lexusscturbo

iTrader: (12)

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/exc...-recalled-too/

spwolf

"perhaps" "likely" "possible" "unlikely" "sources" "whether"

all amount to Japanese Toyota vehicles not affected by recall (probably using Denso part):
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/01/t...als-announced/

Reading that site on Toyota is pricelss :-)

joe80

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/01/u...river-reporte/

Seems as everyone's getting miffed at Toyota these days. Customers are angry over the millions of recalls and/or sudden yet unintended acceleration, readers are ticked at Toyota for taking our focus away from more exciting car news and we're frankly annoyed at having to write about the ailing Japanese giant every time we switch the computer on. But none of us are as miffed as one man in Louisiana.

If we may get all Don the Rum on you for a moment, here's what we know and what we think know: A man was returning his truck to All Star Toyota in Baton Rouge, LA when the truck rammed into the dealership. The Baton Rouge Police Department is placing the blame squarely at the feet of a "stuck accelerator pedal." However, things sound a little fishy.

Upon hearing about the ThrottleGate recall, the owner of the truck in question decided he didn't want his Toyota anymore, and attempted to get All Star Toyota to take the truck back and refund his money. The dealership, obviously, felt different, and offered instead to repair the man's accelerator pedal and give him a loaner. In fact, the dealership had to explain to the owner three separate times that he could not get his money back. Three separate times on the day of the incident.

In fact, it was after the third such explanation (and third refusal by the owner to accept a loaner vehicle) that the owner of the truck experienced a stuck gas pedal and rammed into the dealership. The building received only superficial damage. The truck however, is in a pretty bad shape. When asked if they felt the accident was intended or unintended, the dealership said, "no comment."

joe80

Kinda remind me of

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Angry...HQ-51766.shtml

there are some courageous p!ssed off people out there.

pagemaster

Evitzee

It's only the beginning as the lawyers get themselves geared up. I expect to see the blanket ads by law firms within the next day or so. There are already aggrieved owners popping up on TV explaining how emotionally damaged they are, and how they expect to sue. Many people see this as nothing but a giant jackpot ..... free money. Toyota misplayed this, first by focussing on floor mats, than switching to the pedals without really explaining what was going on. It is now unclear whether these issues are the same or if they are different. My Lexus IS is recalled for the floormat issue, but is not on the recall list for the sticky pedals, yet the US Toyota chief was on Fox Business this afternoon saying they focussed too much on the floor mat issue and not following it further to the eventually sticky pedal conclusion. So why is my Lexus IS still being recalled for floor mats when they don't seem to be the issue? They will pay dearly for this unclear explanation, but will recoup their position as the world's no. 1 carmaker. And some lawyers and owners will get paid off by Toyota just to shut them up. And these costs will be rolled into future vehicles. We all end up paying.

pagemaster

It's already started....


http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/0...ss-action.html


Disgruntled Toyota owners have launched multiple class-action lawsuits against the embattled auto manufacturer.

On Monday, Saskatchewan-based firm Merchant Law Group LLP filed lawsuits in at least four Canadian provinces on behalf of Toyota owners demanding damages for the company's role in a massive recall because of faulty accelerator pedals.

"Toyota has misled and harmed the plaintiff and thousands of unsuspecting consumers throughout Canada," a statement on behalf of Kendra Cole of Regina reads.

Similar suits have been launched on behalf of lead plaintiffs Michelle O'Doherty of Abbotsford, B.C., Claire Valliere of Lavigne, Ont., and Jason Green of Hanwell, N.B.

The lawsuits allege that Toyota tried to play down the scope of the problem and violated Canada's Competition Act by using misleading marketing and promotion for their vehicles.

None of the allegations in the suits have been tested in court, and all must be approved by a judge before they can proceed to any sort of trial. An amount being sought was not specified in any of the claims.

Toyota announced it would halt sales and production of some of its most popular models last Tuesday, and began a massive recall of 4.2 million North American vehicles due to concerns over gas pedals that can become stuck in certain instances.

After developing a fix to the problem, Toyota started contacting individual owners of recalled Toyota vehicles on Monday, and they will likely be able to take their vehicles in to be repaired by the middle of the week. The fix consists of adding a steel reinforcement bar to the gas pedal that prevents sticking.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/0...#ixzz0eK7dPONj

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

Just saw a report on the NY TV news that Toyota dealers may stay open 24 hours doing the pedal repair.

encore888

The floor mats are still an issue, but they are not the only issue. In 2007 Toyota recalled the mats (had warnings added IIRC). Then in 2009 after the loaner ES 350 crash (the dealer still can't explain why they had an RX 400h mat in there, even when an earlier driver of the same car complained) they recalled them again (zip ties + remove the mats altogether). At that time they still blamed just the mat.

But the NHTSA smacked them on that a few days later, and Toyota then came up with the larger fix which is applied to their models and the IS/ES: reshape pedal + brake override + remove mats. NHTSA approved this.

Now some Toyota cars have crashed without any mats in them and they had to look deeper, and those defective pedals are an issue. But so far, they are CTS pedals which are not in any Lexus.

This issue is complex to explain, also simply because determining sudden unintended acceleration is also tricky to troubleshoot. In some cases (the ES 350 loaner tragedy), there is a clear trail of evidence, and the accident circumstances can be duplicated (it was definitively caused by a floor mat in the Sheriff's investigative report). However in some other incidents it is not clear, because there is a lack of clear evidence. That's why finding a solution is hard.

In my opinion the brake override should be applied ASAP.

LexBob2

I had my '07 ES in for the recall early last week. According to the work order they did the pedal modification, flooring reconfiguration and replaced the front all-weather mats with the new design. There wasn't any mention of the ECU reflash for the brake overide. Maybe the dealership wasn't ready yet for that change.

On Friday I bought a 2010 ES and all changes had been made prior to delivery.

All of this just FYI.