just another shoe dropping in a much larger scandal.

By the time conversation got around to disconcerting glitches in the antilock brake system on Toyota's high-tech Prius hybrid, there was no containing the outrage. (The fact is, most hybrids exhibit slightly twitchy braking as they try to manage the switchover from the electrical braking that recharges the batteries to the hydraulic braking needed for more aggressive stops. Conditions that engage the antilock braking system only complicate that challenge.) Without the previous incidents, news that Toyota was making a small change in its Prius braking software would have been a non-story. Instead, it completed the trifecta of bad news that has made this Toyota's annus horribilis.

Crisis managers will no doubt study Toyota's handling of this issue, looking for lessons in avoiding that company's predicament. After all, it took years for Audi's sales to rebound after that company's trip through the SUA gauntlet. Still, some good did come of Audi's experience: Today all cars have interlock systems that make it impossible for drivers to move the shift lever out of park unless their foot is on the brake (thus preventing them from shifting into gear while accidentally flooring the accelerator). One likely outcome of the Toyota episode will be a requirement for a similar interlock that automatically disengages the throttle whenever the driver steps on the brake. And that would help make all cars just one, tiny increment safer than before.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4345385.html

Roy Munson

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Heh, that's because John's the only one posting

And the rest of us died in "runaway killer" Toyota's!