Toyota stops sales of 8 models of cars

[chopped]

Can't someone plug the do-hicky thing in and pull a code?

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Can't someone plug the do-hicky thing in and pull a code?

there is the problem,  all stuff electronic that goes haywire does not set a code.  And if there is a hard or soft code set , it does not necessarily point directly to the problem.

A common misunderstanding in the automotive field when folks try to monday quarter back problems.

In the late 1990's - up Ford trucks...  installing LED light bulbs in the tail lights....  can cause a "no converter clutch lockup" in the transmission.  There is no code that tells the tech the  LED bulbs are confusing the truck computer to think the brakes are applied  = so the converter clutch lockup is cancelled

[tomslik]

Can't someone plug the do-hicky thing in and pull a code?

there is the problem,  all stuff electronic that goes haywire does not set a code.  And if there is a hard or soft code set , it does not necessarily point directly to the problem.

A common misunderstanding in the automotive field when folks try to monday quarter back problems.

In the late 1990's - up Ford trucks...  installing LED light bulbs in the tail lights....  can cause a "no converter clutch lockup" in the transmission.  There is no code that tells the tech the  LED bulbs are confusing the truck computer to think the brakes are applied  = so the converter clutch lockup is cancelled

hadn't heard of THAT one!
but you're right, there's NO do-hicky made that'll tell you whats wrong, only point you in a direction (and THAT may not be the right direction)
even a data stream can be wrong..



btw, the gal with the lexus that "supposedly" used her e-brake and didn't slow the car down is/was full of *.
reason i say "was" was, well, have YOU ever done it on a moving car?
bootlegger turn comes to mind and are great fun if done right, not fun if done wrong;)



oh yeah, and another thing, i wouldn't hang carps out to dry but if he's got any insite, i'd love to hear it.
dead customers are not return customers....

[GPster]

I was more impressed with the tears of the Olimpic skater whose mothe just died the the tears of the Lexus owner. That 6 minutes all seemed to come off the script she was reading that was probably wriiten by a lawyer. I would say that the Toyota grandson had enough trouble trying to answer questions to people in his not native language despite all the news people commenting on how much better he should have said something. It seems that everyone from Michigan was running for re-election so they made sure the were photograghed finding fault. GPster

[Carnut]

It's really hard for a company president to say there's nothing wrong with the cars, it's the customers.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Can't someone plug the do-hicky thing in and pull a code?

there is the problem,  all stuff electronic that goes haywire does not set a code.  And if there is a hard or soft code set , it does not necessarily point directly to the problem.

A common misunderstanding in the automotive field when folks try to monday quarter back problems.

In the late 1990's - up Ford trucks...  installing LED light bulbs in the tail lights....  can cause a "no converter clutch lockup" in the transmission.  There is no code that tells the tech the  LED bulbs are confusing the truck computer to think the brakes are applied  = so the converter clutch lockup is cancelled

hadn't heard of THAT one!
but you're right, there's NO do-hicky made that'll tell you whats wrong, only point you in a direction (and THAT may not be the right direction)
even a data stream can be wrong..

I do not remember eggzackly ..  Ford uses a goofy system in the wires and checks for resistance in the light system.  LED bulbs do not provide enough resistance, so the system "thinks' the brakes are applied and cancels converter lock up

btw, the gal with the lexus that "supposedly" used her e-brake and didn't slow the car down is/was full of *.

reason i say "was" was, well, have YOU ever done it on a moving car?
bootlegger turn comes to mind and are great fun if done right, not fun if done wrong

yes... in 1981 VW  Rabbit diesel powered... radar detector went off and for some reason I grabbed the parking brake up near Williams AZ.  I spun off the freeway backwards in front of a DPS officer.  No citation issued

[Okiedokie]

Not swure who this guy is, but I think he is spot on.

The Toyota recall story you haven't heard
Dr. David Eifrig
In case you haven't heard, Toyota is in trouble with the Feds. But not because of anything it did or didn't do.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is demanding the president of the company sit under its klieg lights and explain himself. Committee leaders are going to bully him with the threat of legal action until he shows up.

Politicians know they can get a lot of free press by stoking the popular perception that Toyota somehow knew the gas pedals were "dangerous," but installed them anyway, violating U.S. laws and regulations.

This is utter nonsense, though you can be sure the U.S. automakers are doing everything to encourage this hysteria.

When I heard the news about the gas pedals getting stuck and causing fatal crashes, I had to think about the probability these accidents resulted from the use of an ill-designed component.

Consider the numbers: 34 people died in accidents blamed on the pedals. That's a pretty small number, but maybe enough to raise some concerns... until you realize that's the total number of fatalities since 2000.

Toyota has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles in the U.S. Assume the owners drive those vehicles 10,000 miles a year (12,000 is probably more accurate, but 10,000 is a conservative estimate... and a factor of 10 makes the math simpler). That means Toyotas are logging more than 85 billion miles a year in the U.S. - 850 billion miles during the last 10 years.

So divide 34 deaths into 850 billion miles, and the odds of a Toyota owner having one of these accidents is one in 2.5 million... That's a random event.

If Toyota were using faulty equipment, we would have seen thousands more accidents and deaths.

You're more likely to get killed by lightning: 60 people died from lightning in the U.S. just last year. Heck, I'm more likely to get a hole-in-one on the golf course. The odds of that are only 5,000 to 1.

But statistics aside, just apply a little common sense to the question. The allegedly defective accelerator part is made in Canada by Indiana-based CTS Corp. Many makes and models use this same part. For example, the Pontiac Vibe uses it. Ford sells a van in China with the component.

