anyone caught speeding in a Toyota Recently?

[wickedwillie]

Interesting thought:- "Well erm Judge, the accelerator jammed - they have a recall on you know for that !!!!! Do I get off now???"

[mucklestone]

Cars are normally fitted with a clutch and a brake and can be turned off I believe?

[wickedwillie]

Cars are normally fitted with a clutch and a brake and can be turned off I believe?

Yes but you could always plead that it just jammed and you had not had enough time to work out what to do when you noticed the speed camera. I wonder how that would work out in court. Interesting thought

[67688c]

Cars are normally fitted with a clutch and a brake and can be turned off I believe?

I agree.. and no real excuse if it's a manual car.

A large percentage of cars in the USA are automatics, and due to interlocks on the selector may not be so easy to disengage when under load. Many cars now don't use a ignition key either, my own just needs the keyfob to be in your pocket so there's always the risk of the steering lock dropping in if your not careful as may happen in a panic situation.

Though one would have thought even with no clutch to disengage the drive, you would have thought heavy braking including hand brake would have overcome the engine.

Being curious I actually tried my own yesterday, just to see if I could push it into Neutral from the drive position while it was under load at speed, and it went into neutral with no trouble, as I'd heard that some auto's wont let you select neutral if under load. Especially as you cannot stop the engine until it's in neutral or park position. Obviously you cannot select Park while on the move (locked out anyway), unless you wanted the gearbox or propshaft coming through the floor...lol

I think most of these incidents where accidents have followed a stuck accelerator or a faulty cruise control are generall caused by someone not using their head and simply panic.

Whatever the problems, one thing is sure, recalls on this scale is certainly going to cost Toyota a fortune, I hope they have plenty of money in the coffers. Though I suspect the issue may have been blown out of proportion, best to be safe I supose.

[neverton]

Nice to see a car manufacturer doing the recalls, you always hear stories of Ford and GM not bothering to do the recalls as its cheaper to pay the lawsuits (might be myth, but wouldnt surprise me if it was true)

[damian s]

Nice to see a car manufacturer doing the recalls, you always hear stories of Ford and GM not bothering to do the recalls as its cheaper to pay the lawsuits (might be myth, but wouldnt surprise me if it was true)

Probably true for all manufacturers, they will make an informed decision based on the risk......Toyota had to rectify this problem as it is so wide spread and a risk to life, plus they actually care about their customer service!

[67688c]

Nice to see a car manufacturer doing the recalls, you always hear stories of Ford and GM not bothering to do the recalls as its cheaper to pay the lawsuits (might be myth, but wouldnt surprise me if it was true)

I would say there's a lot of truth in that.

Reminds me of that film 'Class Action' story about father and daughter lawers trying to get compo for people who's cars had exploded in flames when hit from the rear when their left blinker was operating.
The cars designer in the film called it the 'Bomb'...lol

On the subject of serious potentially fatal faults, I remember speaking to a couple at Rydales (BMW) Worcester, a few months ago while supping coffee in their customer cafe, apparently he and his wife had just been in a serious incident a few hours earlier on the M5. Apparently the solenoid which operates the steering lock had failed somehow and the steering lock had engaged while going along at around 75mph. He told me that he managed to stop the car quickly but because he could'nt steer, the car ended up in the fast lane and with him stopping... someone had smashed into their rear end.
They were lucky to escape unhurt.

That was on a late model BMW.. cannot recall the model, I believe a few cars like the Mondeo also use a solenoid to operate the steering lock as do probably many other makes too. A lot of cars now use just a keyfob which pushes in the dash, so no physical key, and some cars dont need anything at all inserted, so more reliance on electronics all the time. Dreads thinking about.

I must admit I dont think I'd fancy have that happen to me.

[solorider]

Nice to see a car manufacturer doing the recalls, you always hear stories of Ford and GM not bothering to do the recalls as its cheaper to pay the lawsuits (might be myth, but wouldnt surprise me if it was true)

GM will recall cars over even minor things,back in the 1990s vauxhall/opel recalled all the astra mk3 to fit a clip on the fuel filler neck,the reason was the car may catch fire because of a static shock from filling up the car,there was i believe only one car that did catch fire and that was in europe,the actual risk in england was zero as all our pumps are earthed,not all european pumps are earthed properly

[Guyver1]

GM will recall cars over even minor things,back in the 1990s vauxhall/opel recalled all the astra mk3 to fit a clip on the fuel filler neck,the reason was the car may catch fire because of a static shock from filling up the car,there was i believe only one car that did catch fire and that was in europe,the actual risk in england was zero as all our pumps are earthed,not all european pumps are earthed properly

what was there excuse on the handbrake recall then, it took thousands of letters and a spot on watchdog before they made any effort

[Big Knox]

Cars are normally fitted with a clutch and a brake and can be turned off I believe?

Wouldn't recommend turning off your engine at speed, kiss your power steering goodbye along with your brakes, pretty much a recipe for disaster I would imagine