Posted on 03/15/2010 5:49:54 AM PDT by JoeProBono
Technicians with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota Motor Corp. could not duplicate the unintended acceleration reported by a Prius driver in California last week, according to a published report.
The lawyer of the motorists involved in the run-away-vehicle incident received a congressional memo informing him of the finding, the Associated Press reported Sunday. The memo also questioned his client's version of events.
The memo was based on the observations of a congressional staffer who attended a two-day inspection last week at a Toyota dealership in suburban San Diego.
A Toyota official who attended the inspection was cited as saying the drive power of the Prius would have shut down during a circumstance when both the gas pedal and the brake were fully engaged.
"It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time," according to the congressional report for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
James Sikes, 61, says he reached 94 mph on a California freeway on March 8 when his Toyota Prius underwent sudden unintended acceleration....
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I’ve been waiting for this. If you are gonna commit this sort of fraud you really have to have all your ducks in a row and understand the technology you’re dealing with. This guy would have gotten away with this in 1947 maybe.
Or 1946 even
Hoax.
I think they should ask Ford Motor Company engineers for assistance.
His attorney was on the morning news circuit stating, “Toyota has a ‘ghost’ problem in it’s cars and it just isn’t possible to re-enact or find the problem his client was having at the time.”
You’d have to travel to LA to get a jury to believe this. Oh, wait.
“Just a ‘wittle’ ghost problem.”
I can always count on you for good pic/laugh!
Technicians with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota Motor Corp.
Whem Audi had the same problem they got the same answer from Technicians.
So, this is it, huh? They are going to use the “ghost problem” argument.
:)
Sikes and his attorney are so screwed. The ONLY evidence they have is his word, but there is a mountain of evidence (including evidence of strong motive, and HIS OWN WORDS ON THE 911 RECORDING) that he is lying through his teeth.
Toyota has had runaway acceleration problems for 5 years now, is anyone suprised they couldn’t find a problem with THEIR product in 2 days?
Not saying this guy is the best example of an innocent victim, but the inability to find the problem doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.
>>Not saying this guy is the best example of an innocent victim, but the inability to find the problem doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.<<
Actually, it does. I have done a lot of testing in my day (software) and when something has been well refined (I’m not talking Beta here), if someone reports a problem, but nobody can repeat it after exaustive attempts, it is always operator error. And even if the attempts have not been exaustive, it is ALMOST ALWAYS operator error.
When you have millions of cars out there, there may be an occasional malfunction that causes a problem, but a systemic problem? Highly unlikely - especially with the low understanding so many drivers have regarding the functioning of their vehicle coupled with the motivation some have to simply commit fraud, as it is beginning to appear this Sikes guy did.
I am not convinced there is any problem at all with the Toyota accelerators.
To be clear, I’ve been a Chrysler man most of my adult life. I just hate witch hunts.
It’s entertaining at least, except for Toyota.
I’ll bet Toyota won’t reveal what their black box tell them.
There was a fellow here on FR last week that had a runaway 2002 Toyota. He managed to get it stopped. After which he traded it off and told the dealer his experience. The dealer poo-pooed it off and sold the car to a friend of his. Not long after that it happened again and the car got totaled.
True or fabricated story? I don’t know.
I actually assume some of these stories are true. I will say this though: The dealer was so confident that he sold the car to a friend. It means he probably was sincere.
I had a throttle stick on a car a few decades ago because of a broken motor mount. I’d forgotten all about it until someone here mentioned it had happened to them. I also had a floor mat block my pedal. Actually, that has happened lots of times, never seriously though.
With many millions of cars out there, all sorts of glitches, often due to simple defective parts, will show up. You try to get to “five nines” perfection (99.999%) but you never reach 100%.
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