Wednesday, February 03, 2010

TOYOTA'S "ACCELER-GATE": GREAT QUOTES ON TOYOTA'S UNINTENDED ACCELERATION FIASCO

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

As the firestorm over Toyota's deadly unintended acceleration problem grows, the story, which Truth With Speedzzter has dubbed "TOYOTA ACCELER-GATE," is literally exploding faster than 'Yoda's now-tattered "quality" image.

Here's a few choice highlights.

13. "U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday it took pressure from the government to get Toyota to take action over its sticking gas pedals.

'[I]t unfortunately took an enormous effort to get to this point. DOT officials flew to Japan in December to remind Toyota management about its legal obligations and followed up with a meeting at DOT headquarters in January to insist that they address the accelerator pedal issue,' LaHood said"

From CNN.com


12. Bangshift.com is reporting that "Congressmen Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak are challenging Toyota on its explanation of the problems with the cars because they conflict directly with statements that Toyota officials made last week when they told staffers of a congressional committee that the causes of the issues were, 'very, very hard to identify.'"

11. "To paraphrase L.A. Confidential's Captain Dudley Smith, we wouldn't trade places with Toyota right now for all the whiskey in Ireland." -- Autoblog.com

10. "Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told a crowd today of an unintentional acceleration problem with his 2010 Toyota Prius, which isn't under a recall. 'This is software. It's not a bad accelerator pedal,' he told the crowd. 'It's very scary.'"
--jalopnik.com

9. "I have many models of Prius that got recalled, but I have a new model that didn't get recalled. This new model has an accelerator that goes wild but only under certain conditions of cruise control. And I can repeat it over and over and over again--safely." --Steve Wozniak, Id.

8. "'It becomes a whole other ball game if it turns out to be an electronics issue,' said Autoconomy analyst Erich Merkle. 'Not only does it get more expensive to fix, but there's a trust factor between Toyota and its consumer.'" --www.reuters.com

7. "In recent interviews, two former NHTSA administrators, Ricardo Martinez and Joan Claybrook, have said they believe that some kind of electronic glitch may be causing the Toyota problems. Similar conclusions are being drawn by independent automotive safety experts, forensic mechanics and automotive electronics researchers, as well as many consumers." --www.latimes.com

6. "Of more than 2,000 motorist complaints of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles over the last decade, just 5% blamed a sticking gas pedal . . . ." -- www.latimes.com

5. "Quebec car-owners are joining a class action lawsuit against Toyota, as the car company scrambles to repair faulty gas pedals on millions of vehicles worldwide." --montreal.ctv.ca

4. "The firm says it has received 3,000 hits on its website since Monday, and of the 400 Canadians who have signed up for the class action lawsuit, 25 percent are Quebecers." Id.

3. "CINCINNATI -- An area attorney has filed a major class action lawsuit against Toyota and its affiliates. The suit, filed Tuesday by attorney Stan Chesley, alleges the automaker fraudulently concealed safety hazards and breached its own warranties and contracts. . . . 'It is clear that Toyota is hiding something under the carpet,' Chesley said. 'Toyota has long known about the defect and has done too little, too late to correct it.'" -- www.wlwt.com

2. "In a statement from the law firm filing the [California] class-action lawsuit, attorney David Wright said, 'Neither driver error nor floor mats can explain away many other frightening instances of runaway Toyotas.' Wright also said, 'Until the company [Toyota] acknowledges the real problem and fixes it, we worry that other preventable injuries and deaths will occur.'" -- www.leftlanenews.com

1. "Since November, at least 10 lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed against Toyota in U.S. courts and in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Canada. . . . David Owen, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and director of its Office of Tort Law Studies, said Toyota might be more at risk in U.S. states that impose on manufacturers of a "duty to warn" consumers about a defect. . . . 'If it turned out that Toyota delayed the recall beyond the point when a reasonable manufacturer would have done so, then punitive damages in substantial amounts might be available to whoever was physically injured,' Owen added." ] --www.reuters.com

And to think that all of this could have been avoided . . . . Aftermarket gas pedal "fix"

www.speedwaymotors.com


BTW, has anybody noticed that the 'Yoda pedal fix reduces pedal travel See Diagram of the Toyota pedal fix at CNN.com(not that full-throttle motoring is all that likely or rewarding in the WUSSMOBILES that 'Yoda sells . . . make that used to sell . . . .)

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

"EVIL EMPIRE" SUSPENDS SALES OF EIGHT TOYOTA MODELS!

