toyota - "the best built cars in the world"

[ryan0]

ironic huh?

[dedafmonteur]

It can happen to the best of us, trust me dude:)
Ford has his problems, BMW does, every brand does.

[froggy]

Yup Thats Why I Only Drive American Cars, Like
Chevrolet
Dodge
Gmc

[dedafmonteur]

Yup Thats Why I Only Drive American Cars, Like
Chevrolet
Dodge
Gmc

Which have the most problems....

Every brand has his problems, european cars/american cars/asian cars.

so about the american thing is BS

[froggy]

Well I those Cars Mostly Everyday
their dependable ,
Plus I Have Had My Dodge Ram 1500
for About 14 Years

[dedafmonteur]

we have a ford mondeo here that has driven 521.000 KM
It's about how u use it...

[froggy]

Ours Is Like 240,000 miles

[ryan0]

I'm talking about the irony that toyota's european slogan is "the best built cars in the world",yet millions of their cars are being recalled,and a new problem has been discovered with the steering of some of the new models so even more will probably be recalled...

[froggy]

O Ya The Corollas Right

[dedafmonteur]

Igo and Prius.

and guys, THIS IS PRETTY NORMAL!!!!! a lot of brands have recalls. sometimes they modify it when the car needs a inspection.

[SN!P3R]

Dudes, it's a new standard feature, auto-accelerate

[dedafmonteur]

Dudes, it's a new standard feature, auto-accelerate

i didnt go trough the red light!!!! my car didnt slow down officer!....lol

[aquatsr]

It's actually pretty bad. Traditionally, Toyota has been known as a quality brand. With the recalls and problems associated with their newer models (the older ones are probably OK) Toyota is going to have a hard time repairing their image.

Personally, I prefer Honda or Acura.

[SN!P3R]

Trabant > all

[Kilokk]

i will never drive anything but a chevy... after i get to the point where i can be choosy XD

[jrfhoutx]

Look, it is not that bad, just like everything else the media has blown this way out of proportion. I mean really you consider 34 deaths related in some way to this issue in a total of 10 years to be 'pretty bad'? in fact up until the day after toyota officially announced the recall there were only 21 deaths in 17 incidents reported in total (which means that people decided to jump on the band wagon and try and cash in on the class action suits that were sure to be filed). the recall affects 2.3 million vehicles (in the US) over a range of 8 models in the toyota lineup, that means it averages 287,500 vehicles per model nationwide... believe it or not, that's actually a fairly average recall...

 every car manufacturer has recalls (including american and european cars), and they have way more of them than you would imagine, trust me I work with this every day. The public only hears about them when something bad happens because of the manufacturing error (ie. someone crashes and or dies). When I was at Benz we had at least one new recall every month and they involved anywhere from a few hundred vehicles to several hundred thousand vehicles. The number of cars involved in the toyota recall has nothing more to do with anything other than the fact that toyota is one of the biggest selling manufacturers in the world. If you sell more cars, then more cars will be involved in the recall, it's simple math...

I mean, am I the only one who remembers the Ford SUVs with shoddy Firestone tires that would explode and flip the car? or the Ford cars and suvs with the cruise control module that would overheat and catch fire? If you ask me those things are far worse than an accelerator pedal that sticks, I mean jesus, how :censored:ing dumb do you have to be to not think to drop it in neutral, hit the brakes and turn the damn engine off? it's not like you'll blow the engine, they all have rev limiters anyway... Besides, Ford had no problem repairing what image they had left after that and after a few months people forgot about it. once the media stops covering it everyone will forget about it...

And yeah, I kind of agree with ... American made cars have far more issues and are far less reliable than japanese and european cars. if they didn't have so many issues and were a bit more reliable they might sell a few more cars and not have been in the position they were last year... about the only thing that american manufacturers can build right are trucks and even that is changing... and yes froggy a 20 year old dodge, chevy or ford truck is far more reliable and better built than the new ones are...

[dedafmonteur]

Old cars are reliable because they have allmost no electronics...
We have dogde and that kinda stuff over here to, they allmost sell nothing because they are: heavy/retardish big engines and pretty bad quality....

Still.... recalls are normal, it's the media that makes it look like a million people died.
and when your gas pedal is stuck, just brake and it will stop....
it will just stall (or that is what the cars over here do)

[ryan0]

yeah but honestly were those 34 deaths necessary?did those people have to die just because some lazy japanese dude ticked the wrong box?what if that was your dad or mum?

any unnecessary death is a tragedy,those people didn't have to die...

