Making excuses for Toyota? Certainly not. I’ve stated on more than one occasion that Toyota has a problem that it should have figured out already. I’m just not naive enough to think that the problem of UA will go away once Toyota solves its current problem. Seriously, wake the fuck up. Toyota is not the only car company with UA complaints. I don’t want some idiot slamming into my car on the highway at 120 mph because they couldn’t think or figure out how to shift into neutral.

The cars are only exhibiting “potentially fatal” behavior if the person operating them is a total moron. Personally, I don’t think morons should be allowed to operate vehicles on public roads.

I’m also not hoping for the downfall of Toyota. I just want to make sure they get their fair share of shit for creating garbage and telling us it’s a diamond. For ignoring their own workers who warned them of falling quality standards. For KNOWING about these defects and effectively suppressing all data that would implicate them. For SIX YEARS! They used to be an incredible car maker. Now they’re not. (the most reliable car I’ve ever owned was a 1995 Tercel) Critical thinking? Hardly. More like wishful thinking and ignoring what’s right in front of your face.

Pretty much the only part of that argument that I agree with is the better part of the last paragraph. Better driver training is needed for North American drivers on the whole, regardless of these issues from Toyota.

You think I’m a lemming because I’m analyzing the situation rationally. That’s interesting. I know there’s something wrong with Toyota’s cars that they’ve failed to fix thus far, and that’s a major problem. However, UA is not a life-or-death situation if the driver is even moderately prepared to operate a vehicle (the function of the neutral position should be basic driver knowledge). People are calling Toyota’s cars “death traps” when they simply aren’t.

It never ceases to amaze me how rigid people’s thinking can be. Something is either A or B. If it is not A, then it is B. Critical thinking is apparently a skill that most people are no longer taught in school. I’m not shouting for the downfall of Toyota so therefore I must be a lemming. Sorry, but that’s just not the way people of higher intelligence think.

You can keep blaming Toyota for the deaths, and people can keep dying while Toyota tries to figure out what is causing the problem, and people can keep dying in other vehicles with the same problem, or we can accept that this is a problem that can be dealt with by improving driver training so that fewer deaths will occur in the future regardless of which brand vehicle is exhibiting it. Personally, I think some people would rather see an increasing death toll in Toyota vehicles just to tarnish Toyota’s image, and that would be quite despicable if true.

In Norway? Isn’t that one of those countries where they make you learn to drive a car before they let you drive a car?

I suggest blending your hat into a smoothie, to make it easier to ingest.

But, and I’m repeating myself here, that does NOT excuse Toyota of anything. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll say that those 54 deaths were CAUSED by Toyota, and not PREVENTED by the drivers.

“This is exciting news, but there are still far too many people dying in traffic accidents.”

“Although the final data is not in, the projected death count for 2009 is 33,963″

33,963 deaths in one year, that’s outstanding.

Other significant sentences which seem worth noting:

“The NHTSA report does attribute some of the gains to increased public campaigning for seat belt use, ads against drunk driving, safer roads through better engineering and drivers simply driving less. The reduction in driving is likely a result of the poor economy and higher fuel prices, but that does explain the lower deaths per mile figure, which is likely a better indicator of actual safety than any other figure.

The report does acknowledge safer vehicles, but falls short of highlighting the significant advancement in safety technology by many manufacturers, with more five star crash tested vehicles on the road than ever before. Safety advancements are particularly common in high-end and luxury vehicles, which boast more airbags, more sophisticated restraint systems and more application of higher strength steel, on average, than entry-level vehicles.”

(I think that should say “doesn’t explain the lower deaths per mile figure”.)

Except the Firestone problem was preventable by simply maintaining proper tire pressure. Sure, Ford recommended something like 20 psi but it should be easy to tell that such a number is severely underinflated.

Mark, you said something about them not mentioning using full force to brake the car, but I laughed as I noticed in the video they showed two feet being used on the brake pedal. They didn’t outright say it, but they definitely demonstrated it.

Spingood, I agree with you exactly. These cars shouldn’t be having such issues, but the real problem is people act like complete morons when a relatively common problem (and I’m not just talking about Toyota) occurs in their car. Licensing does the bare minimum when it comes to preparing people to operate a vehicle. All the DMV cares about is that you pay your registration fees.

I continually point out the ignorance of drivers that fail to deal properly with the case of UA and I’m told that the car shouldn’t be doing that in the first place. Well it shouldn’t. but shit happens, and shit will continue to happen, so the important thing is that people know what to do since Toyota seems unable to figure out what the hell their problem is. In the meantime, the least they can do is inform their customers of what to do in the small chance that it actually happens in their car. At least then people will be able to operate their vehicles safely whether there is a defect or not.

And I also keep hearing the “panic” argument, but I fail to see how a panicked person can operate a cell phone but not a shift lever or a button.

The driver claims he was afraid to move the lever (he was, after all, going maybe 20 mph over the usual traffic speed on that freeway) but he had no trouble making a 911 call from his hand-held cell phone while presumably driving one-handed.

There are plenty of reasons to pile on Toyota, but this bizarro incident isn’t one of them.

I can’t believe people are still buying Toyota’s.

What happens if *you* brake and the *computer* is accelerating? The whole brake override fix only works if the pedal is entrapped by the mats or if the pedal is stuck.

Toyota may have quality issues and they have interior design issues that make their cars hard to deal with in emergencies (weird shift gates and bad labeling, I’m looking at you). However, drivers who are unskilled, inattentive, neurologically impaired or publicity-seeking don’t deserve any sympathy.

In time we will find out the condition of the brakes after they are inspected – lightly applying brakes over 30 miles would not have worn them out in the same manner as holding them down.

That Toyota so far could no recreate the incident shows how close they are to a final solution. Sure, there is a chance than less than 0.1% of their models out there have developed the problem, but if this glitch is aggravated by wear/age, most Toyota owners out there are riding death-traps.

So it was the computer all along!

“Um yes, we dont believe our cars ECU’s are to blame, but hey we made a video for everyone just in case the cars act up”, says Toyota.

In other words, the driver is a retard or is trying to shake down Toyota.