seven seas

You'd think the guy would have bothered finding out before goign to the interview. It's not like a major recall for a safety-critical issue has been done by Toyota happens every day, is it?


As for the Jeep's windows , it is difficult to reverse-engineer a design fault, but very easy to deliberately buy motors with a shorter lifespan in order to cut corners and save money.

Roadking

This isn't the first problem of it's type for Toyota. If memory serves, they had a recall on Camry in 2001 for a similar problem but only some 50'000+ cars built in the US. 7.6 million and counting on this recall.

But yes, you would think he would be up to speed before the press conference/interview.

seven seas

So poor old Camry drivers are just misunderstood, and not the w**kers we all thought they were?I didn't even hear about that recall in 2001.

benzonar

Well so far they are just recalling two types of Toyota in the UAE, the Avalon and the Sequoia.

Roadking

I guess it's a case of watch this space.

seven seas

I'm just gonna give Sequoias a wide berth (as usual)And Camrys.And 4x4s.And the Ferraris.And the minivans.And the Maximas. And the taxis. And the buses.

Roadking

Looks like it could also involve Lexus and possibly Honda...

In the accident that has drawn perhaps the most publicity, a 2009 Lexus ES 350 raced through San Diego, weaving at 120 miles an hour through rush-hour freeway traffic. Veteran California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor was at the wheel, with his wife, teenage daughter and brother-in-law aboard.

"We're in trouble. . . . There's no brakes," Saylor's brother-in-law told a police dispatcher over a cellphone. As they approached an intersection, and the end of the road, the passengers could be heard urging each other to pray. All four died.

Afterward, investigators said that it appeared the brakes had been applied for so long that the brake pads melted, according to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Had a brake override system been at work, the engine would have been depowered -- not turned off, but slowed.

Until recently, an accelerator pedal opened the throttle mechanically. But newer pedals control the engine via sensors and a computer.

The new throttle electronics and software have often themselves been the focus of some suspicion in the runaway crashes.

Whatever the causes of accidents, engineers noted that there are trade-offs in using brake override systems. For example, some customers prefer to be able to apply the brake and step on the accelerator without reducing power to the engine, especially in high-performance driving.

Toyota, moreover, is not the only automaker to eschew the fail-safe technology.

In an e-mail, Honda spokeswoman Christina Ra said that "Honda and Acura vehicles do not apply any override logic between brake and accelerator pedal inputs. . . . We continue to accept application of the accelerator and brake pedals as representing the driver's intention."

But experts said that the value of the brake override systems is that they can mitigate acceleration problems no matter where they come from. Toyota, as well as the NHTSA, appear to have struggled in diagnosing exactly what is causing the trouble.

"A brake override system can paper over a multitude of mistakes," Kane said.