Toyota's Problems

[shinnlinger]

Although I think Prius people can be a bit pompous in their vanity plated "My car gets the same mileage as an '89 Geo Metro for 25x the price" attitude,  I was very impressed with how Toyota Recalled their late 90 pickups by giving people 1.5 x KBB value.  Who wouldn't have been happy with full KBB??? But they gave full KBB and a half.  Now my cousin had a 2001 and they actually took her truck completely apart and replaced the frame which seems like alot of work, but what do I know?

Anyway, I contrast Toyotas truck recall to how Ford does everything possible to get out of dealing with the 6.0 diesel troubles. Saying things like "you use the truck commercially, so the warranty is null and void"  Well that's nice, but the guy that bought the truck to support his small  business is now out of business and Ford knows it is a problem because they scrapped the motor completely after only 5 years.

[Faron]

Jeff it's terrible there are people like that out that and I can clearly see your point.

What exactly is the difference between that guy's actions and offering to run over a Toyota on the jobsite? 

[SwampDonkey]

Run me over deliberate no matter what I'm driving, you better hope your real safe sit'n in there.  ;D :D

[ARKANSAWYER]

  There used to be a song "We are all working for the Japanese, Mini vans and color tv's..."

  Looks like we are all working for the Chinese subcontracted to the Federal Gov.

  I know I am getting old but I still remember when we prayed in school, made in the USA could be found on products, women had more in their clothes then hanging out, you could make a deal with your word and a hand shake, people were responsible for their actions, common sense was not all that uncommon, the sun rose in the east and the SON was on the throne.
  Were the good ole days really that good or is my mind a fading?  Gun control was using both hands and watching where you pointed the muzzle.  Schools were full of kids, not grave yards full of fetuses.  When did we become so needful to be connected to someone all the time?  Why do cell phones have to be on all the time and in the ear?  When did someone far away become more important then the person in front of you?  Why is working with your hands looked down on?  Why do we teach sports and not keep score?  Why can I not be a winner and bask in the glory of to the victor goes the spoils?  What is wrong with a "C" average and what does 4.0 really mean?  Why did the foods my Grand Parents ate become bad for you when they lived to be in their 90's?  And just who is the Joneses and why am I trying to keep up with them? 
  I really need to go q saw some oak for a man and load the kiln.  May the Peace of GOD find you today and remember what Red Green says " I'm pulling for you as we're all in this togeher." 

[SwampDonkey]

At the end of the 60's it went down hill in some respects. Take sporting camps for instance. Back in the day no one had to lock a darn camp in this country. If someone used it they cleaned it up and never stole and broke stuff up. Now the attitude seems to be that you got something I ain't, I'm jelous. So, I think I'll bust up your property after I swallow a bottle or two so I can't be held accountable.

[JimTwoSticks]

"women had more in their clothes then hanging out"
Boring....
Just kidding. You aren't alone in many of your viewpoints ARK.
I love the argument that you can't be a good person or have a good society without the big guy upstairs. Never understood that one but that is a can of worms that doesn't really need to be opened.
Oh, the reason for "Why did the foods my Grand Parents ate become bad for you when they lived to be in their 90's" is that they physically WORKED...very hard. Our society (not many of you but as a whole) has essentially stopped manufacturing, farming is automated (for the most part), logging is automated (same, same), and desk jobs are the norm. Hard physical labor or working out a lot will offset many of the problems associated with your grandparents diet.
With regard to the Toyotas - my parents own a Prius and say they still got better gas mileage with their late 80s Chevy Sprint.

[easymoney]

we have ambulance chasing lawyers advertising on tv going after truckers in nashville tn. now they are going after toyota.they like to brag about the huge setlements they get for the clients. of course they never tell what their cut is.

[SwampDonkey]

Some of those NY and NJ lawyers are starting to put adds up here for mesothelioma victims.

Ha Ha Ha a new one for the spell checker, it stumbled over that word. ;)

[JimTwoSticks]

Ah yes, the trial lawyers....I can't think of anyone more ethical... ??? Maybe politicians!
oh wait, most of them are lawyers too  :(

[DouginUtah]

As reported on Forbes.com and FoxNews.com...

James Sikes is a con-man and the whole Prius story has been proven to be a hoax.
Bankruptcy, five months behind on car payments, $700,000 in debt, numerous insurance claims, all-round hoaxster.

Every claim he made has been proven to be phony or illogical.

[bl73]

Jeff it's terrible there are people like that out that and I can clearly see your point.

What exactly is the difference between that guy's actions and offering to run over a Toyota on the jobsite? 

one difference that was a public place where everyone should be civil, another I'm a union operator, even though I'm not UAW I still support all union brothers, so foreign cars of any kind aren't really welcome on the job site, i don't go out off my way to say something to someone in public to each their own but on the jobsite alot people have shed alot of blood for what we have.

