Toyota to recall 3.8M vehicles over floor mats

  • Thread starter JCE
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ABC news reported that there is a whistle blower case where a former Toyota attorney states that they have been covering up, even destroy or invent evidence to show they weren't at fault in any accidents evolving their cars.

Also they hired someone from the NHTSA back in 2004 to get them to not look at autos in uncontrolled acceleration beyond more than 1 second in duration and were successful. Nice to see the government watching things. Where have we seen this before.:rolleyes:
 
ABC news reported that there is a whistle blower case where a former Toyota attorney states that they have been covering up, even destroy or invent evidence to show they weren't at fault in any accidents evolving their cars.

Also they hired someone from the NHTSA back in 2004 to get them to not look at autos in uncontrolled acceleration beyond more than 1 second in duration and were successful. Nice to see the government watching things. Where have we seen this before.:rolleyes:

I know you seem to be insinuating the U.S. companies, but, really, It's more like the U.S. Government. During the Nixon era.
 
Sniff
There was bad news for God this week as the well-known deity was forced to recall thousands of examples of His popular Human Being after reports that the model could be prone to unexpected attacks of unbelievable stupidity.

Initial reports of blithering idiocy emerged from the United States last year but these were thought to be isolated incidents caused by people who are so thick that if a floormat was touching their accelerator pedal would prefer to scream ‘Aaaaaaargh’ until they drove into a river rather than simply moving the mat backwards with their foot. However, it now seems the monumental stupidity is more widespread and may cause some Human Beings to decide that the best course of action in the event of being in a car with a throttle that won’t release is to telephone someone rather than to, for example, put the ****ing car into neutral and bring it to a halt using the brakes as normal.

Jesus Christ, a member of the original God family who now runs his Father’s business, is expected to make a full statement shortly. In the meantime, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a senior manager at God’s UK operation, has told reporters that there are almost certainly Human Beings here in Britain that will need to be examined for signs of being so sodding thick that they probably shouldn’t have a driving licence in the first place. “It’s too early to say how this might affect people in the UK,” Mr Canterbury is quoted as saying. “But we have every reason to believe that there are some Human Beings that may being so brain fartingly stupid that if the throttle in their car became stuck, they would never think simply to depress the clutch and coast to a halt”.

However, it is understood that God’s representatives in the UK are keen to manage any recall as quickly and efficiently as possible, thereby minimising the number of mithering suburban ***** who ring in to the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 and witter on about how they’re too scared to drive their Yaris to such a blindingly crass degree that listeners eventually start to get a sense of what it would be like if the editor of the Daily Mail did a **** into a syringe and then used it to inject vile reactionary **** into their ears.

It goes on. You know where to find it
 
Cables were the tried and true technology for probably a century, but they certainly have their foibles as well .... kinking, binding, stretching, breaking. I'm no expert, but I was thinking that a lot of aircaft still use cable controls even though the run lengths are very long. It would seem that electronic controls would be prefered but they're not in some cases. Of course, aircraft have much more stringent inspection and maintanence schedules which would catch worn cables ??

The regional jets I work on (Embraer ERJ-145's) use a combination of cable, electric, and hydraulics for flight controls. Elevators are pure cable, rudder is cable/hydraulic, ailerons are cable/hydraulic, and the rear stabilizer is electric. Engines are fully electronically controlled though. But yes, the cables are rather long, sometimes more than 20 ft just for one segment. And yes, they are changed fairly often. Usually every couple of years. They also have specific requirements when the cables are tensioned. We even have to account for the temperature inside of the plane when doing cable tensions.

But on topic...
My friend back in Cali fell under that recall. His last gen Toyota Tundra was affected by it. Although, he didn't tell me if his mom's Lexus RX300 was. He even taught his mom what to do in the event of the throttle getting stuck...
 
He even taught his mom what to do in the event of the throttle getting stuck...

The worst thing I've been hearing is how you should put the car in neutral. Someone asked me, "But what happens if you go in reverse instead?" Well, the car won't go into reverse unless you push the button in. So just slam the stick forward.
 
I think it's kind of a problem that people aren't aware of their cars or driving enough to know what to do when the gas pedal is stuck.
 
