Toyota's runaway-car worries may not stop at floor mats

im just glad we all live to have these talks...in the kawi forum i am in, usually its all heresay as not many people walk away from those accidents...

 

top 5 songs to play when your throttle gets stuck

Turbo lover. AC/DC (see the moviemaximum overdrive)
Man Made. A flock of Seagulls
It's the end of the world. R.E.M.
I cant Drive (55). Sammy Haggar
Synchronicity II. The police (...packed like lemmings into shiney metal boxes, contestants in a suicidal race...)

 

Bummer.


Wish my taco would do 120.

 

Bingo!
Obviously, Toyota is probably sweating bullets trying to figure out the problem. The floor mat recall is probably just a precautionary thing because maybe they really don't know what the problem is.

Which makes me wonder - has anyone actually got a letter in the mail saying there's been a recall and to remove your floor mats?

 

is this a real recall, and if so, when was it issued?

 

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2007/10/recall-floor-ma.html

 

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/ca...call-safety-advisory-on-38-million-cars.html#

use both of the links..this and the previous...althogh this one is a link from the prior

 

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/10/toyota-lexus-floor-mat-recall-is-official.html

 

Read this on digg earlier today. Kinda scary if you think about it. Hopefully whoever is driving my truck be it me or my wife will be prepared if something like this were to happen.

 

i will sonstantly have neutral in my mind...good thing i drive a manual....not worried, but if it tdoes, it is not in my mind..i never noticed floor mat slippage

 

I was reading at the end of that article about the 2007 Camry that traveled 20 miles at 100mph before hitting and killing another motorist, and I think to myself wtf. The article states how the driver, Gomez, could not shut the car off, nor put the car in neutral. This sounds completely bogus to me.

After my girlfriend made me aware of this CHP officer and his family, we went over worst case scenario drills and of course when your throttle is stuck open, you simply turn the key off and put it in neutral. I can't say what the CHP did and didn't do, but what I do think is that there are huge holes in this story and the story of the 2007 Camry.

I don't know if I'm going to get a shit storm for this, but I did have three instances in my 2006 Tacoma of sudden acceleration. Luckily, all three instances were at stop lights, no A/C condenser kicking on, and nothing out of the ordinary. Foot fully applied to the brake (I brake and gas with my right foot, and it was on the brake not the accelerator), and suddenly it was like my throttle was wide open. I lurched a couple feet before I shifted to neutral and turned the key off, shutting down my engine. Toyota has no explanation to this other than driver error. Well I call bullshit to that.

Getting back on track, even with unintentional acceleration, getting a vehicle under control should be a simple process. Even if turning the car off required holding the start button for three seconds, that's what should be done (my instinct is to do that after shifting to neutral). And I don't like the argument that shifting into neutral in some of the autostick transmissions is confusing. Learn how to operate a vehicle before getting behind the wheel, plain and simple.

I sincerely do not mean to place any doubt on the CHP who lost his life and family, but things just do not add up for me.

 

my 4.0 sure did....

 

Welcome to Tacoworld cwrose, and well put post too.
I'm 90% sure Toyota has a real problem to isolate and fix, even if they are rare, I'm also sure we as drivers can most likely negate the problem to a mere curious incident by knowing our options of neutral, ignition on/off, brakes, and such.

 

I'm glad I drive a 6spd...just pop the gear into neutral,

 

Media is STUPID.. and I always wonder when I read these types of stories. So if this guy was truely a vet CHP officer then he should have known to throw the tranny into neutral at the very least. How about turning the key and turning off the engine. And the DUMBEST thing I read in that story is that he had no brakes. Seems to suggest something else failed because if the engine was running then the power assist brakes should have at least engaged... then there's the CABLE operated emergency brake that doesn't require the engine to run. I think what happens is people panic and they forget what to do. The media then takes that and runs with it and blames the auto manufacture for the problem. Yeah floor mats might have been an issue but that would be true for ANY make and model vehicle not just Toyota. Why else would most of the auto manufactures be putting the little hooks in the floors to hold the mats.

JMHO too much hype.

 

An Emergency brake is a myth itself, they are parking brakes only. The car he had has a button not a key to turn, which is part of the questioning. And it was said his brakes were on fire, impying he rode em long enought to burn them. Otherwise we agree with ya on neutral and the hype.

 

Welcome to TW.............sucks huh?.............I originally posted this article an was jumped on for some how trying to prove a point.....where in all actuality I had read this article and found it somewhat interesting and decided to post it........

 

Thanks for the welcome Tacoyota. I've lurked for several years now and it's funny how I sign up after I've sold my truck. Anyway, I do believe Toyota has work to do with their vehicles. Having owned a 2nd gen tacoma and two 2008 Camrys, there are definitely issues that need fixed. I don't deny this, but at the same time drivers need to be aware of how to cope with situations when things go wrong.

 

How can you possbily critisize the situation when you weren't there?

It's sooo easy to make theories sitting in front of a computer screen.

 

It's harder to criticize a situation if you were there. Everyone is just speculating as to what happened. At least Toyota and the NHTSA did some kind of investigation and came to the conclusion that it is a floormat issue. Maybe we should just accept that.