[zopi]

if the guy is lying he only learned from the exec's at toyota, and most guys driving a prius should have their man card taken away. I just don't understand why people believe this floormat scam, maybe the exec's from toyota should be the one's locked up for putting us all at danger and blaming a floormat.

Nahh..the floormat thing was legit...at least in the Camry...saw the problem, fixed it myself,
had the good sense to chuck the ill designed floormat out in the driveway...and laughed at the dealership when they tried to do the recall...

[SwampDonkey]

Tell it like it is, be blunt. :D :D


"Don't talk, shoot"

Tuco

[blaze83]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

wonder why this never made the national news?

GM to recall 1.3M compacts for steering problem
(AP) – Mar 1, 2010

DETROIT — General Motors says it is recalling 1.3 million compact cars in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail.

Models covered by the recall include 2005 to 2010 Chevrolet Cobalts, the 2007 to 2010 Pontiac G5s, 2005 and 2006 Pontiac Pursuits sold in Canada and 2005 and 2006 Pontiac G4s sold in Mexico.

GM says the vehicles are safe to drive and never lose steering, but they may be harder to steer when traveling under 15 mph.

The automaker is getting parts to replace the electric power steering motor and will notify customers when to bring their cars to dealers


guess it's ok if the power steering goes out, who needs to steer their car anyway......... does it really only happen at les than 15 miles an hour?   or maybe it is because our government owns GM and not toyota...or maybe the UAW  is keeping this quiet....... the entire thing stinks to me. I have a Ford F150 that I bought new in 1998, and i have had at least 6 recalls over the years, no big deal. one of them is for the cruise control......... No news coverage,  no law suits....... I think toyota is getting screwed by the media


just my 2 cents

Steve

[shinnlinger]

The GM recall did make the news, at least I heard it, and if you ever develop a leak in your power steering you know you can still steer the car.  MIght be hard to parallel park, but you can still steer it.

All the companies have had significant recalls.  LLBean had an enormous failure rate on his first hunting boot, but he made good on it and that is what made the company what it is today.

[Ianab]

guess it's ok if the power steering goes out, who needs to steer their car anyway......... does it really only happen at les than 15 miles an hour?

Power steering fails on cars occasionally. It's usually belt driven, the belts break, the pump stops. You have no power assist. At highway speed you hardly notice as the steering movements are small and the wheel is light anyway. Trying to turn to full lock at 5mph without power steering, you DO notice its not working. If it's your Granny thats pulling into your driveway when they steering suddnely goes heavy, she probably hits your gate post, runs down your dog , or drives over a cliff...

Thats what they are worries about.

And with the sudden spotlight on car faults, who wants to be next in live for a lawsuit when granny's power steering fails and she runs through a buch of kids.

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, the power steering issue was in the news a few days ago. But, no one made much fuss for their own one sided reasons. ;)

[Warren]

Jeff it's terrible there are people like that out that and I can clearly see your point.

What exactly is the difference between that guy's actions and offering to run over a Toyota on the jobsite? 

one difference that was a public place where everyone should be civil, another I'm a union operator, even though I'm not UAW I still support all union brothers, so foreign cars of any kind aren't really welcome on the job site, i don't go out off my way to say something to someone in public to each their own but on the jobsite alot people have shed alot of blood for what we have.

bl73,

Does that mean that a union member would not drive a Toyota Corolla or Toyota Tacoma built by UAW Brothers and Sisters in Fremonth, CA ?   But they would drive a Chevy Aveo built by non-union South Koreans, or a Dodge truck built in Mexico ? 

To be clear, I am not anti-Union.  My first job was with Local 522 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, my grandpa was a union coal miner, my dad and uncles retired from the Steel Workers union, my new SIL is a union welder.

It is just that now days, it is very difficult to tell what is union made and what is not...  Just not clear cut...

-w-

[florida]

This situation has virtually nothing to do with car safety and everything to do with political posturing. It is theater, nothing else. Why would anyone assume that a bunch of career politicians would have the technical knowledge to recognize the solution to  a  problem even if they saw it?
 
The claim is that over the past 10 years 19 people have been killed in Toyotas with stuck accelerators. Assume for a moment that that is true, in the same time period close to 450,000 people were killed in car accidents in the US. We're having congressional investigations into the  .000042% of total car deaths that might have been caused by stuck accelerators in one brand of car?  This was the biggest car safety issue they could find? This doesn't pass any kind of smell test. 

