First, let me preface this blog entry with some pertinent background. Yes, I do own an ‘06 Toyota Prius. Now, you can call me a Toyota Fanboy or whatever you like, but if you do any due diligence whatsoever, you’ll have noticed that I have expressed serious safety concerns with the Toyota Prius and especially its Traction Control and the way that it interacts interferes with the regenerative braking, especially in bad weather. A problem further exacerbated by the incredibly tiny traditional wheel brakes, not to mention the Goodyear Integrity (What a joke!) stock tires with their horrible traction. A problem which Toyota has still not fixed in their latest Prius model, in spite of its threat to safety. And only the most serious of many grievances with the poor design of the Toyota Prius in general, especially at extremes of heat and cold. Probability is high that my next car will not be a Prius, or even a Toyota. Not with the way that Toyota has not been addressing these issues.
Now, that said, is it me, or do we have an awful lot of Chicken Littles out there crying about how the sky is falling?
Yes, Toyota had some bad luck with parts. Yes, there are some faulty gas pedals out there.
Is it a safety issue? Only if you’re a f___ing moron.
Let’s step back in time a bit shall we…
My last car was a Mercury Sable. I knew a lot of people who had Mercury Sables. They were good cars. Except for when they weren’t. Each one was plagued by a minor demon. Each and every person who I knew who drove one all had electrical issues of some kind. From a windshield wiper that seemed to work in reverse (when it worked at all) to a dash lights that illuminated for no reason. And hell, each and every one eventually had the same head gasket blow. What was the special electrical quirk in mine? Every once in a blue moon, when coming to a stop at speeds well under 10 miles an hour, the engine would suddenly take off like a bat out of hell. Usually my foot was already on the brake, as I was slowing. And usually it happened as I was pulling up to a gas pump. The brakes weren’t strong enough to hold back all those ponies, and if I were a f___ing moron, the car would have gotten away from me and quite likely careened out of control, resulting in an accident.
But did I ever run my car into someone because it was accelerating out of control without my foot on the gas?
No!
And why not? Because there’s this thing called an “ignition switch”. Cut the power to the engine and low and behold, the vehicle stops revving like a maniac. Gee. Funny how that works. And not only that, but I also know for a fact that if by some odd reason of monumental stupidity you can’t seem to figure out how to kill the ignition, there’s also a neutral gear, which while not stopping the engine from flooring it does stop the vehicle from accelerating, allowing the brakes to get it back under control, and giving you all of the time in the world to, yes, you guessed it, kill the ignition. But what if your ignition is a button and not a key to turn? Simple! RTFM. Read The F___ing Manual. Because even the push-button ignitions can be turned off, and yes, at the simple push of a button. Some manufacturers prefer the OMG approach where any repeated pressing will disengage the ignition. Others, like Toyota, take the methodical approach (to avoid accidental killings) of holding the button down for a mere three seconds to kill the ignition. It’s just that simple. It intentionally leaves power to your steering and braking for safety purposes. And I can guarantee that it’s right in your owner’s manual.
Wow.
Really?
Yeah.
And I know for a fact that my ‘98 Mercury Sable was hardly the first car to ever have issues either. Why the number of stories I know of people from the generation before me who had their engines catch fire is a fascinating study alone!
Let’s face a little something called reality, shall we? Cars have always had mechanical and/or electrical problems. Just like every other piece of machinery ever made. That’s why they also have off buttons. That’s why there are always safety features and sanity checks.
It happens. And there’s pretty much always a way to avoid these failures from becoming life threatening.
So back to the present. The problem here is not that Toyota has some cars out there with theoretically faulty parts. I can guarantee you that every single car manufacturer that ever was has or has had cars out there with faulty parts. (In fact, though rarely reported, Honda is actually involved in their own recall on the Jazz/Fit right now!) And yet, we as a species have survived.
No, the problem here is two-fold. The first is that Toyota is actually being honest for a change. It’s a new concept in automobile manufacturers. Usually recall notices would be kept on the down-low, only affected people knowing, if even that many. Usually recalls wouldn’t even be considered until at least a dozen incidents because they cost money and businesses are not always exactly honest and forthcoming. And it was hardly ever newsworthy because that’s just how it always is. But this time, Toyota jumped the gun. They saw a possible problem and they immediately acted upon it. And more than that, they threw out great blanket recalls on cars that we all know, for a fact, are fine. There are cars being identified for recall for these faulty gas pedals that we know for a fact actually have gas pedal assemblies made by another manufacturer and aren’t faulty. But Toyota is playing it safe for consumers and being up front. And there are all manner of cars being identified for recall citing that the mats might get stuck under the gas pedal, that if you look at them, already are clearly cut out around the gas pedal to avoid just that very problem and tie down to the floor so that they can’t possibly shift up into the gas pedal. (Unless you, the consumer, does something stupid like unclip them from the floor of course.) Yet these are listed for recall anyway, because, again, Toyota is doing a big blanket safety process, costing them tons of money, all for you, the consumer.
The second problem is society. We’ve forgotten that we also have responsibility. We’ve reached a point where all we ever do is blame someone else for our own stupidity. It doesn’t matter that we’re f___ing morons, because we have fingers and we can point, so it’s not our fault. We refuse to even remotely share any shred of culpability, regardless of the reality. We have lawyers set to sue and that’s that. And if there’s money to be made, all the better. And what an easy target Toyota has made of itself by being so honest and up front. So we blame and we blame and we blame and make it the absolute end of the world.
Meanwhile, Toyota has not only confirmed two possible causes, identified their fixes, but has even tested and has had independently tested a simple little postage-stamp sized metal shim that can fix the fault in the gas pedals. It’s easy to produce in quantity, and can correct all of the woes in record time for a minimal monetary loss to the company but with absolute surety and safety for the lifetime of the car.
But we don’t care. Because fixing the problem isn’t what we want. We want blame. We want blood.
Also in the meanwhile an incredibly simple test for a fault in the gas pedal has been identified. It is a part that wears over time. Simply depressing the gas pedal while the vehicle is safely in park, feeling for if there is any kind of grinding, seeing if there is any kind of hesitation for it to pop back up when you release it, will tell you with absolute surety whether or not your gas pedal is presently faulty. A test that can easily be done with no risk, by the simplest of simpletons, can guarantee you of safe driving before you get on the road.
And we don’t care. Because identifying whether or not our car is safe isn’t what we want. We want blame. We want blood.
So we blame Toyota. We demand blood. We turn common sense off. We claim that if not the sky, Toyota at least is falling. Because really, what fun would common sense and a little responsibility be?
