Toyota Doubts Runaway Prius Story

I'd bet 100 to 1 odds that both of the recent Prius 'accidents', California and Westchester, were a hoax and driver error, respectively. This is exactly like the Audi scare of the 1980's....as soon as it became public knowledge, the reported incidents picked up enormously. And after months of anlaysis and inspections, they were all determined to be driver error, not a single mechanical fault was found.

Look at Car and Driver's investigation:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/how_to_deal_with_unintended_acceleration-tech_dept

and the statement from an Audi investigator in the 80's:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/opinion/11schmidt.html

The public's propensity toward irrational fears combined with the public's ignorance of how cars work and what is and is not possible has let this thing spiral out of control. Well that and Toyota's disastrous handling of it.

For example, the Prius recall cited above is for the 2010 Prius only and is completely unrelated to the brake override system - rather, it was a very specific issue related to the ABS and the switching of modes from regenerative to hydraulic braking.

The Prius that crashed in Westchester and the Prius in California were not 2010 models and were not affected by the recall. In any event, the issue covered by the recall would not have been relevant to either situation.

Unfortunately the media who report on this stuff don't know any more about how things work than the average joe, leading to this clusterfuck of misleading and erroneous coverage.

Not to say Toyota doesn't have a legitimate issue with many of their cars. Just that in my opinion, these 2 latest incidents are not caused by that issue but by pure driver error in the Westchester case and by general douchebaggery in the California case.

Toyota is getting to sound alot like the Tobacco CEOs back in the 1990's when they maintained that they never knew that Cigarette caused death and cancer.

You're asserting that Toyota has decades of research showing their products are defective, and is ignoring it?

Any evidence to back that up?

fair enough, but that's not what I meant.

I was getting at the general dishonesty and blame shifting of many large corporations that "get caught" and also based on Toyota's recent public apologies.

But I have to admit that I've not been really following the story except for reading the article in today’s NYT where the driver actually called 911 to say that he could not stop and a police car had to assists him at spends of 90 miles an hour.

Everyone wants a piece of Toyota. I do believe there is a problem with Toyota cars; but these fraudulent cases will cause a backlash. From Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/...

Among the 51 fatalities in Toyota vehicles, 36 were reported after Oct. 5 of last year, when widespread publicity of unintended acceleration in the company’s cars began.

Oh I see now. The pedal on the left side is the brake pedal, not the one on the right. I guess I should read the owners manual.

Post headline is inaccurate. The Toyota quote is just the standard talking point about the brake override system.

What prompted the story is that the police chief saw the data and has reversed his position. He now says there is a possibility that driver error was to blame (he had previously ruled it out).

The 2010 Prius recall is wholly unrelated to brake override.

So much for unbiased reporting.