Man i really want to buy a taco too.

 

i think they hammer import autos more for issues like this then they do domestic makers how many accidents did the explorer/Firestone combo cause before someone looked in to it. or what about the crown vic squads exploding from rear impact. now i don't want to think i'm just bashing domestics. i just think some times this are let to go unnoticed a little longer in some cases. o and for the people driving did they mention if any one else crashed or if it was just the one dude. Toyota has done it's share of recalls this maybe the next one.

 

that i can believe.

 

And that would have what to do with it? Vehicles can be built just as well in "the states" as anywhere else. Any vehicle or part of a vehicle can be defective regardless of where it is made. As well, Tacos are now being built in Baja as well as NUMMI.
If a vehicle not only accelerates on its own, but does not slow down or stop when the brakes are applied, this sounds like a very possible failure of DbW or one of its components or systems.
Sure, its easy for us to say put it in neutral or shut it down when we are comfortably sitting on our couch or desk or where ever else. We don't know the traffic or road conditions these people were driving in. Some people are able to calmly react to situations like this while others panic.
Hopefully this gets figured out before anyone gets seriously hurt or killed.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if GM was behind all of that.

Speaking of the Explorer, I once had to go to a very big junkyard to get a rear window for my '94 Mazda Navajo 4wd (same as a same year 2 door Explorer). The first row of vehicles was made up of Explorers/Bronco II. The second row was made up of the compact Chevy S10/GMC S15 (Sonoma) based Blazer/Jimmy.

There were at about twice as many Blazers/Jimmys there that had been flipped as there were Explorers/Bronco II that had been flipped (I counted them myself) And this is despite the fact that the Bronco II flipped easier than the Explorer, with almost half of the Explorer/Bronco II line being Bronco IIs.

But other than hearing in the media about the general fact that SUVs flip easier than cars (duh!), I never heard about the Blazer/Jimmy.

Why is this? Is it because Ford had the best selling vehicle in it's class, and GM wanted to cause Ford to lose sales with the hope that people would then buy a GM vehicle?

GM strikes me as the kind of company that is sneaky enough to do such a thing.

By the way, I had a Firestone tire come apart on my Navajo while I was doing 90+ MPH. I managed to maintain control, and didn't flip it.

I can't help but think that much of the anti-Explorer/anti-SUV media coverage is a mix of hype and bias. After all, there's alot of young mothers driving SUVs now, many of which drove compact cars before they became mothers. They had no SUV experience before then, and just don't fully understand the difference in handling.

As far as fly-by-wire throttles are concerned, I don't like them. Cables rarely stick or break, and are much simpler to diagnose and fix. However, military aircraft have been using fly by wire for many years with much success (although they do have backup systems).

At my last job we had Chevy yucks (oops, I meant trucks). The newer ones had fly-by-wire throttle. One continuously had the check engine light on (our gas/deisel mechanics didn't know how to work on it). About once every day or 2, the odometer would say "Reduced power", and the throttle would be totally ineffective. It would only idle. Sometimes it would clear up on it's own, but I usually had to disconnect the battery to get it to reset.

I don't like anything that's got a mind of it's own. Thst's why I don't ride a horse.

 

i did see black helecopters over the tacoma plant 6 months ago. and the word is that men in black suits infiltrated the acelerator engineering dept. but that is between you and me! we can't let to many people know!

but seriously i'm sure they will get it straightened out! this drive by wire crap is for the birds, but it is the future. hopefully toyota will do the right thing and jump on it fast and get to the bottom of it.
the problem isn't that it happened but the problem lies when a co. doesn't do anything! mike

 

My ex-wife complained about a similar issue with her Jeep, she said it would accelerate while braking.
I observed her driving a few times and noticed that she had a habit of not fully lifting her foot and would actually push the floor mat into the gas pedal while pushing the brake pedal with her foot.
Also, I remember the whole Audi 5000 and Jeep Cherokee chaos and as I recall the pedals were positioned a little more to the left and people were the problem, not the car.
Its possible that Toyota screwed up, its also possible that its driver error, I think Toyota should fully investigate for sure but, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Easy does it folks... lets not devolve this thread into name calling and trashing of other makes... let us just say that all brands occasionally have models with "issues"... we'll wait and see how they are addressed by the company. Having seen the news story at the top of the thread Toyota's responce was perhaps not stellar but keep in mind had the VP said anything else he would have opened the company up to civil legal action...

 

Why not? I simply stated only one of the very many electrical/electronic problems we had at my old job with Chevys. All I did was state the facts.

After all, it's very irritating when you walk outside to get into a 3 or 4 year old truck, and it won't start, or won't accelerate, or the controls won't work, etc. So why shouldn't I tell the facts?

The Fords we had were more trouble free than the Chevys. I only recall one Ford that wouldn't start a few times, and when the battery was finally replaced, that problem went away.

Doesn't it seem odd that it was mostly Fords that were being trashed by the media (and good selling ones at that), but it was rarely a GM vehicle being trashed?

Anyway, I think the actual problem with the throttle issue is still quite rare, especially when you take into account how many Tacomas are on the road.

 

Uhm. You can't "huck it in reverse." As far as I know the transmission wouldn't even complete the shift (I've never tried it in my truck, but I know 90% of all automatics in the last 15 years are electronic and the stick just tells the computer where you'd like to go). If you did get the shifter into R, and the transmission actually did try to shift.... it would just burn up your tranny and you'd get virtually zero stopping power while that happened. You can put it in a lower gear though and especially with the engine off, it will slow down in a hurry.

With a manual you wouldn't even be able to get the shifter in reverse, it would grind. and grind. and grind until you came to a stop on your own...

 

I didn't watch the video but I have had a similar sounding problem on a new mazda3. The dealership had added optional rubber floor mats but installed them right over the cloth ones. The first few times I floored the car to see what it had, it just kept accelerating. Very scary and I thought it was something electrical or mechanical until I realized the pedal was getting stuck due to the floor mat.
For what it's worth, I don't trust any of this fly by wire stuff.

As far as Toyota quality goes, I still think they're the best on earth for now but history has shown that no manufacturer once on top will stay there forever.

 

its fine, just spend the extra 90us and buy HUSKY MATS...the best damn mats in the world