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damn, another prius
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Anonymous
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I somehow missed this. I drive a prius and have an infant. Goddamn. Anyone else seriously considering dumping your prius? Probably can't even sell it for much. We have a 2008.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100310/ts_nm/us_toyota_prius |
Anonymous
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I thought she said she wasn't sure if it was an accelerator problem or something else.
And I also thought Priuses weren't included in the recalls. ? I guess it would depend on my financial situation whether I dumped the Prius or not. I have a Honda, which I love. If it were (or becomes) subject to this, I think I'd first do what I can to have it inspected/repaired and also educate myself on what to do if the car accelerates on its own. Is Toyota addressing this? Is anyone? I thought that shifting into neutral was enough, but apparently it's not. What happens to an automatic car when you turn off the ignition while driving? Switch it to the accessory mode and you can still turn the steering wheel, right? But will it lock up the transmission or just let you drift to a stop? I wish I understood the electronics that are used in cars these days. |
Anonymous
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I really feel for people with these cars. I almost bought one.
Priuses were not in the recall but it seems like they should have been. I would like to know how long Toyota has known that Priuses may have a problem. And why in the world hasn't the NTSB forced Toyota to recall Priuses - or have they by now? |
Anonymous
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They tell you in the recall notice (I just got one for a Camry hybrid) that you should stand with both feet on the brake, shift to neutral and shut the car off.
I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist but I have this nagging feeling that the guy in Cali that the police slowed was a fake. I know it's not rational, but there have been so few of these incidents up to now, so why would all of a sudden, there be a bunch. They had a story on NPR about sudden acceleration and they said it's rare (even for Toyotas). |
Anonymous
I thought the Cali guy was a fake too. He had a corvette jacket on. so maybe he was used to driving fast cars? 90 mph on a highway is pretty manageable? |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| Even the yuppies aren't safe anymore. |
Anonymous
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I think it's a combination. The problem is really happening, and there are also people who hear about it and become convinced it's happened to them (think about something like swine flu, covered heavily in the media, and everybody with a cough runs to the doctor).
There are also people who otherwise might not have bothered to report it - maybe they imagined it, surely such a thing can't happen, my mechanic told me I'm crazy, no one is going to believe me, etc. etc. Now they know they can speak up. |
Anonymous
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It doesn't say it was fake. Did you read it? It says he's bankrupt, not suing Toyota and they wonder if he staged it. |
Anonymous
| There is a special procedure for handling sudden acceleration in a prius but I am not certain enough to explain it. You should look it up. It involves the power button. |
Anonymous
And a Dr. Huxtable sweater. |
jsteele
Site Admin Online
Site Admin Online
I think the issue to which you are referring is the procedure for turning off the ignition. Apparently, you have to hold the button in for several seconds. Prior to turning off the ignition, you should shift to neutral. The guy in the "runaway" Prius refused to do that because he said he thought the car would flip over. It is very hard to imagine how cutting power from the engine would cause a flip. Given that this guy was some sort of auto enthusiast, I find it hard to believe that he truthfully believed that shifting to neutral might cause the car to flip. As a result, I lean toward this being a Balloon Boy type event. |
Anonymous
Perhaps Pat Robertson will say that it's God's way of dealing with liberals. |
Anonymous
LOL |
Anonymous
OP here. Thanks for the much-needed humor. I actually also had a weird, gut reaction that the guy in cali was a fake, but I think that was down to the reporting, which noted that he'd had the experience and then launched into how he was a contestant on multiple game shows (or something like that) which kind of suggested he was an attention-grabber. But the police said his brakes were worn down to practically nothing, so who knows? I'm definitely high-strung and exciteable. I try to make common sense prevail, but I just worried before the recall (when everything else was being recalled) that this was going to be a problem with our prius as well. Mainly because of the floor mat recall. I mean, come on. If your accellerator was stuck, don't you think you'd know if the freaking floor mat was sitting on top of it? I know some people might have panicked about it and not had the presence of mind to move the floor mat off the pedal, but everyone it happened to? And I guess I just don't necessarily trust Toyota. Of course, I absolutely love the car. It's that more than the financial aspect that has us hesitating to dump it. We probably owe about 10K on it, and could pay it off if we wanted to (we'd take a huge haircut on it and aren't really in the position to WANT to do that, but we could, without too much impact other than putting some other plans on hold and maybe foregoing a vacation this year) but I like the car. I think the thing to do is to just hold off selling, see what / if anything the fix seems to be, and then have it fixed. Meantime, our other car (my husband's) is an SUV. I suppose we might drive that around until some of these reports become more clear. Thanks for the calming words... |