Nice New Toyotas

On the heels of their Sudden Acceleration Recalls, Toyota is now under pressure for braking issues on the Prius, Toyota’s popular hybrid. According to Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary, Transportation officials will begin an inquiry after reports were received that the Japanese government has initiated an investigation in brake malfunction complaints, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

A Toyota spokesman in Japan indicated that the braking complaints received were involving situations where the drivers were on a bumpy road or frozen surface. According to one complainant on record at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “My 2010 Toyota Prius has a serious braking problem, the car lunges forward after (I) apply my brakes over a bumpy surface. This is very unexpected and luckily no one was in front of me otherwise I would have hit them. This already happened several times, took my car to the dealer and no solution, I don’t know what to do with a brand new (car) like this.” There are many complaints with similar descriptions around braking/acceleration problems when encountering even minor bumps and potholes with the 2010 Prius.

Brakes in the Prius and other hybrids operate differently from those in standard cars. Hybrids use an engagement system between their braking system and electric motors to generate electricity for recharging the batteries along with standard brakes. The braking problems could lie within this engagement system.

This latest issue with the Prius is on top of Toyota’s recall of 3.8 million cars in November 2009 to fix accelerator pedals and software to address what has been reported as sudden acceleration problems. Toyota dealers were making modifications to the gas pedals by removing inches from the bottom so the gas pedals would not get trapped under the floor mats. Toyota then followed up that recall with another recall for sudden acceleration on January 21, 2010. On that day Toyota Motor Sales announced a recall of 2.3 million vehicles which included:

* 2005-2010 Avalon
* 2007-2010 Camry
* 2009-2010 Corolla
* 2010 Highlander
* 2009-2010 Matrix
* 2009-2010 RAV4
* 2008-2010 Sequoia
* 2007-2010 Tundra

According to a USA article titled “100 Toyota drivers filed complaints before recall”, “she would become one of more than 100 drivers, according to a USA TODAY search of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration complaints database, who over the past few years have had their Toyota vehicles take off when they weren’t expected to.”

Apparently Toyota was not as aggressive at dealing with the issue as they have let on. According to LaHood, “The recalls involving pedal entrapment and possible sticky gas pedals on Toyota vehicles are some of the largest in automobile history. Every step of the way, NHTSA… officials pushed Toyota to take corrective action so that consumers would be safe.”…”Today, Toyota is apparently taking the right steps to address these safety issues. Unfortunately it took much effort to get to this point.”

During a Congressional hearing on Weds, February 3rd, the Transportation Secretary said that owners of recalled Toyotas should stop driving them until they are repaired. He was quoted as saying, “… stop driving it, take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it.”

Toyota has stated that they have a solution to deploy for the accelerator issue, but there hasn’t been any official Toyota release regarding the 2010 Prius braking problem. Toyota’s U.S. sales have plunged 16% in January as an apparent reaction to the sudden acceleration recall, even as sales of other automakers rose. What the affect of this Prius issue will be, no one knows. It is apparent that Toyota’s image has suffered severe damage and we’ll have to wait and see how long it will take for it to recover.

To read an in-depth article on this situation from a 3rd party go to Consumer Reports article on the Toyota recall.

Albert Hunter

The car manufacturer Toyota is not having a good year so far is it? And it’s only February! Several million Toyota cars had been warned and then recalled about a floor mat issue that caused the gas pedal to get caught. Then the recall was expanded to more models and years plus the public was informed it was more than a floor mat issue; it was mechanical.

Why did Toyota wait so long to tell the public the truth? By waiting to divulge that it wasn’t floor mats, but a mechanical part in the gas pedal they may very well have caused more injuries and lives to be lost. At least now they seem to be doing the right thing by getting all the cars in and fixed. But does this action come too late to restore the public’s confidence in Toyota?

By first saying the problem was a floor mat, and then identifying the problem as the gas pedal while expanding the recall, many Toyota owners have to be wondering if their car is safe or will it be recalled as well. Is Toyota sitting on another mechanical failure without telling anyone?

