Recall or government attack?

[Quickurt]

Does anyone know of anyone having any of these supposed problems with gas pedals or throttle bodies?
Call me cynical, but this is surely looking like an attack by the owners of GM, who just happen to be the government, on their competition.
I would not be surprised if this spreads to EVERY car company except GM and Chrysler.
Also is a pretty good diversion from other current government problems/complaints.

[landrovered]

Sheesh, better go get your bunker ready and if I were you I would not quit your day job to take up prognosticating.

[jcb986]

Hey, I have had several Jap cars over the years. They gave us not so boring design, fun to drive small cars with good reliability. If they have one recall compared to GM's, Chrysler & Fords multitude of issues...great, just shows you they are doing it right and I bet it will never happened again. A bean counter probably came up with the design. And every ones knows how Washington works "SEEK AND DESTROY" your opposition.

[pschaub]

Yes - Last fall a family member of mine was riding in a Toyota that had the gas pedal become stuck while going in reverse. The car sped wildly out of control and ran in to a neighbors garage door. This was after the floor mat recall; the mats were not in the car at the time of the accident. Thankfully everyone was safe.

[Samson]

From what I've read, it's a real issue that dates back at least as far as '04.

The real problem in my mind is not that the throttle sticks, but that the brakes cannot overcome the engine. Their ~280 hp V6 cars have the same measly brakes as the ~180 hp 4-cylinder cars. That's just not smart.

Another issue is the throttle/brake override. After the Audi 5000 debacle, most (all?) German cars kill the throttle when the brakes are engaged. I'm not sure if it's once a certain threshold is reached or just any brake contact, but that could really hamper left-foot braking (not that 99.99% of car owners would care).

Anyway, I hope this makes Toyota and Lexus used values drop for a little while. I want another IS300.

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by Samson

Another issue is the throttle/brake override. After the Audi 5000 debacle, most (all?) German cars kill the throttle when the brakes are engaged. I'm not sure if it's once a certain threshold is reached or just any brake contact, but that could really hamper left-foot braking (not that 99.99% of car owners would care).

Are you sure about that?
At the BrumosU course, I stood on the brakes for the stopping box, with Hurley Haywood in my car, no less, and my size 12 shoe caught the throttle pedal also. The brakes were in anti-lock mode and the engine revved against the rev-limiter.

[Samson]

Originally Posted by Quickurt

Are you sure about that?
At the BrumosU course, I stood on the brakes for the stopping box, with Hurley Haywood in my car, no less, and my size 12 shoe caught the throttle pedal also. The brakes were in anti-lock mode and the engine revved against the rev-limiter.

I'm not sure which manufacturers do and do not use this override. It could be the case that Porsche doesn't, and they just rely on their brakes to slow the car down, regardless of throttle position.

I haven't tried it in my '01.

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by Samson

I haven't tried it in my '01.

I wasn't intending to try it on mine, either!!

[Quickurt]

Well that makes me feel better. The talk around here (north Florida) is no one has heard much about the problem. My across the street neighbor is a tech at the big Toyota dealership in the area and he said they had replaced lots of carpets, but no one had complained about any problems with the gas pedals or anything else sticking the throttle.
What made it stick? And if it "sped wildly out of control" did the car step on the pedal itself?
I'm not being fecetious but the pedal can't stick in a position farther than was applied by the driver. This sounds somewhat like the old Audi 5000 claims that they put themselves in gear and opened the throttle. That turned out to be more of a pedal placement issue that had people stepping on the wrong pedal when they acted in an emergency or panic way.
The thing I find suspicious is the magnitude of a problem that was not an issue last week. Then again, maybe it's a slow news week?

Originally Posted by Quickurt

Call me cynical, but this is surely looking like an attack by the owners of GM, who just happen to be the government, on their competition.
.

Maybe Toyota isn't being treated fairly, but either way, if you give your competition (in this case, a manufacture owned by US taxpayers) a little rope, they'll use it to hang you...