A friend of mine wrecked her Toyota a couple of days ago. The accelerator stuck and she said she could not get the car in neutral. It seems odd that this has popped up all of a sudden, but the problem is real.
I’ve owned one Toyota pickup, and was not impressed. I’ve also talked to a few Toyota dealers, and all of them tried the standard flim-flam stuff some car dealers will pull on the unsuspecting. These include adding scotch guarding and underbody rustproofing before putting the vehicles on the lot (and charging extra); installing after-market A/Cs and cruise controls and not telling the customer they’re aftermarket and therefore not covered by Toyota under warranty (and are also generally of inferior workmanship); etching the VIN # into the window glass and charging extra for it; and the classic doubling the sales tax scam. In Texas, sales tax on autos is only paid on the difference between the trade-in and the new car price, so if your trade-in is worth $10,000 and the new car sells for $20,000, you only pay tax on $10,000. One of them tried to charge sales tax on the entire vehicle price and pocket the difference. A lot of dealers try these scams, but I ran into some or all of them at every Toyota dealership I checked out.
Two of my friends traded in their Chevy pickups and got Toyotas. Both raved about them for about six months. One sold the Toyota after about a year and bought another Chevy. The other one has had consistent problems and keeps saying he wishes someone would steal it. In all fairness to Toyota, that one had an aftermarket turbocharger put on it, and I think that fubared the electronics.
You sound as if people who buy Toyotas are subject to different sales techniques then those who buy American cars. What nonsense. No one is ever forced to buy undercoating and as someone who had 22 years in the business I can tell you hat with the rust guarantees from the mfg, no dealer I knew of after 1995 ever “rustproofed” their cars, before sales and made the customer pay.
AS for the double sales tax charge, there are laws against that and to suggest somehow Toyota is responsible is just plain foolish. Besides, anyone stupid enough to fall for these 100 yr old gimmicks deserves what they get. The are proving the laws of natural selection are alive and well.
“A friend of mine wrecked her Toyota a couple of days ago. The accelerator stuck and she said she could not get the car in neutral.”
Where, what day, and what time?
Sounds like your friend was freaked out. I can easily shift gears up and down in my Lexus and can shift into neutral just as easily. Your friend’s alleged complaint still doesn’t explain why no other countries are reporting this problem. You say you have an axe to grind against Toyota, so that make me think none of you complaints are true.