Posted on 03/13/2010 12:29:13 PM PST by GOP_Lady
Exploring an overblown media frenzy.
"On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of them was speeding out of control," said CBS News--and a vast number of other media outlets worldwide. The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius, James Sikes, called 911 to say his accelerator was stuck, he was zooming faster than 90 miles per hour and absolutely couldn't slow down.
It got far more dramatic, though. The California Highway Patrol responded and "To get the runaway car to stop, they actually had to put their patrol car in front of the Prius and step on the brakes." During over 20 harrowing minutes, according to NBC's report, Sikes "did everything he could to try to slow down that Prius." Others said, "Radio traffic indicated the driver was unable to turn off the engine or shift the car into neutral."
In fact, almost none of this was true. Virtually every aspect of Sikes's story as told to reporters makes no sense. His claim that he'd tried to yank up the accelerator could be falsified, with his help, in half a minute. And now we even have an explanation for why he'd pull such a stunt, beyond the all-American desire to have 15 minutes of fame (recall the "Balloon Boy Hoax" from October) and the aching need to be perceived as a victim.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
While Government Motors is benefitting from the Toyota show-trial and purge, this attack was actually the brainstorm of the UAW (also a GM owner). The real intent is to unionize the US Toyota factories—which would occur as part of an under-the-table settlement of some sort. Very Old School mafia type stuff—the way the capos sold protection. With Bolsheviks, you get a similar type of thuggery with lots of theater thrown in for good measure.
I wish we could call for an investigation into this hoax but, unfortunately, our whole damn government is corrupt. There’s nobody to go to anymore.
I’ve seen about a million (OK, a little exaggerated) articles about how to stop a car that has a pinned gas pedal. The one thing they agree on is that the only chance you have to get it stopped is to nail the brakes *once* *hard* and stand on them. If you can’t figure out how to get the car onto neutral, and try to pump the brakes or do two applications, they are going to boil the fluid and fail.
My Point: I know a Prius is a relatively light, relatively underpowered car, however, even though the Highway Patrol cruiser would have not had a pinned throttle, it would have had that one chance to get itself stopped, because the Prius had a (supposedly) pinned throttle. So he’s stopping *both* cars? I’m throwing the BS flag here.
The police and dispatchers begged him for 20 minutes to do both of those things, but the guy refused again and again and again, saying he was too scared and needed both hands on the wheel. (Of course, he wasn't too scared to use his cell phone, or to reach down to try to pull the accelerator pedal up.)
The reporters, on the other hand, are ignorant, gullible, anti-corporate, pro-government, pro-trial-lawyer morons who will mostly be starving to death soon unless they have other marketable skills.
The radio traffic is online. The CHP dispatcher repeatedly advised him to put the car in neutral, and to shut it off.
http://10newsblogs.com/audio/prius-911call.mp3
I have mixed opinions of this. 2 years ago, our prius’ battery caught on fire.
My daughters and I were coming home from shopping. When we pulled into our driveway, we saw that the parked Prius’ windows were all black. I thought someone had painted them. I opened the door, and smoke started pooring out.
No one had driven the prius since the day before. We are very lucky it was not parked in our garage because our house could have caught on fire.
Anyway, Toyota was horrible (insurance was great).
Before the fire, there had been a service notice about getting the prius fixed, but it was not a recall. Toyota never said there was a risk of the battery catching on fire. We also had a check engine light that had been going on and off.
We took it to the dealership, but the dealership said there was no rush to fix our car. We wanted to wait a week because summer was about to start and I could go without a car.
Within a week of taking it to the dealership and before we actually had it fixed, the car caught on fire.
Here’s a link to the pictures of our car:
http://www.carspace.com/suzikn/Albums/priusfire/Suzi%20205.jpg/page/photo.html#pic
I think Toyota should have sent out notices to Prius owners that a fire could start with their batteries if they didn’t get the problem fixed. But, Toyota never did.
Too bad this driver did not think to turn off his ignition, put it in neutral, and coast to a stop. Apparently he had plenty of time to take rational action.
The statistical data on reliability and low cost of repairs for Toyota remains in the top three. I will not hesitate to consider a Toyota for our next vehicle. We have been driving one for seven years.
