damn, another prius

[Anonymous]

OP, I understand your concern. Especially with kids in the car. All in all, though, it seems to be an extremely rare event. It seems the shifting in neutral and turning off the car would be the best bet (please verify that from someone more knowledgable than me). But I'm a big fan of knowledge is power, so constantly replaying your emergency scenario over in your head will do a lot to help you if (in the rare event) it happens.

[Anonymous]

Did anyone see this article in the LATimes earlier in the week? Really upsetting-- Toyota is linked to human rights abuses, human trafficking, and sweatshop labor related to its importation of guest workers from Vietnam and China for its factories in Japan. Also, their union in Japan has been trying to alert management for years about problems but were ignored. The article notes, too, that between 2000 and 2005 Toyota had a 36% recall rate-- higher than any other company. Seems that although some acceleration problems today are more of a "piling on" of negative publicity, the media allowed Toyota to coast on its good reputation far longer than was merited.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-canaries8-2010mar08,0,1192458.story

[Anonymous]

I've read that report on human rights violations, etc. There is a problem, yes. But the report gets a lot of things wrong, too, starting with the allegation in the article that its wages at plants in the US are going to depress wages across the US auto industry. I guarantee you that the UAW isn't going to let that happen.

With regard to the acceleration problems, I drive a 2008 Prius and also have an infant. I'm honestly not worried. The chance of something happening is incredibly remote. Your risk of dying in a car accident, generally, is higher than your risk of dying in a runaway Prius/Toyota. There's just a whole lot of publicity and sensational journalism surrounding the Toyota crashes, which makes that seem far scarier and threatening than the risks posed by a Ford, for example.

And just to show that I'm not so cool-headed and rational all the time, I'll admit to being completely paranoid about someone running a light and crashing into the passenger side of my car, where the carseat is located. Everyone has their own thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've read that report on human rights violations, etc. There is a problem, yes. But the report gets a lot of things wrong, too, starting with the allegation in the article that its wages at plants in the US are going to depress wages across the US auto industry. I guarantee you that the UAW isn't going to let that happen.

With regard to the acceleration problems, I drive a 2008 Prius and also have an infant. I'm honestly not worried. The chance of something happening is incredibly remote. Your risk of dying in a car accident, generally, is higher than your risk of dying in a runaway Prius/Toyota. There's just a whole lot of publicity and sensational journalism surrounding the Toyota crashes, which makes that seem far scarier and threatening than the risks posed by a Ford, for example.

And just to show that I'm not so cool-headed and rational all the time, I'll admit to being completely paranoid about someone running a light and crashing into the passenger side of my car, where the carseat is located. Everyone has their own thing.

With the heavy blow to the auto industry during this recession, will the UAW continue to be the force that it once was? I am thinking non-unionized contract and PT workers will become a major part of the auto industry in the near future.