Although this may not count for much, but as long as we've been driving Toyotas in my family (1992 Toyota Corolla was the first), it seems like we've always had an issue with sticky throttles. The old '95 Camry had to have it replaced at one point, and last year when I had my fuel rail issue, they first asked if I had had my throttle looked at before. The pedal does occasionally stick in the Celica, but it is at the top of travel, not at the bottom. But, I think that has more to do with it being cold than anything else.
 
I think it's kind of a problem that people aren't aware of their cars or driving enough to know what to do when the gas pedal is stuck.

I think this is the biggest problem. Pretty much the only emergency "training" people get is what to do if your tire blows.
 
You guys didn't get snow slide training? I mean, we talk about it at length, but it isn't as though it can be demonstrated in the middle of June during most drivers ed courses...
 
This is all kicking off over here, it's all over the papers with giant adverts trying to keep drivers calm. I've noticed a lot less Toyotas on the roads over the last 2 days too.

I can't believe the number of small city cars from other manufacturers that are being recalled over it! Ironically, my Fiat (After they gained the motto 'Fix It Again Tomorrow') is still driving around 100% fault free. :lol:
 
You guys didn't get snow slide training? I mean, we talk about it at length, but it isn't as though it can be demonstrated in the middle of June during most drivers ed courses...

Surprisingly no. In fact even the blown tire thing only gets a brief mention.
 
Near my house there are some roadworks going on and they've had to dig a huge hole to get access to some pipes underground, someone has stuck a big board up infront of the barriers with 'Toyota brake assistance lane' written on it :lol:
 
My solution for the people that get floor mat problem while driving.. stick out your arm, grab the floor mat, move it out of the way..
 
schumachers10021.jpg

Yes, ultimately irrelevant to the topic at hand.

I wasn't aware that your sense of humour had been recalled too... ;)

This is all kicking off over here, it's all over the papers with giant adverts trying to keep drivers calm. I've noticed a lot less Toyotas on the roads over the last 2 days too.

I've not noticed a difference, though I can't say I notice Toyotas much in the first place. There's been a fair few Priuses going about still though. The fuss being made over it is a joke though.
 
Recalled? HFS, I've never had the same sense of humor everyone else does. You should know this by now. X3
 
Near my house there are some roadworks going on and they've had to dig a huge hole to get access to some pipes underground, someone has stuck a big board up infront of the barriers with 'Toyota brake assistance lane' written on it :lol:

Actually, it says 'Toyota Escape Lane'.
 
Toyota is rolling out the damage control/apology commercials. It's basically 30 seconds of them trying to twist the whole thing as much as possible.


"We stopped production to focus on our customers":lol:
 
Yep, saw those earlier. It boils down to "Yeah we didn't live up to your expectations this time as Toyota but we're fixing it, okay?"

I saw on the news that employees at the plants that suspended production had to take unpaid leave or use their vacation days.
 
Toyota is rolling out the damage control/apology commercials. It's basically 30 seconds of them trying to twist the whole thing as much as possible.


"We stopped production to focus on our customers":lol:
They forgot to add, "because the government said we had to."
 
But you have to wonder: are people just taking cheap shots at Toyota now that they're down or is this just the result of covered-up problems from years past finally getting exposed?

Probably a bit of both. People love a good moan, but there probably are a few problems with the cars too.
 
I saw a Prius stopped outside a shop earlier.

See? Miracles do happen.

Well considering that the Prius has trouble moving under its own power anyway, stopping a Prius isn't exactly a huge feat. He must have been stuck on a drainage ditch or something.
 
Hey, a 1.5 liter Prius has the exact same acceleration as a 2 liter compact. So you're calling my car slow... :lol: ...no, wait, I've got a manual.

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It's a bit of this and a bit of that. Toyota has, from all evidence, been sitting on its thumbs over this problem for at least a year or two or at most since 2003.... if it's the former, it's bad enough... if it's the latter, then Toyota is in a big heap o' trouble.

They're not going to disappear... but I wouldn't be surprised if sales and stocks took a beating.
 
... but I wouldn't be surprised if sales and stocks took a beating.

Honestly, right now, I'd be buying up all the Toyota stock I could and holding on to it until they eventually rebounded. I wonder if people think the same way I do... *rushes off to check stock market*
 
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