That's the crux of the whole thing. It CAN'T add up...also, I get teh impression from the way he talked that he MAY have been claiming to have the phone in one hand (probably his left) while trying to pull up the accelerator with (presumably) his right hand....while doing about 90 on a CA freeway....so who would have been driving the car at that time?
Bingo! I have been saying this all along. Beat up, thug, smear, attack the biggest foreign transplant company in the USA who has non-union plants to get the UAW in those plants.
The other companies will be terrified they are next. Honda, BMW, Mereceds, Nissan, Hyundai, KIA, Subaru (lib & lesbian car so maybe they will not attack them).
Attack attack Toyo so the others cave.
Chicago-style and UAW thuggery.
They repeatedly instructed Sikes to shift into neutral and to turn off the vehicle and also to use the brakes. He said he was afraid to do each of these. (Sounds like the problem resides between the guy’s legs to me.)
But he claims he reached down and pulled up the accelerator while doing 90 miles an hour and talking on his cellphone.
I don’t think the Prius is a flawless design. And if a car malfunctions, the dealership and car company ought to stand behind their work. So, it sounds like they treated you pretty shabbily, which I don’t excuse.
However, my point was that the US government is now using all their power as industry-regulators, union representatives, and the full, free access to the media that enables them to destroy a company with bogus attacks in order to bolster support of the company they now own via the business tactic that Leftists once condemned called “hostile takeover.”
All cars have their flaws. For the US government to use its power to select one maker (a chief competitor) and to apply the power of the government as it was never intended is an act of fascism.
All you have to ask to clarify this situation is, “What would the left and the state-run media be telling us if this had been George W. Bush or Dick Cheney attacking an oil company that competed with Halliburton?”
FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!!!!
Sikes is a scam artist and our glorious Mainstream Media accepts his story without question because it demonizes the company who makes GM compete!!!
So why did he do it? Sleuth work at the Web sites Jalopnik.com and Gawker.com reveals that Sikes and his wife Patty in 2008 filed for bankruptcy and are over $700,000 in debt. Among their creditors is Toyota Financial Services for a lease on a 2008 Toyota Prius, with value at time of bankruptcy of $20,494. The Jalopnik Web site shows a copy of Toyota’s secured claims form, though when Jalopnik questioned Sikes by e-mail he denied being behind on his Prius payments.
Sikes also has a history of filing insurance claims for allegedly stolen items that are slowly coming to light. In 2001 he filed a police report with the Merced County Sheriff’s Department for $58,000 in stolen property, including jewelry, a prosumer mini-DV camera and gear, and $24,000 in cash, according to Fox40 in Sacramento. His bankruptcy documents show a 2008 payment of $7,400 for an allegedly stolen saxophone and clothes.
G. A. Y.
The real tragedy here is that the government has killed thousands by forcing people into smaller cars due to fuel economy standards: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2468420/posts
I’m not a big fan of the government intervention here either. I think it’s pretty scary.
However, I’m not sure that I completely trust Toyota on this one.
It’s sad that I feel so much mistrust for our government.
Overpriced/over engineered ugly piece-o-crap yuppie mobile.
That would have never happened with a handsome Jetta TDI (long lived, low tech 50+ MPG.)
We live in the most litigious nation in the history of the world and i’d wager that at least 2/3rds of the claims against Toyota are little more than attempts by low-life scam-artists to hit the jackpot.
It’s computer geek car. Would you believe my husband bought another prius after the fire?
My husband is such a geek (but a loveable one), and he loves the technology of the car.
....... agreed.
I would like to see a report on who buys these hybrid cars. I wonder if any very experienced mechanics drive them. I am not an auto mechanic but I have done repairs on my own vehicles before they got to be so danged complicated. I also went to electronics school in the Navy and have a lot of mechanical and electrical experience on other things than cars. I have used battery powered lift trucks. I would never consider a hybrid vehicle that uses batteries. I might consider one that uses hydraulics but the idea of all that battery power fills me with too much skepticism based on experience.
If fuel mileage was that important to me I would buy a little four cylinder car and learn to drive for maximum mileage. Most drivers who buy hybrids have probably never learned the basics of driving for economy. One very overrated idea is cruise control, it is still being touted for best economy, nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who takes the trouble to learn can beat the heck out of cruise control for economy. Cruise works fairly well on very flat roads but how many of us drive on pancake flat roads? If there are any hills and curves to speak of cruise control wrecks your gas mileage.
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