Don't drive recalled Toyotas, transportation chief says

[Tina]

Yes, you put it in neutral or press the power button down for 3 seconds.

Power button?

 

[LoraJ]

Power button?

Keyless cars have power buttons that start the car and shut it off.

 

[dawson5]

Power button?

She's driving one of the Toyota Prius hybrid's I believe. We had one on one of the Volvo's and I've seen them on some the newer Fords.

I don't know if this is like hers but I would guess similar:

It needs an arrow. Look to right (2 o'clock) of the steering wheel.

 

[Tina]

Thanks for the picture. I guess I'm "old school" driving with a key and all.

 

[Colston69]

"Common" cars will always leave you in a lurch. Like I said, the Benz is worth every penny.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Considering the low amount of reports of problems, you have a better chance of getting killed by a drunk driver in any car than your Toyota having this gas pedal problem. yes, it is serious, but to say to stop driving and induce near panic is ridiculous.

Our Saturn was just recalled as the door latches weren't latching 100% of the time. Having your door fly open with your kids in the back seat is just as dangerous as the Toyota problem.

Now Honda is having problems with vehicle fires.......

I guess you just pick your poison now.

 

[Topper]

All car manufacturers have had recalls for things that could possibly kill you:

Honda: Airbag defect

GM: Side saddle gas tank defect

Dodge/Jeep/Ford: False park defect

Ford: Pinto gas tank explosions

Mercedes: wiring harness defect

I expect Toyota will weather this storm and their quality of product will be even greater.

Some of the alarmists on this thread make it sound as if every Toyota will spontaneously combust

 

[Colston69]

Yeah, but nobody else in the country even heard about anything wrong with Mercedes. It was hardly anything major going on. I'll take it over anything else on the market.

 

[Christine]

Yeah, but nobody else in the country even heard about anything wrong with Mercedes. It was hardly anything major going on. I'll take it over anything else on the market.

I don't think anyone is arguing that Mercedes isn't a superior product; however, most of the country probably can't afford one. Toyota sells products that fit into everyone's lifestyle and budget at the same time.

As for no one hearing about Mercedes' issues, why do you suppose that is? I can think of two reasons:

1. In the U.S., the Mercedes is not in just about every household like a Toyota product and

2. I think other car companies and their employees have it out for Toyota since they've been the biggest game in town for so long. They are enjoying this and fueling the bad press and media attention. They will do anything to pull Toyota's customers away and back into their dealerships.

 

[RadioNate]

What about the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire thing?

Remember that?

According to the site I found, there were 119 confirmed deaths directly caused by the problem and up to 3000 catastrophic injuries caused.

Still driving Fords? Still using Firestone tires? What about Firestone tires on Ford. While the Firestone tires were used on other vehicles, it was only the Ford Explorer that had such a deadly problem.

 

[KramBerries]

I think that some perspective is in order. Yes, it is a safety defect and may have lead to lives being lost. The simple fact is that cars are dangerous. I'm willing to be good money that a car from any other manufacturer driven with low tire pressure, with a driver talking on a hands-free cell phone, or driven by a teenager is at far greater risk of killing people than a responsibly maintained and driven Toyota.

If this problem were that scary dangerous, it would already be showing up in death statistics by vehicle. It's something that the IIHS tracks. These cars aren't significantly more dangerous than other cars on the road.

I'm not saying that the problem shouldn't be fixed. I'm just saying that people should put it into perspective. It's an extremely rare problem.

BTW, if putting the car into neutral scares you, you can always just stop the darn thing with it in gear. Your breaks are much stronger than your engine. Your stopping distance will be longer than usual, but not outrageously so. From the article How To Deal With Unintended Acceleration:

With the Camry’s throttle pinned while going 70 mph, the brakes easily overcame all 268 horsepower straining against them and stopped the car in 190 feet—that’s a foot shorter than the performance of a Ford Taurus without any gas-pedal problems and just 16 feet longer than with the Camry’s throttle closed.

 

[KramBerries]

I don't think anyone is arguing that Mercedes isn't a superior product

I'll take that one. Have you looked at their reliability? Here's a quick quote from Newsday:

It's no secret that Mercedes had a couple of bad years earlier this decade, with embarrassing below-average scores in owner surveys by J.D. Power and Associates and Consumer Reports that measure vehicle quality and dealer service. Scores lower than Hyundai's or Ford's are unacceptable in Mercedes' price range. Consumer Reports called the last generation of C-Class below average in reliability.

