It's really hard to believe what a lot of noise the media are making over this bit with the Toyota gas pedal thing.

My gawd! What is it? About 100 or so Toyotas out of about 2,500,000 over the past five years or so that have had a stuck pedal? People who have driven their Camry for years are now supposedly panicking?

Great for Toyota dealers mechanics, I suppose - -

Lucky for Land Rover back on '06 when they were quietly recalling the early LR3s and RRSs for the leaking fuel tanks!

I wouldn't be surprised if the competition (Ford, GM, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, etc..) are putting the media up to keeping this alive.

I wonder how many cars (percentage wise) of any other manufacturers have had stuck pedals - for whatever reason....

I agree it's something that ought to be fixed - but lets get real CNN!

Funny how it coincides with Japan's cash for clunkers program and how they are limiting the amount of American-made cars eligible for incentives.
US Backlash maybe?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... DX2ldQCy-Q

If you have ever been to Japan you will see that their driving environment is extremely different than here.

First: 99.99% of driving in Japan is urban. Highway fuel economy is almost non-existent as even on what one might call a highway over there you cannot get up to much over twenty miles an hour due to traffic.

Second: There are two kinds of license plates over there; yellow for vehicles with engine displacements of less than 1 liter and white for over 1 liter.... As you might imagine most cars are less than 1 liter.

Three: Car owners are required to have engines replaced once they reach 30,000 miles. Rather than rebuild their cars; most are sold out of the country (to China, Australia, etc...). So there are really not mabny so-called clunkers to begin with.

Four: The vast majority of Japanese car owners never drive to work - They travel by train. Most cars are only driven on weekends - "Recreational driving"

So as you can see, the few American cars that exist in Japan are pretty much collector items as they just don't work in the Japanese environment - American cars don't fit on Japanese roads; they don't fit in parking places or garages, their huge engines require them to be taxed at higher rates than those little one liter Japanese models.

Most of the Toyotas built and sold in the US are not even available in Japan.

I just thought it was funny about how Obama said in his SOTU address that he wanted to make better trade agreements with Asian markets.

The next day GM said if you traded in a Toyota product on a new GM you'd get free financing or $1,000 cash back.

Good job Government Motors.

Check out a chart for the Ford stock for the previous year.

Although Toyota is posting a $1.7 billion dollar profit, they stand to loose right around $2 billion dollars on this multi-million car repair. Combine their sales freeze on these models with new problems with the Prius' brakes and sudden acceleration in cruise control mode, their stock is already down 22%. BIG BUCKS. When that CHP officer and his family died in their Lexus due to a stuck gas pedal and Toyota's slow and stupid response to it by blaming the floor mats (???) is what brought this thing to the forefront. I know it's hard to believe he was with the CHP because he obviously didn't think to put the transmission in neutral. I guess everyone in the car panicked. Transportation Secretary LaHood added to the frenzy by making his not-so-bright statement as well.

No, I don't think the media is over-reacting in this situation this time. They're doing a stellar job of keeping the public informed of both the problems and Toyota's response to same. It will be interesting to see who gains from Toyota's woes and how Toyota repairs its reputation for reliability.

<cough>Government Motors<cough>


Ford will too, but at least Ford isn't owned by the government.

Speaking of taxes bailing out GM, where's my Corvette? Did y'all get yours yet?

I had the same thoughts. Kind of weird that they make such an enourmous deal out of it. It is good that they informed the public and they did a great job spreading the word fast, but the slander, and the "don't drive your cars!" is a bit over the top.

Remember before all the auto companies fell that Toyota out sold GM for the first time to be the biggest auto seller in the US. Trying to reverse it?

Edit: Check this out, haha
http://mediamatters.org/research/201002040039

I can't imagine being so unfamiliar with cars and so unprepared that a stuck gas pedal would cause that much of a problem. Push in clutch or bang neutral and/or turn the key off.
The media's job is to work people into a frenzy... and they do it well.

yup

funny part is they "stick" not lock. sticky pedal? please.... just put your toe under it and pull it back. or press the brake? its not that hard! I say we give these Toyota owners our trucks for a week and see if they complain then.

- and the people that think they feel a slight 'pause' when they press their Prius brakes ought to drive a Disco for a few miles.....

Well, if you turn the key off you then lose the ability to steer since. The problem with just turning the engine off (with many of these) is they use the stupid start/stop button to start and turn off the engine. You must press the button down for 3 seconds to get the engine to stop in these situations and people were panicking and just pushing the button repeatedly. Most people don't do well in panic situations.

I was chatting at the Toyota dealership yesterday (my power steering pump failed, 4Runner has the same problem rate as my Freelander so far). The dealership makes 50 bucks per gas pedal fix. Not that much. I don't know how much they make for the Prius or the Taco recalls.

LOL, found a new MO quote to use in my signature line... Classic!