[jrfhoutx]

of the 34 deaths only 21 are confirmed to have been related to this recall, the rest of those attributed to it came after the recall was issued and are unconfirmed to be related. when this happens the ones reported after the recall is issued are usually not related and are an attempt to cash in on the class action lawsuits that will be filed by the legitimate claimants and will more often than not be shown to be unrelated. you'd be amazed at what your car actually records when you get into a crash, I've seen some amazing recreations in court cases... your car knows far more about what is happening to it than you do and by reading back the freeze frame data a good technician can completely recreate an incident without any information from the people involved in it...

actually if you read a little more about what the problem is it has nothing to do with someone being lazy and 'ticking the wrong box'... the problem happens on cars that have over 30k miles. the problem comes into play when there is wear in the mechanics of the pedal assembly, not that the wrong assembly was installed... every part on a car wears over time, it's part of the industry, it's called 'planned obsolescence.' every item on a car is meant to wear over time so that you must either replace the part or replace the vehicle, that's how these companies stay in business...

are the 34 deaths necessary? no I agree that they are not, but they do happen and 3.4 deaths a year is an insanely low number. how many people die in alcohol-related accidents every year? in '08 in the US it was over 13,000, for the same time frame as the toyota deaths (10 years) there were over 140,000... If you ask me that's far more of a tragedy than the toyota recall, those people didn't have to die either. and they died because some made a :censored:ty decision and drove home after hanging at the pub, not because some car part wore improperly... whether you do it consciously or not, every time you get into a car you accept the risk that you could die in any number of ways. be it from a poorly manufactured accelerator pedal or from some drunk douchebag, that's a risk you accept when you get in a car and based on probability it's far safer than many other things...

For your consideration:
Your lifetime odds of dying of a particular cause are calculated by dividing the one-year odds by the life expectancy of a person born in that year. For example, in 2003 about 45,000 Americans died in motor accidents out of population of 291,000,000. So, according to the National Safety Council this means your one-year odds of dying in a car accident is about one out of 6500. Therefore your lifetime probability (6500 ÷ 78 years life expectancy) of dying in a motor accident are about one in 83.

What about your chances of dying in an airplane crash? A one-year risk of one in 400,000 and one in 5,000 lifetime risk. What about walking across the street? A one-year risk of one in 48,500 and a lifetime risk of one in 625. Drowning? A one-year risk of one in 88,000 and a one in 1100 lifetime risk. In a fire? About the same risk as drowning. Murder? A one-year risk of one in 16,500 and a lifetime risk of one in 210. What about falling? Essentially the same as being murdered. And the proverbial being struck by lightning? A one-year risk of one in 6.2 million and a lifetime risk of one in 80,000. And what is the risk that you will die of a catastrophic asteroid strike? In 1994, astronomers calculated that the chance was one in 20,000. However, as they've gathered more data on the orbits of near earth objects, the lifetime risk has been reduced to one in 200,000 or more.

edit:
Odds of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip: 500,000,000 to 1

Odds of being killed sometime in the next year in any sort of transportation accident: 77 to 1

Odds of being killed in any sort of non-transportation accident: 69 to 1

[budgray19]

my friend had a 1979 ford f100 with a extended bed. (VERRRRY LONG TRUCK) with a 454 and it went a round the mile meter 3 times. its about to pass its 4th time

[aquatsr]

jrfhoutx you're absolutely right. It is the media blowing it up. But you gotta keep in mind, people respond to popular opinion, which is driven in part by the media. Even if it's not a real technical problem on Toyota's end, it's still a very real PR nightmare.

On the other hand, a critical part failing after only 30,000 miles is ridiculous.

[dedafmonteur]

Ford escort had the problem something was wrong with the electronics and it would lock your doors and wont let u out.

thats even worse and no one knew about it.

[ryan0]

Ford escort had the problem something was wrong with the electronics and it would lock your doors and wont let u out.

thats even worse and no one knew about it.

you could still open the windows

[dedafmonteur]

you could still open the windows

no, because that version had electronic windows.

and again: THIS KINDA STUFF HAPPENDS EVERYDAY BUT NO ONE HEARS ABOUT IT!!

[ryan0]

no, because that version had electronic windows.

and again: THIS KINDA STUFF HAPPENDS EVERYDAY BUT NO ONE HEARS ABOUT IT!!

No,I know the exact fault you're talking about,my dad had bought one of them escorts,you could definitely still open the windows,I still remember having to climb in and out of the windows occasionally

[budgray19]

and even still doors failing isnt worse than no brakes and a jammed throttle  . people died because they didnt think to shut off the car...

[jrfhoutx]

and even still doors failing isnt worse than no brakes and a jammed throttle  .

true, but those two recalls will only be seen on vehicles at the same time in extremely rare cases. the brake recall only affects 7300 2010 camrys in the US

people died because they didnt think to shut off the car...

very true, this should be a common sense action, but common sense isn't really that common (and I find that far more ironic than toyota's european slogan in light of the recall)...