Here are the JD Powers reliability rankings for cars. Mercedes pulled in 3 stars...a bit lower than the exploding Toyota's 5 stars.

I'm hoping that Mercedes, once a great marque, can get their act together, but I wouldn't gamble that much money on such an unreliable car right now.

 

[Colston69]

2. I think other car companies and their employees have it out for Toyota since they've been the biggest game in town for so long. They are enjoying this and fueling the bad press and media attention. They will do anything to pull Toyota's customers away and back into their dealerships.

That's the key to it. The US companies haven't been able to compete against imports in my adult lifetime. A few cars had sticky accelerators and it made the news. No big deal, every American-made car I've ever owned had sticky, hard to use gas pedals. If you want my opinion, this is Dodge, Ford, and Chevy manufacturing a crises so they can regain market share. They cant get it any other way.

 

[Colston69]

I'm hoping that Mercedes, once a great marque, can get their act together, but I wouldn't gamble that much money on such an unreliable car right now.

Th sad fact is that this kind of rating is perfectly acceptable in the price range of an American car, just not Mercedes. That says more about the US made cars than it does about Mercedes.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

Th sad fact is that this kind of rating is perfectly acceptable in the price range of an American car, just not Mercedes. That says more about the US made cars than it does about Mercedes.

They said nothing about QUALITY but about PRICE RANGE. If I spend $15 000 on a Pontiac Vibe and it has reliability issues, I'd be much less annoyed than if I spent $35 000 on a C-Class Mercedes, and it has the same problems.

My 2001 Hyundai Accent crashed and burned (not literally, of course - but nearly EVERYTHING went at the same time) just after the warranty expired. Was I annoyed? Yes. Was I surprised? Well, it was a $12 000 car...

 

[Squirlz]

Th sad fact is that this kind of rating is perfectly acceptable in the price range of an American car, just not Mercedes. That says more about the US made cars than it does about Mercedes.

What's the "price range of an American car"? American built cars are priced anywhere from $12,000 to well up into six digits. This doesn't make sense.

 

[Colston69]

They said nothing about QUALITY but about PRICE RANGE. If I spend $15 000 on a Pontiac Vibe and it has reliability issues, I'd be much less annoyed than if I spent $35 000 on a C-Class Mercedes, and it has the same problems.

My 2001 Hyundai Accent crashed and burned (not literally, of course - but nearly EVERYTHING went at the same time) just after the warranty expired. Was I annoyed? Yes. Was I surprised? Well, it was a $12 000 car...

My point exactly. Mercedes builds cars that you expect to be excellent. GM makes cars that you aren't surprised if they fall apart.

 

[testifyoncruises]

Of course he did. Who owns GM at the moment? It doesn't matter that he amended his statement...everyone heard it.

It's all part of the plan to enhance the union run GM.

 

[locolala]

The issue with Mercedes is that they're insanely expensive to fix.

Back on track with the recall train of thought, I'm glad that Subaru has had so few recalls. This is why we buy Subies, they're reliable, well priced, and do well in the snow!

 

[stevenpensacola]

Hmmm, is there no way to shut off (or stop) the car in the unlikely event the accelerator sticks? Neutral, e-brake, turn ignition off? I thought toyota released a video of the emergency shut down procedure?

All you have to do is shift into neutral or park...or just press the brake pedal. Car and Driver Magazine conducted a test in which they drove a v6 camry at various speeds...then floored the throttle. In other words, they floored the throttle, then applied the brakes, with the throttle still floored.

In all cases, they were able to bring the car to a stop in a very reasonable distance. The braking power of the brakes is stronger than the horsepower of the engine.

They even tried this experiment with a high performance mustang...even with this car's high performance engine, the brakes were able to bring the car to a stop or a very slow speed (depending on the speed the test started from) with the throttle floored.

Cars are designed so that if you should shift into park while moving, the wheels will NOT lock, but the transmission basically goes into neutral, and you coast to a stop.

I would imagine the percentage of accidents caused by a sticking throttle is nothing compared to accidents caused by STUPID drunk drivers, or folks texting while driving.

I think the media is making way too much out of this acceleration story.