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

"Oh what a feeling!"

Apparently that's what too many collaborators (customers) of the "Evil Empire" (Toyota) are experiencing when their boring, soulless transportation appliances suddenly rocket forward with furious blasts of "unintended acceleration."

Perhaps a new slogan for Toyota could be "Win on Sunday; Die on Monday" . . . .

The safety SNAFU is serious enough for the Evil Empire to suspend sales on eight recalled Toyota vehicles, according to several wire reports.

Last week, the Evil Empire recalled 2.3 million invading Toyopets. On February 1, 2010, five plants will be idled as Toyota "assesses" solutions to the unintended acceleration fiasco.

The existing vehicles pulled from sale are reportedly:

*2009-2010 RAV4
*2009-2010 Corolla
*2007-2010 Camry
*2009-2010 Matrix
*2009-2010 Avalon
*2007-2010 Tundra
*2008-2010 Sequoia

(Unintended acceleration might be about the only way to make some of those "Boredomathon" sleds remotely exciting . . . .)

These extraordinary steps are probably a shock to the legions of "Consumer Distorts" mopes who believe in Toyota "quality" almost as an article of faith. "Quality" has been the main rationalization sold to fickle and myopic consumers in the Japanese plot to invade and destroy America's automobile industry. Now, millions of Toyotas have been branded hazards to the public and the Evil Empire's short-term sales plan is in tatters.

Sweet!

Certainly, modern automobiles are complex and highly technical products that sometimes need post-sale adjustments and modifications to avoid unintended faults. Thus, every manufacturer has suffered with the problem of recalls.

Nonetheless, Toyota's reputation is now "stuck" with another high-profile quality problem that should eat into its competitiveness in the short term.

Back in the late 1980s, it took Audi years to recover from the taint of unintended acceleration. Let's hope the Evil Empire suffers similarly.

Most likely, Toyota will have a "patch" completed well before the Daytona 500. Then, look for a full-court press by Toyota's P.R. Department to make everyone forget the Evil Empire's quality lapses.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

TOYOTA PRIUS: DEADLY OR JUST DEATHLY DULL?

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Real motoring enthusiasts stuck behind some lane-clogging appliance motorist/zealot in a Toyota Prius can be forgiven for wondering if any acceleration by it is "intentional."

However, an apparently increasing number of anecdotal reports are suggesting that the flagship for Toyota pretentiousness is sometimes an out-of-control potential death trap. Some of the Prius faithful are reporting wild events of "unintended acceleration."

More first-hand owner rips against the Prius are here.

Of course for some Prius owners, nearly any meaningful acceleration probably seems "wild."

Fans of real American cars are undoubtedly hoping that the "Evil Empire" will receive some of that good, old-fashioned "trial lawyer" love that the Detroit 3 have sometimes suffered from. Products liability suits know no borders and a few, good multi-million Dollar verdicts would be an excellent elixir for squelching some of the mindless veneration of Toyota.

Now that General Motors is nearly dead and in UAW/Government hands, the tort lawyer pirates are going to have to set their sights on a deeper set of pockets. Can they look past their Lexuses to bring the "Evil Empire" to "justice?" Toyota's got the yen, but do the trial lawyers and Detroit-hating investigative journalists have the yen for grabbing it?

Perhaps Toyota should assemble a all-pro driver task force of Darrell "Jaws" Waltrip, Michael Waltrip, Joe Gibbs, Kyle "The DOOD" Busch and a few other of the Evil Empire's tratorous American collaborators to road test these alleged Prius defects . . . .

Labels: , , , ,

WHAT IS THE BIG CUBIC-INCH TURBO BLOG? It is a real-time on-line book about the theory and practice of turbocharging B-I-G CUBE V8 Engines.

what is this?

Tell me when this blog is updated. . .

  • Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017. All Rights Reserved. The BIG-CUBIC INCH TURBO BLOG may be quoted with attribution and/or linking to the original post at "THE BIG CUBIC-INCH TURBO BLOG", subject to the Fair Use provisions and limitations of U.S. Copyright law. The trademarks and service marks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners and "Truth With Hydra and Cammie: The Lifter Sisterz" and its predecessor are not affiliated in any way with the holders of these trademarks and service marks. Such trademarks and servicemarks appear herein under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Truth With Hydra and Cammie claims no copyright interest in photos, videos, and articles linked here from internet sources. All materials linked here are for a non-commecial purpose and appear herein under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law.