On Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:55:11 -0800, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:

wrote:


I saw one exec claim that there were something like 8 confirmed
defective parts (pedal pivots dragging or sticking) out of 2 million.

The Toyota brand has killed or injured more people in the last decade wih
this defect than every other maunfacturer combined.

That seems highly unlikely. Got any cites?

The recognized that something might be problematic as far back as 1999.

That too seems unlikely. The pedals at issue are the throttle by wire
type, which didn't come into wide use until 2002. It's hard to believe
that they've been using the exact same problematic design all this
time.

Obviously unintended acceleration itself has a long history, with a
bunch of different makes and models.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/car...s-ford-gm.html
Notice how the number of Toyota complaints increased after the
publicity. Check out this one: “My 2008 Prius accelerated almost out
of control. I was merging onto an expressway when the accelerator
seemed to have a life of its own and took off at an incredibly high
rate of speed…” I can go along with the claim that the throttle
pulled a hissy fit, but "incredibly high rate of speed", in a Prius?
That driver's credibility is toast.

As with everything else these days, nobody wants to admit driver error
after an accident. A whole lot of these cases are oldsters, sometimes
like this one yesterday, and frequently with nothing more than
anecdotes in place of independent investigation of the cause.
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/mai... 5&TM=51498.13
A year ago there was an even stranger one.
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/mai...ectionID=1&S=1.
There must be thousands of these every year, and from now on a far
larger percentage will be blamed on unintended acceleration. The
number of complaints about the issue for *all* makes is going to
skyrocket, and the belief that Toyotas have a mind of their own will
become as true as that one can catch a cold from going out in the
cold. In fact, I won't be surprised if the new Toyota narrative
becomes the leading "cause" of fender benders, late to work,
unfinished homework, etc. :-)

This article http://suddenacceleration.com/?p=327 echoes some of my
comments, but ones like that are about to become lost in the noise.
Ironically, all the attention will result in better investigations,
which once again, will show that most of this stuff is blown all out
of proportion. Not that it will make any more difference than telling
people that colds are caused by viruses.

Wayne