[budgray19]

see the way i see it is if my accelerator is jammed id put teh i neutral coast to a slower speed(because u loose steering when u shut ur car off) yea the engine will rev high but most cars has rev limiters. like while in park and neutral my car revs limit is 35000 to 4000 rpm. so my engine wont blow. and if it does hey the recall should  pay for my engine. and if it came down to it id be alive... maby out of a car but ill be alive

[dedafmonteur]

pay for your engine? lmao
Bud, a car can endure much much more than that, trust me.

The recall is overrated by the media they made it worse...

a few recalls i can remember:

- The VW Passat had the problem the turbo would blow up and it would shred your engine.
- The Fiat Croma (old one) had the problem the cranckshaft wasnt balanced well. After a few 1000 miles it would get the same frequenty as the engine and split in two trought the bottom of the engine.
- The range rover sport had the problem it wouldn't brake hard enough. if you pressed the pedal full down it wouldnt brake fast enough....

[jrfhoutx]

see the way i see it is if my accelerator is jammed id put teh i neutral coast to a slower speed(because u loose steering when u shut ur car off)

that's exactly what you should do, however you don't lose steering you simply lose the power assist, you can still steer the car it will just take a little more effort...

pay for your engine? lmao

Yes, pay for the engine. the manufacturer will pay for replacement if it is related to and caused by the recall.

[dedafmonteur]

Yes, pay for the engine. the manufacturer will pay for replacement if it is related to and caused by the recall.

Yes ofc. but not with the stuck gas thing.
You can let it stall by just brake and put it into neutral.

[ryan0]

in all fairness who would think of jumping the gears to cut the engine when your car is suddenly accelerating into a wall?!
nobody would,so don't even say that you would...

and whoever said "turn the car off",have you seen what a car does when you turn off the ignition while it's driving?The steering lock engages so you can't steer....then you're in even more trouble...

The point is these people died for almost no reason,who cares about probability or whatever,road accidents happen (unfortunately),but if toyota had tested the cars further then these people would probably still be living and the lives of their families would not have been shattered...

[jrfhoutx]

Yes ofc. but not with the stuck gas thing.

yes, even with the stuck gas pedal thing. if your pedal sticks you put it in neutral and the the engine over-revs past the limiter and blows the engine before you can turn the engine off then that is a related failure and the manufacturer will cover the repair. the engine failure would be caused by the gas pedal failure, that is a related failure and therefore covered by the manufacturer...

in all fairness who would think of jumping the gears to cut the engine when your car is suddenly accelerating into a wall?!
nobody would,so don't even say that you would...

I said it. I would say it again and I have been in a similar situation and that's what I did. If you don't panic and keep a clear head then you have the ability to think of these things. I stand by that it should be common sense.

and whoever said "turn the car off",have you seen what a car does when you turn off the ignition while it's driving?The steering lock engages so you can't steer....then you're in even more trouble...

Again, I said that, it is still the correct thing to do and it is what Toyota themselves say to do (trust me I work for them). Look, there are 4 positions to a cars ignition switch: Lock, Acc, On, Start. the only position that locks the steering wheel is the Lock position and you don't need to turn the key into that position to turn off the engine. In both the Acc and On position the wheel is not and you are still able to turn the steering wheel, you will not have power assistance but you will be able to steer it will just take a bit more effort.

The point is these people died for almost no reason,who cares about probability or whatever,road accidents happen (unfortunately),but if toyota had tested the cars further then these people would probably still be living and the lives of their families would not have been shattered...

Everyone that dies in a car accident dies for "almost no reason." yes, accidents happen and yes, it is unfortunate, but most of them are preventable and most are due to driver error. Toyota (and every other car manufacturer) tests their vehicles extensively prior to retail release. the first 500 vehicles are manufactured solely for testing. this includes crash, driveability, and extended road testing. vehicles for extended testing will be driven several hundred thousand miles before they are signed off on, this is done to test durability and wear in the vehicles and is done to simulate the average life expectancy of these vehicles.


The accelerator wear issue is a manufacturing quality issue. toyota does not manufacture the components that they put in their vehicles, they just design them, put them together, test them and sell them. it's just like a computer or a game console the manufacturing of components is contracted out to other companies...

[dedafmonteur]

Your steering wheel will only lock of you pull out your key and yank the steeringwheel after that.

End conclusion: Take a bike if you think THAT'S safe....lol

[budgray19]

well yea i forgot u still have steering.  i tho for a sec last night then how could u push and steer if u run out of gas.  yea