OT - do you know what neutral does?

[tim eh?]

man oh man - I just watched another runaway toyota on the news. There was an audio recording of his panicked discussion with a dispatch officer.

dispatch: Have you tried putting in neutral?

driver: ...no

dispatch: Can you try doing that now?

driver: ... uhhh

Toyota - Darwin's finest warrior.

[Ferret]

This whole toyota runaway thing gets me unspeakably mad every time I hear of it.

It's not hard to stop a car, even if it's an auto!

[Ross]

"Toyota - Darwin's finest warrior"
^^should be a bumper sticker^^

The media is using the term sudden acceleration in the same sentence with Toyota Prius.
Now THAT'S funny

[Ferret]

The media is using the term sudden acceleration in the same sentence with Toyota Prius.

Yeah, I saw an amusing news report the other day, where someone said basically just that with a massive blast of sarcasm.

It was a report on the "runaway" where the media reported a police cruiser having to physically stop a Toyota. When the officer filed a report it differed - what had really happened was the cars contacted AFTER they'd got onto the shoulder and almost stopped.

[BennyM]

Anyone else find all these Toyota reports unusually....convenient? ...especially for the (once) Big Three? I wonder how much of a hand other auto manufacturers had in hyping or even staging SOME of these incidents. I'm not loyal to Toyota, but this whole ordeal does seem to be specific to the North American market.

[Ferret]

Anyone else find all these Toyota reports unusually....convenient? ...especially for the (once) Big Three? I wonder how much of a hand other auto manufacturers had in hyping or even staging SOME of these incidents. I'm not loyal to Toyota, but this whole ordeal does seem to be specific to the North American market.

Yeah, Toyota are in hot water with the american big three at the moment for this:
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/09/alliance-of-american-automobile-manufacturers-in-peril-over-toyo/

I think most of this is just bull with people trying to make a quick buck and/or open the door to litigation. Typical.

Dont forget though, it could be down to a component that's produced stateside and is used only in US spec cars, it's dependant on where the part was sourced from...

[Black 535i]

http://toyotasimulator.com/

It's a hoot!

[Russell]

Anyone else find all these Toyota reports unusually....convenient? ...especially for the (once) Big Three? I wonder how much of a hand other auto manufacturers had in hyping or even staging SOME of these incidents. I'm not loyal to Toyota, but this whole ordeal does seem to be specific to the North American market.

NPR had a study of acceleration issues by manufaturer and by year. it reveals that Toyota is not the heavest offender by a fairly large margin. Not much publicity on the report however. Makes you wonder about various agendas of media and Washington.

[SnakeyesTx]

Found this article about two weeks ago when this was just starting to smell a little funny ... think some of you will find this rather interesting :

The part in question, a sticky accelerator pedal, is not made by Toyota, but by the Elkhart, Indiana-based company CTS. CTS supplies the same part to Ford, GM, and the U.S. military. So why is LaHood picking on Toyota? Could it be an attempt to capture market share for the (essentially) government owned GM? Or is it warning to Japan over its insistence that the U.S. pull out of its base in Okinawa?

Oh an about that "neutral" question...

What about just keying the engine off? Are people that stupid to forget how to key a car off? I know most Toyota drivers around me love to do 27 mph everywhere and make me late for everything, but if ANYTHING, I thought Toyota's came out of the factory with the brakes partially applied all the time with how slow some of these retards drive them! :p

[Tiger]

That's true about the American manufacturer for the accelerator. Can you imagine how it can be miscontrued when the congress demands an explaination from Toyota president?

"But we didn't make that part... an American company made them... they made it for all other american cars too...."

"What? Are you anti-american or something"

"Just stating the fact..."

Speaking of which my friend owns a Cadillac STS...2007 and he has the same problem... twice so far.

[whiskychaser]

Dont know if they ever got to the bottom of this. But I remember thinking it was a load of b....cks at the time:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/2006/03/11/my-sixty-mile-terror-ride-in-runaway-bmw-86908-16800417/

[Tiger]

Dude.... that's insane... I wouldn't turn off the engine... it would mean loss of power steering... can't set to neutral... engine overrevvving... Don't cut my car.... geez!

You couldn't shift to N and turn off the engine?

[whiskychaser]

I think this says it all:
Kevin, a truck driver, bought the 1.8 litre 1998 BMW a year ago from a dealer for £4395. He spent £3000 on a sound system for it
Some questions:
Who buys a 1.8?
Who spends £3K on a sound system?
Who spends £3K on a sound system for a £4K car?
Would you employ Kevin to drive your 44 tonne truck when he cant even stop his car?
Kevin probably drives a transit van and is deaf as a post.

[Tiger]

Maybe this should be part of standard truck driver license test...

1. Your truck is accelerating out of control.... what do you do first?

a. Protect from overrevving engine... keep in gear.
b. Shift to Neutral
c. Hang on for fiery crash.

2. When brake fail due to runaway engine, what do you do?

a. Do not shut off engine because of loss of power steering.
b. Turn off ignition.
c. Blast horn to warn traffic.

[bubba966]

What an f-tard. Seriously, the car has a rev limiter that'll protect it from over-revving. Only get damage from over-rev if your software isn't stock and has a higher limiter and you engine isn't in proper shape to cope with the higher limit. Or if you money shift it and mechanically force it past the rev limiter.

Shifting it neutral won't money shift it...

And sure, he'd loose power steering if he shut it off while driving. But he'd still have plenty of steering to safely pull it off to the side of the road.

[whiskychaser]

Maybe this should be part of standard truck driver license test...

1. Your truck is accelerating out of control.... what do you do first?

a. Protect from overrevving engine... keep in gear.
b. Shift to Neutral
c. Hang on for fiery crash.

2. When brake fail due to runaway engine, what do you do?

a. Do not shut off engine because of loss of power steering.
b. Turn off ignition.
c. Blast horn to warn traffic.

The A1 is like a US 'I' road. You can do all of 1&2 and still have time for lunch. I wonder how the driver would have been treated in US:
'Uhuh, you drove for half an hour with no brakes? Why was that Sir?'
'You wanted to turn off the key but there wasnt a staight piece of road? Shoot!'
'Serves you damn right for driving that european ****. Dont mean you get a free pass'

[632 Regal]

first off this particular car does not shut off with a key (has a start button) however it will go into neutral. Secondly last I read these cars came with brakes that will shurly not be over powered by that 1.8 fire breating go go getter. 3rd, the guy refused everything the officer was telling him to do. 4th this went on for what? in excess of 20 minutes?

5th: Oh and by the way this guy took the car into the dealer the day before and when they told him there was NO recall on his car he was soo pissed off that they noted the incident. Guess he was initially demanding some sort of refund (hearsay).

And 6th, the guy said he used the emergency brake and that stopped the car... has anyone ever used their parking brake to slow their car down from 100 mph? Okay than, case closed.

[Ferret]

first off this particular car does not shut off with a key (has a start button) however it will go into neutral.

This is what I dont understand, in Europe I'm almost certain a car doesnt get approval for road use unless the engine can be stopped under all situations.

This means mashing the stop/start engine button will make the engine stop right the **** now! I'd imagine that the US has the same type of legal stuff - and I cant imagine them changing the software too much from EU to US versions of the car... that's just bad practice.

I've heard a lot of "but it wouldnt shift to neutral because the car was under full power!" comments - but the gearbox isnt this kind of locked-in device or we'd all be stuck in first gear every time we went WOT because it cant disengage under power!

Morons.