Chronicling the Ever-Changing Automotive Industry
As part of one of Toyota’s recalls, the 2004-2009 Prius already has enough attention. Adding to this is a video and report of a California man whose Prius took off on him – unintended acceleration and all. The man’s car took after trying to pass a slower-moving vehicle, and a California Highway Patrol officer used his PA system to talk the driver and inform him how to stop the car. Read on for more details and video.
Continue reading ‘CNN: Cops help Prius driver stop runaway (w/Video)’
Toyota pushed back yesterday, and hard. They say that Dr. Gilbert, who worked with ABC News to show the unintended acceleration problem with a Toyota Avalon, falsified his results. They tested several different makes and models, and found that Dr. Gilbert’s modification caused all of them to accelerate out of control. The kicker: in Toyota’s tests, none of the other manufacturers’ cars had any error codes in their computers either. Very compelling evidence, and I hope someone gets to the bottom of it soon. Click past the jump to see the video.
Continue reading ‘PedalGate Update – with Video’
Toyota Avalon
Last year, Toyota released a “Limited Service Campaign” (LSC) for some of its V6-equipped vehicles. An LSC shouldn’t be confused with a recall, because recalls are for safety issues and the LSCs are for “customer satisfaction,” according to Toyota. This campaign is for a defective oil line for the affected engines. Over time, a rubber portion of the line may degrade, causing oil to leak out, the engine to make odd noises, and the oil pressure light to illuminate on the vehicle’s dashboard.
Continue reading ‘Toyota expands Oil Leak Fix to new models’
So the hearings are going on in Congress, with consumers, senators, congressmen, Akio Toyoda and the NHTSA, among others. Ed Towns, who has spearheaded efforts to drag Toyota into Congress, has said that Toyota withheld documents it was required to turn over to regulators during recalls and investigations throughout the last several years. It hid them by settling in multi-million dollar court cases when the discovery of said documents was likely. On top of that, Toyoda himself said the company will pay to fix the issues. That’s the year’s biggest “duh” moment, if you ask me.
Continue reading ‘PedalGate: Updates from this week’
AutoBlog is breaking the news that Hyundai has ordered all sales of 2011 Sonatas to be stopped, due to a faulty door lock. Many Fords and other brands have allowed passengers to open the doors by pulling on the interior door handle, even if it’s locked. Hyundai has a problem with their version of the design, wherein if the door lock switch is held in the “lock” position while the door handle is pulled, it may not return to a closed, and therefore latched, position. This would lead to a door which doesn’t latch closed, definitely a problem.
While approximately 5,000 Sonatas have been sold, Hyundai is heading this one off at the pass, a good call given rival Toyota’s recent troubles. Keep your browser tuned here for more news as it becomes available.
by John Suit
Source: AutoBlog
A while back, I wrote that Toyota was installing a “brake override” system on its cars. As it turns out, they’ve also begun adding the system to recalled cars as well as ones in its sales pipeline. Today, Toyota announced that it would be expanding the lineup of cars receiving the override, to include the Tacoma, Venza and Sequoia. While the former two are getting the fix when they show up for any of the recalls, Sequoia owners will be sent a letter and will be allowed to schedule a time to get the brake override installed. Previously, only the Toyota Avalon, Camry, Lexus IS and ES cars were receiving the override system upgrade. The brake override system ignores gas pedal input when the brakes are pressed, in order to help prevent runaway cars.
by John Suit
Source: Toyota
