...owner rammed a guard rail after the throttle stuck open, accelerating it to 109 MPH.

Statens vegvesen (the Norwegian Public Roads Administration/NPRA) says it’s considering imposing a temporary driving ban on the Toyota Prius.

“We can demand that the recalled models have to remain stationary until they have been checked, if we consider the incident on the E18 to be serious enough,” he says.

Investigators, however, did say that a system on Sikes' car that enables braking to overcome acceleration when the gas and brake pedals are applied simultaneously worked properly in follow-up tests.

Police said the brakes were smoking when the officer who helped Sikes stop the car caught up to him on the freeway.

"There was very little left of the car's brakes," NHTSA said, adding that the inside front brake pads "were completely gone." The outboard pads were worn and the rotors were also damaged..

The Wall Street Journal [sub] [via Jalopnik] reports that, despite her traumatic and inexplicable experience, Ms Smith sold her dangerous, out-of-control ES350 to another family, which has since put 27,000 trouble-free miles on the vehicle (according to just-auto [sub], Toyota has since taken possession of the vehicle). Which means she either lied under oath, or displayed a disregard for the safety of others that puts Toyota’s missteps into stunning context. Or both. In any case, her behavior adds to our growing suspicion that the vacuous, disingenuous, and self-serving congressional hearings have been the best thing to happen to Toyota PR since the recalls began. Shame on you, Rhonda Smith, shame on you.

Ms Smith sold her dangerous, out-of-control ES350 to another family, which has since put 27,000 trouble-free miles on the vehicle

But Toyota has told federal auto safety regulators it doesn't think the problem "an unreasonable risk" to safety

So far, the Corolla problem in 2005 to 2007 models is not -- repeat, not -- at the recall stage yet.

The stalling can happen at bad times, such as when drivers are trying to merge onto highways.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- On the surface, Toyota would seem to be surviving its sudden acceleration crisis in remarkably good shape.

Thanks to one of the most aggressive campaigns of cut-rate financing and cash incentives in its history, the Japanese automaker's sales declined only slightly in February, and early signs point to another strong performance in March.

Better still, the sales-lot promotions haven't cut into the value of Toyota used cars. Kelley Blue Book reported Monday that the average year-over-year change in 36-month residual values for Toyotas is expected to rise 4.2 percentage points in May-June. That's a bit less than the industry average of 6.2 percentage points, but healthy nonetheless.

But according to a confidential market research study reviewed by Fortune, the recalls have battered Toyota's reputation in every measurable category, including brand consideration -- an essential step in the decision process that leads to buying a car.

First the good news: Auto sales are performing strongly in March, and according to DB Equity Research, Toyota is enjoying a dramatic rebound. It estimates Toyota is commanding a retail market share rate of 20%, vs. 14.8% in February and 17.4% in January. Retail market share is an important measure of customer demand because it only counts cars sold to individuals, not fleet sales to rental car companies and others.

More good news can be found in Toyota's sales of certified used cars, those previously-owned vehicles that have been inspected and warranteed by the dealer. According to Automotive News, Toyota's certified sales declined only 7.2% in February, in what was generally a weak month for the industry. Even at that, it handily led other automakers, beating second-place Honda and number three Chevrolet.

While some competitors worry that Toyota's generous new-car incentives may be forcing a price war, others are less concerned. They figure that the new deals are merely attracting people who already own Toyotas and giving them an incentive to replace those cars now, rather than in a few months. The phenomenon is known as the "pull-ahead effect" and it isn't a positive one.

Research conducted by Hall and Partners USA supports that theory. The market researcher surveyed consumers who are considering buying a new car in the next two years and who would consider an import.

The survey discovered that awareness of the Toyota recalls was high at 89%, and its impact on the number of people who would consider buying a Toyota was substantial. Slightly more than half of those who were aware of the recalls said they are either "much less likely" or "somewhat less likely" to consider buying a Toyota in the future.

Results went downhill from there. According to Hall and Partners, Toyota's brand consideration fell to 49% in February from 75% in January. That dropped Toyota below Nissan's 54% and left it at parity with Ford, which scored 49%, and Chevy, which came in at 46%. That's unusual territory for Toyota, which generally far surpasses the domestics in brand consideration.