Well, it’s not looking to good because the Toyota Prius is the next Toyota car with problems showing up. There have been rumors and stories floating around the Internet that the new 2010 Toyota Prius has braking issues. Toyota states they have already fixed the problem in the cars on the production line, but they aren’t ready to do a recall yet. Why aren’t they doing a recall? Are they waiting for fatalities to pile up, as the case with the sticking gas pedal?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration isn’t very amused by Toyota’s handling of these recalls, and has issued a formal inquiry in to the 2010 Toyota Prius braking issues. The N.H.T.S.A. has only received 124 complaints but that number will no doubt climb much higher once more Prius owners realize that the braking system is indeed faulty and they aren’t crazy.

This is really turning into a public relations nightmare. Toyota has always been known for safety and reliability, but that is now turning rapidly into distrust and fear. The completely lack of concern over consumer’s lives, consumer’s that bought their cars, is chilling. Yes you’ll lose money in a recall, but aren’t human lives more important than money? I shudder to think at the answer Toyota would give at the moment.

For 2010, the Toyota Corolla adds electronic stability control to its list of standard safety features; it was previously optional.

All 2010 Corollas have front and side airbags, along with curtain side airbags designed to provide head protection for both front- and rear-seat passengers. Also standard are height-adjustable front shoulder harnesses, seat belt pretensioners, and a seat belt force-limiting system that reduces the chances of the belts themselves causing injury.

The Corolla’s accident-avoidance equipment includes daytime running lights and the electronic stability control system, which varies engine power and selectively applies the brakes to reduce the risk of skidding in tight turns. All Corollas have ABS, with a brake-assist system that fully applies the brakes in a panic stop.

Despite its safety equipment, some reviewers have sharply criticized the Corolla’s emergency handling, saying that its electric power steering is numb and imprecise. Some Corolla buyers have filed complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the steering, claiming that it can overreact to small corrections. The NHTSA has not yet announced any investigation of the steering complaints. Toyota has issued a recall on some 2009-2010 Corollas to correct a problem that can cause a loss of power brake assist in cold weather.

The NHTSA has awarded the Toyota Corolla a four-star rating (out of a possible five) for driver and passenger protection in front impacts. Side impact protection rated five stars for front-seat occupants and four stars for rear-seat passengers. Rollover protection rated four stars. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rates the 2010 Corolla’s crash protection Good (its highest rating) in all areas except head/neck injury, where it received an Acceptable rating.

Ronnie writes extensively about Toyota Corolla Parts and other related topics

I turn on the news, and if I didn’t know any better, I would think Hollywood has launched a brilliant viral marketing campaign for its newest recycled horror film: The villain, a seemingly typical hybrid that refuses to listen to its driver or its own brake pads, a metaphor for our blind faith in the hybrid automotive industry; the victims, more than 8.5 million Toyota owners of such demonized machines worldwide, four of whom tragically meet their demise. Hey, it worked with a cell phone, right?

But reports from several independent agencies, as well as Toyota’s own investigation, seem to tell a strikingly different tale, one with all the embellishment, absurdity, and public interest of a prime-time reality show. More often than not, these reports find in such allegedly runaway Priuses – by far the most numerous of all runaways reported – that accidents were caused by human error, not faulty brakes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which reports on vehicle safety issues, recalls and defects, found in one such accident in New York City on March 9, 2010, that “information retrieved from the vehicle’s onboard computer systems indicated there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open” when the vehicle crashed into a stone wall, alleging that the driver was, in fact, at fault.

And the southern Californian who claimed his Prius reached speeds exceeding 90 miles per hour on a crowded freeway the day before? Toyota’s report – confirmed by a congressional committee – finds that his brake pedal and accelerator were repeatedly depressed upwards of 250 times, which can cause the safety feature designed to stop unintended acceleration to fail, among other inconsistencies with his story.

So what, if anything, would cause drivers to create their own chapters in The Case of the Runaway Prius? Well, for one, we are social creatures and crave attention in any form. It is also natural for humans to want to blame an accident of any kind on something – or someone – else. Once an alibi is created, or a loophole produced, especially one with such media attention as the Runaway Prius, it is also natural for such alibis to be repeated. Compound these with the potential for monetary gain through class-action lawsuit, and any such event can be blown out of proportion. As with every story, it is critical to read the facts from reputable sources, lest we begin to believe the works of fiction.