doopstr

He's one lucky mo-fo. to the cop. I want to know if the cop told him to put it in neutral as there have been complaints that these cars won't go into neutral. One would think that is BS but who knows?

Majofo

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CocheseUGA

:ibdrivererror:

Majofo

the guy seems legit to me.. or he's a smart ass trying to get out of a ticket, but if that's the case, he should have received an oscar.

elessar

Who knew a Prius could do 90?

Yeah, I don't think you call the cops on your cell phone if you're trying to avoid a speeding ticket.

Majofo

Most prius driver's I've encountered think they're Mario Andretti.. & senility knows no bounds.

biker

+1. Where are the various tests in which it is shown that for most cars the engine will never overpower the brakes.

Sal's Type S

iTrader: (1)

Just by chance could all these problems be caused by throttle body icing up and getting stuck in W.O.T. So after an incident when every thing is checked out you wont wind nothing at all since the ice melted by then..... Maybe they should change the adaptive learn strategies on the throttle curves.

Colin

Or that it could accelerate suddenly?

doopstr

I can't tell from the video but people are claiming that guy is wearing a Corvette Owners of America jacket. Can any tell if that's true or can you post a still pic that shows it?

I've also read a story saying he was afraid to put the car in neutral. This would be completely amazing to me if this is B.S.

Speed_Racer

You must not have been to southern California yet. I've never seen so many speeding Pruis's each time I've gone down there. Up north it's the opposite. They'll be the ones going 55 in the passing lane.

TSX69

Woman Crashes Her Lexus into a House

HORSESHOE BAY, Texas (KXAN) - A woman crashed her 2002 Lexus SC into the side of her Horseshoe Bay home Monday.

Marilyn Butler said she was pulling into her garage when her accelerator allegedly malfunctioned causing her to crash the car through her dining room window.

Butler was not injured and said she has never had any problems with her car before.

She immediately checked Toyota's Web site to see if her car was among the millions of automobiles being recalled for faulty accelerator designs. Butler's Lexus was not covered under the recall.

The car had to be lifted out with a crane Tuesday morning.

A blue tarp is draped over the front of Butler's home to shield the broken windows.

Butler did not mention how much repairs would cost. No one was inside the home during the crash, only the family dog, who was not injured.

biker

^ We will have stories like this for years. Actually, I'm sure we've had plenty before - it's just that they never made the news before.

It can't be long before someone NOT in a Toyota tries to use the "Toyota defence".

F23A4

F23A4

Usually that requires being rearended by a faster vehicle; the latter being defined as pretty much any non-Prius.

elessar

Hmmm... I think you must be right, it's a geographic thing. Because yeah, I've never been to Southen Cal and F23A4 (from NJ) seems to agree with me about Priuses (Prii?) being slow as balls:

The question is, where is Majofo from?

Anywhere on the West Coast would pretty much prove the theory.

Majofo

I live in Central Texas.. Austin to be exact, it's the little blue spot in a sea of red and the prius capital of Texas. You ever see a Ford F350 race a Prius?.. it's ridiculous here sometimes.

elessar

Wow. Ok, so I guess they're just slow in the Northeast?

subinf

Up north meaning Oregon? Prius drivers up here are easily among those exceeding the speed limit. Hell, even around town they are quick off the line.

doopstr

Why check after it's too late?

Costco

I have yet to see any of those Prius driving Schumacher wannabes

Most drive around speed limit which is fine..... then occasionally there's a tool in the left lane going 60 or less. But I guess that goes for almost every car

subinf

Has Nick Hogan spoken about a possible Toyota malfunction?

CocheseUGA

Not sure if this has been posted yet:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/10/toy...ex.html?hpt=T2

Legend2TL

Really surprised Toyota would let their top defnce attorney leave with all those documents when he quit.

F23A4

Sounds like Princeton, NJ is your town's sister city.