Why aren't we hearing about those cars? None of the drivers with American cars that use identical parts ever experienced a stuck accelerator? It just makes no sense.

But never mind... The demagogues know a vote-getter when they see one. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told people to stop driving Toyotas... and then retracted it saying it was "obviously a misstatement."

I'm confident those parts are safe. Still, if you drive a recalled Toyota, you should take it in to get the pedal replaced. Ignoring the recall could void your warranty.

And look for Toyota stock to be one of the great buys of the decade, too...

[Okiedokie]

One more comment and I am done. This was sent to me from a friend whom I sent the article to. He is much brighter than I and can articulate the thought better. He was not aware of my prvious post on this, or even my thoughts on it. Joe

"When you factor in how bad the UAW wants a foothold in Toyota assembly plants and how deeply interwoven the democatic party and the union are it becomes pretty clear whats really going on.  Last year non-union Toyota employees in Kentucky were, on average, paid more than the average UAW employee working for other car companies."

[unklian]

So divide 34 deaths into 850 billion miles, and the odds of a Toyota owner having one of these accidents is one in 2.5 million... That's a random event.

If we pick another popular car at random, let's say Chevy Lumina or S10,
how many people died per billion miles due to control failures ?  How many nonfatal accidents occurred ? What is the industry average ?


With some stuff, it's not the odds, it's the stakes.

1 in 2.5 million might sound acceptable to some,
but maybe not to the friends and families of that one.

[Carnut]

Humm, a guy wearing a Corvette Owners Association of America jacket driving a Prius with a stuck throttle?

[GMRodder]

In the 70's Datsun had to close down and restart as Nissan just because their cars would rust out in couple of years, brakes would rust thru many died.  Honda in the 80's had to pay millions on fines because they didn't do recalls.  Mazda had to pay out millions because they didn't honor their warranties on rotary engines.  The 90's Toyota refuse to honor recalls.  Today Toyota has bad brakes and accelerators that keep engaged and not letting you shift in to neutral.

Yep I am certainly going to buy the best cars in the world Japanese cars!!(Not!!!)

At least when the Corvair engine fell out you could still stop the car.  More people have  been killed in the latest Toyota brake and accelerator problems than all the Chev and Ford problems.  That is why congress is grilling Toyota.

When is the general public going to get their heads out of their butts and see how bad Japanese cars are!!

Now I have said too much and back to being low profile.

[enjenjo]

In the 70's Datsun had to close down and restart as Nissan just because their cars would rust out in couple of years, brakes would rust thru many died.  Honda in the 80's had to pay millions on fines because they didn't do recalls.  Mazda had to pay out millions because they didn't honor their warranties on rotary engines.  The 90's Toyota refuse to honor recalls.  Today Toyota has bad brakes and accelerators that keep engaged and not letting you shift in to neutral.

Yep I am certainly going to buy the best cars in the world Japanese cars!!(Not!!!)

At least when the Corvair engine fell out you could still stop the car.  More people have  been killed in the latest Toyota brake and accelerator problems than all the Chev and Ford problems.  That is why congress is grilling Toyota.

When is the general public going to get their heads out of their butts and see how bad Japanese cars are!!

Now I have said too much and back to being low profile.

Believe what you want. The only one of those I have heard of, was the nissan name change, which happened in 1985, and had been preplanned for many years, because the US was the only place in the world that Nissan's cars were sold as Datsuns by then.

Yes, Japanese cars had a rust problem in the 70s, but not near as bad as GM with the Vega, Ford with the Pinto, or Dodge with the Dart. Plus in the GM case, the engine went bad even before the body rusted out prematurely.

In this day and age, I think I would rather buy a new "Japanese" car made in Ohio, Indiana, Tennesee, South Carolina, or another US state, than an "American" car built in another country.

[Fat Cat]

There are quite a few rational concepts in this article http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/09/opinion/la-oe-fumento9-2010mar09

The one question I brought out of that article though was Toyota was listed as the manufacturer was listed as number 2 in complaints against them. Who was number 1?

[GMRodder]

Wow I just don't believe how anyone can cut down American cars over Japanese.  American cars have had safety features for years that Japanese are now implementing only because of public pressure.  Honda and Toyota have more deaths per vehicle than Ford and GM.  Not to mention major injuries but people think the Japanese tin cans save money on gas because they are built better.  This is absolutely wrong they save gas because they have less mass, built lighter and cannot absorb collisions as well.  So believe as you want driving with your family in that death trap.

Now I'm outta here, I can't stand people with narrow visions and won't listen to the correct reasoning.  Buy your Japanese crap and watch your family and friends die!!

[enjenjo]

Wow I just don't believe how anyone can cut down American cars over Japanese.  American cars have had safety features for years that Japanese are now implementing only because of public pressure.  Honda and Toyota have more deaths per vehicle than Ford and GM.  Not to mention major injuries but people think the Japanese tin cans save money on gas because they are built better.  This is absolutely wrong they save gas because they have less mass, built lighter and cannot absorb collisions as well.  So believe as you want driving with your family in that death trap.

Now I'm outta here, I can't stand people with narrow visions and won't listen to the correct reasoning.  Buy your Japanese crap and watch your family and friends die!!

I don't own a Japanese car, never have. For the most part the cars I drove have been GM. I have driven a couple Volkswagons, and a few Fords.

I can't stand people with narrow visions and won't listen to the correct reasoning.  Buy your Japanese crap and watch your family and friends die!!

Wouldn't this be considered a "narrow" opinion?