Toyota owners affected by this 2010 recall.

lone wolf

Grossly Underrated
Nov 25, 2006
32,493
210
63
In the bush near Sudbury
That's because you had to keep fixing them.

Nowadays, cars just don't break down very often.

Even flat tires are fairly rare now.
On hot summer days, how many cars do you see on the side of the road with steam pouring out from under the hood?

I tended to care more about a car I'd scuffed my knuckles on....
 

TenPenny

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 9, 2004
17,466
138
63
Location, Location
Interesting comparison on sales / vs complaints to NHTSA:
 

Socrates the Greek

I Remember them....
Apr 15, 2006
4,968
36
48
Why this Toyota Prius driver was not able to put his car in neutral to disengage the transmission?
It seems that his poor understanding of the neutral position on his shifter led him to panic, and lucky no one got killed……… :roll::roll::roll:

Or maybe this was a deliberate credibility attack on Toyota.

Toyota has big problems to short out, in the billions of $$$$$$$$$$$ much like many other automakers, like Honda, and GM,

Views split on Calif runaway Prius driver's story - Yahoo! News
 

TenPenny

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 9, 2004
17,466
138
63
Location, Location
Interesting update:

A few days ago, James Sikes and his runaway Prius was all over news. Until we mentioned that something is fishy. Sikes’ driving skills were put in question. Stories about a wife swapping website emerged. Stories about bankruptcy. Stories about an unpaid lease on the Prius. And sundry other stories. Quickly, Sikes turned into Balloon Boy 2.0

Michael Fumento, director of the Independent Journalism Project, went on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business and said: “It appears that everybody on planet earth suspected that there was something horribly wrong with this picture – except for the national media. The real hoax wasn’t James Sikes, it was in fact our press.”

On his own blog, Fumento fumed at the press: “To test his claim that he actually reached down and tried to pull the accelerator up but it wouldn’t budge I did something that apparently occurred to no other reporter in the country. I actually got in a 2008 Prius to see if it was physically possible to reach that far. I couldn’t get anywhere close. An orangutan could, but whatever Mr. Sikes is, that doesn’t seem to describe him.”

The real blame is on the press, says Fumento: “The red flags were popping up right from the beginning and the media ignored them because they wanted to ignore them. There’s a Toyota feeding frenzy going on and reporters just want their chunk.”

Well, now they dropped the video, and it looks like their editors sic them on Sikes.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “the investigation of the vehicle, carried out jointly by safety officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota engineers, didn’t find signs the brakes had been applied at full force at high speeds over a sustained period of time, the three people familiar with the investigation said.

The brakes were discolored and showed wear, but the pattern of friction suggested the driver had intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes, these people said, adding the investigation didn’t find indicators of the heavy pressure described by Mr. Sikes.”

As we vividly remember, ABC had led the “let’s burn Toyota on the stake” faction with the Gilbert video that subsequently turned out as a fake. Now, as the tide turns against Sikes, ABC goes with the flow: “A memo drafted for a congressional panel says the Toyota Prius involved in a California runaway car incident performed exactly as it is designed to in tests trying to replicate the situation…The memo says that each time the technician floored the gas pedal and hit the brake at the same time, the car shut off as it is designed to do.” ABC got ahold of Patty Sikes who complained that “the couple’s lives have been turned upside down and they are getting death threats.”

According to CBS News “a congressional spokesman said the finding casts doubt on the driver’s story.”

Looks like Sikes won’t testify.