Toyota also lost ground in February in other measures including relevance, involvement, and opinion.

What it all comes down to is a loss of reputation. Toyota has spent years investing in its good name, not only in the quality of its cars and trucks but also in its personnel practices, corporate citizenship, and charitable contributions.

It is now becoming clear that more drastic methods than those yet announced are needed to stop the slide.

President Akio Toyoda said last week that the automaker still insists on making recall decisions from Japan for the American market. That philosophy, which slows decision time and keeps decision-makers far from the facts, is part of what got Toyota in trouble in the first place.

One person close to the company sums up Toyoda's affirmation, describing Toyota's philosophy for international operations as "colonization," not "globalization."

Until Toyota changes, it faces the danger of becoming just another auto company, forced, like others, to sell the deal instead of the car.

Which is exactly what it is doing now.

Anatomy of Toyota's Problem Pedal: Mechanic's Diary


What's the real problem behind Toyota's unintended acceleration? Is it simply a sticky pedal, or is the trouble more fundamental? PM senior automotive editor Mike Allen delves into modern car tech, explaining why widespread theories about electrical throttle problems and electromagnetic interference are misguided. ....

A sudden-acceleration angle the media aren't covering

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

This is from Ted Frank, a veteran attorney who's been involved in class-action litigation involving product defects, writing in the Washington Examiner:

The Los Angeles Times recently did a story detailing the NHTSA reports of Toyota "sudden acceleration" fatalities, and, though the Times did not mention it, the ages of the drivers involved were striking.

In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89 -- and I'm leaving out the son whose age wasn't identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.

These "electronic defects" apparently discriminate against the elderly, just as the sudden acceleration of Audis and GM autos did before them.

This is part of Megan McCardle's follow-up piece on the same L.A. Times' reporting on the 24 Toyota fatalities from her excellent Atlantic.com blog:

In many of the other cases, we don't really know what happened, because there were no witnesses of exactly when the car started to run away.


Here's what else you notice: a slight majority of the incidents involved someone either parking, pulling out of a parking space, in stop and go traffic, at a light or stop sign . . . in other words, probably starting up from a complete stop.

In fact, it's a little hard to be sure that some of the cases were sudden acceleration incidents, because the witnesses to what happened in the car were all killed; the family is trying to reconstruct what happened from their knowledge of the deceased. Obviously, most people are going to err on the side of believing that the car was at fault, rather than a beloved relative.

Further complicating matters, most of the cases involve either a lawsuit against Toyota, a complainant facing possible criminal charges, or both.

In some of the cases, the police or doctors have an alternate theory of what happened: one of the SAIs was bipolar, which puts you at extraordinarily high risk of suicide, and no one knows what actually happened in the car. At least two others involve young men who were driving at very high speed, which is something that young men tend to do with or without a sticky accelerator. Several more of the drivers seem to have had a medical situation, like a stroke, to which doctors and/or police attribute the acceleration. ...

... when you look at these incidents all together, it's pretty clear why Toyota didn't investigate this "overwhelming evidence" of a problem: they look a lot like typical cases of driver error. I don't know that all of them are. But I do know that however advanced Toyota's electronics are, they're not yet clever enough to be able to pick on senior citizens.

I'm not saying I agree with McCardle's sweeping conclusion. I'm saying this is interesting stuff that should be part of the coverage.

Standard & Poor’s will decide by the middle of next month whether to reduce or affirm its credit ratings on Toyota, Chizuko Satsukawa, a Tokyo-based analyst for the ratings company, said in a phone interview. S&P put the automaker’s “AA” debt rating put under review in February with “negative” implications, citing concerns over quality-related issues.

Sluggish demand, overcapacity, the need to provide incentives beyond normal levels to boost sales and “a real risk that its product quality problems have eroded significantly and permanently its historical advantages in pricing power,” could all negatively affect Toyota’s profitability, Moody’s Usui wrote.

The carmaker in March started offering no-interest loans, discount leases and free maintenance for U.S. customers......

Stewart was killed Sept. 15, 2007, while driving friends home in his 1991 Toyota pickup near Fairfield, Idaho