How about some common sense?  Go out in your driveway and start your car or truck. Put your left foot on the brake pedal and your right on the accelerator. Hold down the brake and start applying gas. Does the power of the engine ever overcome the brake? No it doesn't, so how could brakes not be able to stop a car with a stuck accelerator? I tried it in my Chevy Express van yesterday. Right foot on the gas doing 60, left foot braking. No trouble stopping at all. I'm going to take our Toyota Highlander out shortly and try the same test in it. If I don't come back sue somebody for me.

Large passenger jets can apply full throttle and yet as long as the pilots hold the brakes the planes don't move. But you can't stop a Prius? Anything, no matter how unlikely is possible, once, maybe even twice but when so many people start coming out of the woodwork making the same unlikely claims it's time to get a better grip on your wallet because the sharks are circling.   

[bl73]

About the last thing the economy needs is a major plant closing. Nonetheless, Toyota is going ahead with plans to close the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. assembly plant -- a joint venture started in 1984 with General Motors -- in Fremont, Calif., on April 1. Nearly 5,000 NUMMI jobs will evaporate and up to 50,000 jobs are at risk, including those at 1,000 suppliers throughout the state, according to the company's own numbers. At stake for thousands are homes, college educations and a middle-class lifestyle that came out of decades of hard work.



got this off another website, Calif., was the only toyota plant to be union and thats coming to end. Toyota makes a good product and does employ americans in many states, I choose not to own one, and on the jobsite for the most part foreign cars aren't welcome thats all i was getting at.

[Toolman]

Toyota Trucks are American Made. 

Built in Princeton, Indiana by Non-Union workers. True American made vehicle

[Toolman]

One of my big beef's with Toyota is that Toyota sells diesel trucks and cars in every country in the world that I have been to... except the U.S.   Outside the U.S., the Tacoma is called the "HiLux".  And it is available with a diesel, in Mexico, El Salvador, Argentina, Kenya, and I am fairly certain in the U.K. 

It has to do with the laws in the US and nothing to do with Toyota.  They run all sorts of diesels in Europe on their cars.  But, they won't allow those diesels in the US.  Volkswagen just started to import their cars last year.  They get nearly as good of fuel efficiency as the Prius.

As for clutches, my Tacoma has one and so does my wife's Saturn.  When I look at new cars, it will have one.  Volkswagen has lots of 5 speed manual shift cars.  I've never owned an automatic, and don't intend to.  I figure the increased fuel mileage over the years has bought me a new car.

I really didn't think a Prius could go 94 mph. 

Ron is right. Ford has been making an F150 for years with a 4.2 l Diesel in Europe. I know, I've seen one when I was in the Military in South Africa. The truck got 60 mpg hwy. It was a nice engine. They still make them! If you don't believe me look under the hood of any Ford Pickup. There is a sticker with numerous diagrams showing the installation of your drive belt. They have all engine designs listed, including the 4.2 diesel!

[Tom]

It's getting to be time for some of you to curtail your Personally intimidating responses.

[Toolman]

Sorry Tom...I was just joking.

[SPIKER]

Ive had a stuck gas pedal in a REAL car not some PRIUS car.   Talking 400+CDI V8, there wasnt any stopping it using the brake!   I was pulling out of gas station at a corner during shift ending time.   BUSY intersection on Base @ Edwards AFB in CA.   I had been working on the car and had put air cleaner back on but not tight enough I guess.   I had to quickly get across the street to the other side to clear a car doing a right turn on green coming at me that was going rather quickly.  when I pushed down the air cleaner rotated and jammed the throttle linkage, as the air cleaner rotated more under the acceleration it opened up the throttle more till it hit WOT.   I was turning left managing to dodge the cars around me while both rears were light up nicely.   Needless to say I went through the intersection sideways attempting to brake and steer all while reaching for the Gear shift to go to Neutral.   what sound like a long time was mere seconds at most.   I got to the other side of the intersection and had the car in Neutral and engine free revved for a sec or so while I turned it off and steered to side of road.   I wasnt going real fast and managed to completely control it to a soft stop although on the wrong side of a red light when  cop was setting there   I didnt get a ticket and was lucky enough to not get in way of any cross traffic. 

This wasnt my only time with stuck throttle but was a very quickly happening one.   My womans T-Bird did same thing she was driving and panicked some I shifted car manually into Neutral as the engine revved to about 8 grand.  In case any of you have early to mid 90's Fords the throttle linkage/cable has a plastic clip that can/does break which kicks the trans into a odd condition and will fool the computer into thinking the foot was put to the floor.  They accelerate and at the same time toss the trans into a Low/Revers band pressure situation of some sort.  this usually blows the trans out on top of setting the engine to full throttle.

I also had an old ford 60's truck which the linkage would stick and act like cruise control...  I was kid back then and since it was all manual pushing the clutch or turning off key was easily done...
I think the guy with the Prius probably was not all that smart well I'm sure of it he bought a PRIUS lol
Mark