Majofo

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biker

^ this is starting to veer away from this recall issue and to a general "get them while they're down". If you look in most business's books you will likely find stuff like this - that's the cost of doing business. All of these non stories are only making the news because of the recall - and, at the end of the day, lawyers.

Majofo

black label

That's one way to look at it. Another would be that the unintended acceleration issue is the tip of the iceberg. Now that we have seen the tip, we are diving down to see how big the problem is.

There is a difference between the cost of doing business and sweeping things under the carpet to stay in business. When a business or a person is involved in shady or illegal business practices, there are usually many issues that go unnoticed until a big issue comes up. Once that big issue becomes known and investigators start diving in to the situation they typically bring up all those prior issues that had gone unnoticed, at which point we the public say, "how could this have gone on for so long with out being noticed?" .

Had the unintended acceleration issue not come up (or just didn't exist) cases like Pennie Green's (roof not supporting the weight of the car) would never have been part of the general publics knowledge.

Now that the acceleration issue is out, people will start looking into other issues Toyota has had to see if a trend of ignoring/hiding/denying safety issues can be established.

If it turns out that Toyota pays off most of their liability cases to keep them from going through the court system, then it would show a trend that they do not think they could defend themselves legally and win. If they had no safety issues and could easily win the liability cases against them, why would they settle out of court?

I'm not damning them or defending them. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will try to blame driver error on the manufacturer (I don't buy the story from the lady who crashed her Lexus through her house in TX, not for a second) but there are also legitimate safety issues here like the CHP officer and his family and the most recent Prius on the highway issue.

biker

Because 70% of the cases are settled out of court. Even if they know or think they can win in court they rather not take their chances in front of a jury where the outcome is not sure. The settlement figure is a sure thing and the $1.5M figure in that rollover case is probably the going rate.

I'm sure every big company has bean counters that already know what some defect would cost them in settlements vs. actually fixing the defect.

CL6

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/op...=1&ref=opinion

THE Obama administration has said that it may require automakers to install “smart pedals” on all new cars. This kind of system — already used in BMWs, Chryslers, Volkswagens and some of the newest Toyotas — deactivates the car’s accelerator when the brake pedal is pressed so that the car can stop safely even if its throttle sticks open.

But based on my experience in the 1980s helping investigate unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000, I suspect that smart pedals cannot solve the problem. The trouble, unbelievable as it may seem, is that sudden acceleration is very often caused by drivers who press the gas pedal when they intend to press the brake.

subinf

Pretty much, although I'm sure strategy has changed quite a bit since the S.Cts ruling on punitive damages.

biker

The problem is that even with brake override systems people will do that and blame it on unintended accelaration. This is why they also need black boxes to record the position of brake and gas pedals.

black label

It's taken days for this to occur to me, but how many of you are familiar with the shift mechanism in a Prius? It looks more like a joystick from an 80's era arcade game. It certainly doesn't appear that there is any mechanical linkage to go from drive to neutral or reverse. IIRC, it also has a button (above the shift mechanisn) you push to put it in park.

My point of saying all this is that putting a Prius into neutral isn't quite as simple as doing it on a 71 pontiac with a TH350. The first time I drove one it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to put it in park

elessar

Lots of speculation here:

http://jalopnik.com/5491101/did-bank...yline=true&s=i

Colin

I'm going to take the extreme "devils advocate" position here. If you don't know how to use your machine, is it the machine's fault? If you don't know enough not to let your floor mats get tangled up with the pedals, is it the car's fault? If I buy hot coffee at McDonalds can I not expect it to be HOT? If I shoot an arrow at a target and miss, is it the targets fault?

Majofo

Scratch that story.. Decent actor though.. Maybe he can get in contact with the Heene family.

biker

So, first we have the "Toyota defense" - how long before we have "suicide by Toyota"?

CL6

The guy in the Prius looks like he's had some financial issues in the past... whether he did his stunt on purpose of not I think it's user error.

doopstr

It's starting to look like he may be a BS artist.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toy...fumento_2.html