I could only imagine how it would feel driving a car where gas pedal sticks to the ground when you push down. As fate would have it, I drive a Toyota. Under normal circumstances I am quite fond of the brand, especially since as a general rule I don't buy anything that's union made unless a trade union has monopolized an individual labour force. I can sleep a little better a night knowing that none of my money is going to CAW or Buzz Hargrove's pension. With the lease on my Toyota soon to expire, I will start exploring new options. I am likely to be riding a bicycle until I can finally pay off my student loans, but still it is nice to dream a better dream.
I really have no idea about the status of the car market. What's out there at a good price, non union, that you like driving? I need you to bring me up to speed, or is that a bad pun given the gas pedal recall? I am assuming this is going to destroy my chances at winning the National Post's Stock Market Challenge, as I was holding Toyota. Damned faulty gas pedals!
I'm crushed by this.
ReplyDeleteBut I still love my 2007 Corolla.
I have to say that anyone who can't deal with this successfully and safely has no business being behind the wheel.
ReplyDeleteHonestly? Think about *this* particular Toyota:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kmfx2uNzss
Seriously, you think that people who can't handle a car with a gas pedal stuck to the floor should not be allowed to drive? Let's put this into the standard driver's test then. Before anyone can get a license, they have to drive a car with the gas pedal stuck to the floor.
ReplyDeleteDid it in a 1970 datsun 1000 through the pine pass in winter, scariest drive of my life.
ReplyDelete6 times my accelerator stuck and I was just fortunate it was a standard transmission and I could throw it in neutral and turn the engine off each time,hundreds of miles from civilization.
Nobody can safely deal with this on today's crowded roads, that's just ludicrous, nor are many cars real standard transmissions nowadays, coasting in neutral will kill most new car's transmissions.
There are widely differing accounts about this issue. Phil Edmonston of LemonAid was on CBC yesterday saying this was a runaway accellator issue which had claimed several lives, but that Toyota had positioned this as a 'mat under the gas pedal issue' until a family landed in a pond with all mats in the boot. Other comments have this as a 'slow response after foot off accellator issue'. Iceman - with all due respct, would I respond appropriately - under all conditions - to an accellerator that was not decellatoring appropriately? Probably not. I would hope my reponse would be to shift into neutral and dame the bits I have just crunched. Reality is, given the traffic in which - Murphy prevailing - it would be a condition of who hit whom and how hard.
ReplyDeleteI drive a Jeep Cherokee (Chrysler product). I need 4-wheel drive and good clearage for gravel roads, living in a rural area, as I do.
ReplyDeleteYes, the smart move is to put it in neutral, but in the fractions of seconds that some people may have to make that decision and the chaos that can occur in between; I wouldn't blame everyone who got into an accident because of this fault.
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