Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to Me

[EddieNFL]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I work at a Toyota dealer service department and all this is driving fucking batshit. There's not a goddamned thing wrong with the fucking cars we're 'fixing' all day every day. Note that ALL the drivers have been old and short, just like the Audi drivers years ago.
As for the reports of "still doing it after the modifications" that's all bullshit. Toyota owners bitch if their dash clock is off, and if the seat heater isn't warm enough, and bring their cars to us if a turn signal bulb fails.</div></div>

Once had a customer insist we "broke" his A/C while replacing the brake pads. I had to show him how to press the A/C button.

 

[The Mechanic]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: EddieNFL</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I work at a Toyota dealer service department and all this is driving fucking batshit. There's not a goddamned thing wrong with the fucking cars we're 'fixing' all day every day. Note that ALL the drivers have been old and short, just like the Audi drivers years ago.
As for the reports of "still doing it after the modifications" that's all bullshit. Toyota owners bitch if their dash clock is off, and if the seat heater isn't warm enough, and bring their cars to us if a turn signal bulb fails.</div></div>

Once had a customer insist we "broke" his A/C while replacing the brake pads. I had to show him how to press the A/C button.</div></div>
Man could I go on for days....
I will give you my first WTF? I can remember.
70's, lady comes in says her car uses to much gas, smells bad, blows black smoke all the time and runs like crap except when she starts it cold. I check this thing out top to bottom. Float levels, carb adjustments, vac leaks, pcv for plugging, on and on and on. Finally I ask the writer to let me drive with the lady. I get in, then she gets in and pulls the choke out and puts her purse on the pulled out knob.... WTF?

 

[EddieNFL]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">she gets in and pulls the choke out and puts her purse on the pulled out knob.... WTF?</div></div>

Classic!

I'll bet she was irritated you told her she couldn't use the purse hanger anymore.

 

[Queequeg]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

This is where a guy like NOBODY would come in handy. Let these short/old imbeciles go before NOBODY and pull this shit.

I'm guessing these kinds of horseshit, lawsuit experiments would come to a frightend, screeching stop.

 

[1911fan]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The Mechanic</div><div class="ubbcode-body">You're not special in that department, you should work with Corvette owners. Cheap bastards want everything under warranty for 20 years or 300,000 miles whichever comes second. It is just the current times we live in that people have come to expect more for less money when it comes to cars. I would imagine it is in every industry now.
So with him being short, he is I saw him in person, why do you think that has something to do with it? Just curious. </div></div>

First, to clarify- They dont neccessarily want it free, though some expect it, they want it <span style="font-weight: bold">right.</span> One of the things that helps with Toyota's longevity and owner happiness is that the vast majoriy of the owners follow Toyota' maintenance programs faithfully, and are on good terms with their dealer's service department. (One of our regulars came in with a couple dozen fresh baked cookies today.) They don't mind paying for things to be done, because they like their cars, often keep them for hundreds of thousands of miles, and view maintenance as an investment. Which proves out.

Short people: The vast majority of drivers in the Audi cases were short and old. I'll see if I can find the article written by (IIRC) the NHTSA employee who led the investigation. Every Toyota driver claiming unintended acceleration has been over 61, one was 91.


111fan

 

[Tuna921]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

New computer data has cast doubt on a case of an alleged "runaway" Prius in Harrison, N.Y.

A 56-year-old woman in Harrison, N.Y., drove this 2005 Toyota Prius into a stone wall on March 9, 2010. She says the car began accelerating and would not stop accelerating.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today said an examination of the "vehicle's onboard computer systems" found there was "no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open." The findings contradict the driver's claim that she was had hit the brakes, but they failed to stop the car.

On the morning of Tuesday, March 9, a 56-year-old woman in Harrison said her Prius suddenly accelerated as she pulled out of a driveway and sped across the street before it slammed into a stone wall.

At the time, acting Harrison police chief Capt. Anthony Marraccini supported the driver's account of stepping on the brake pedal. However, after reviewing the vehicle data provided by Toyota, Marraccini reversed himself and told reporters "human error" may have been the cause of the crash.

 

[Guest]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

Not surprising, Tuna.
I expect we'll see more cases like this until the cops finally realize that the drivers are using the bad press to their advantage.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: tucker301</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Not surprising, Tuna.
I expect we'll see more cases like this until the cops finally realize that the <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #009900"><span style="font-size: 17pt">drivers are using the bad press to their advantage.</span></span></span></div></div>

Whatareyatalkingabout?

That couldn't be, it'd NEVER happen.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about.











Ok, that about covers my sarcasm for the day. Maybe even the week. Hopefully that's a trend worth starting, eh?

 

[The Mechanic]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

It is about as common as people that thought they put the car into reverse, look back and drive right through the convenience store right in front of them. Not realizing they put it into drive. Panicking they think they have their foot on the brake and just push harder and harder on the gas

 

[Tuna921]

Re: Runaway Prius Guy's Story Seems a Bit Shaky to

Toyota's general counsel is calling on ABC News president David Westin to retract and apologize for a cocked-up story by America's Wrongest Reporter, Brian Ross. UPDATE: ABC News' response is below.

Last month, Ross filed a report featuring a test conducted by David Gilbert, an Illinois professor who claimed to have found a way to induce unintended acceleration in Toyotas without triggering an error code that would allow mechanics to diagnose the problem. The exercise was supposed to prove that it's theoretically possible for Toyotas to accelerate without command and then show no sign of having done so later on.

Ross himself took a little on-camera death ride. And to make it seem even scarier, he took a staged shot of a surging tachometer taken while the car was parked and stitched it in to the piece to make it look like it was happening while he was driving. ABC News later changed the online version of the story after we asked them about the fakery.

The story had other problems, according to Toyota: As the company demonstrated in a lengthy online rebuttal, Gilbert's test almost certainly can't be replicated under real-world conditions. He essentially rewired a Toyota to do what he wanted it to do—accelerate without command and without generating an error code—which is kind of like leaving the gas on a stove on for a few hours and lighting a match to prove that America's kitchens are littered with millions of ticking timebombs. Engineers from Stanford working on Toyota's behalf were able to rewire a Subarus, Honda, Chevrolet, and Ford in the same manner.

And Ross didn't disclose in his report that Gilbert had previously been paid as a consultant by Sean Kane, an investigator working for plaintiff's lawyers in lawsuits against Toyota, and has an agreement with Kane paying him $150 an hour for work "going forward." In the March 11 letter, a copy of which was provided to Gawker by a source close to Toyota, the company says Ross "singularly failed in his basic duty as a journalist to disclose material information about Professor Gilbert that would have directly influenced his credibility with the audience." It also accuses him of "rush[ing] out his report on the eve of important congressional hearings concerning Toyota" and failing to offer the company an opportunity to examine Gilbert's test before responding. Indeed, on February 23, the day after Ross' story aired, Gilbert testified before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the death-ride came up.