Toyota UA-LAC

[LL - NY]

I'm starting to see sensationalism on this topic. Tonight, on the national
broadcast of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, they overlayed the cell
phone 911 call (with no acknowledgment of such) of the CHP officer in the
loaner Lexus (heard, seen this before, no mistaking the tape) over a shaky
video shot from a moving vehicle behind what appears to be a  runaway...
PRIUS!!! (which is not involved in the recall).  Delicate timing of the
audio set it up with the scary exclamation of "we're going into the
intersection!!!" just as said Prius was diving into a ... TOLLPLAZA. (there
were no cars in the lane of the plaza, BTW) to which said Prius flew
through. Scene cut away.

Totally irrelevant to the topic,since the Prius is NOT recalled. Totally
deceptive editing (who knows, the video could've been shot from a cruiser
chasing a stolen Prius FWIW).
Would the general populous know or care? Or would they simply be freaked out
about these dasterdly, dangerous Toyotas?

This "informative" video was brought to you by the same network that brought
to you the 60 Minutes "informative" articles about the Audi unintended
acceleration fiasco and the GM Pick-up Side-Saddle Tank fiasco. I could've
expected such deceptive editing from a local TV news station or something
like TV's "Insider" magazine, but NATIONAL network news!?!?  Pathetic.

That being said, I recall last year (as I recall, in an investigative answer
to the first revelation of the CHP Officer/Lexus incident) Car and Driver
did some WOT throttle brake test of a whole series of vehicles.  ALL of the
vehicles were capable of at least ONE stop from highway speed (I don't
recall the test speed, and yes, I'm aware that the energy required to stop
is a v-squared relationship) at WOT. And also noted that the cars most
subject to fade (as I recall, from more normal driving situations) were
Japanese. The only vehicles to fade catastrophically were both Nissans, An
FX45 faded to the point of essentially no retardation in the "normal" tests,
and in the February 2010 issue, a Nismo 370Z faded to the point of putting
the car into the wall during the Lightning Lap tests in the issue.

My personal take is, at least on an autocross course (hardly a test of
serious capability, the speeds are low) when our region ran schools, I had
the opportunity to drive a number of different vehicles. On the whole, my
impressions were that of cars where I found the brakes marginal, a vast
majority were Japanese. I'm not even all that impressed with the brakes
(prepared to the letter of SCCA Solo2 stock class rules) of my Saabaru.
Comparatively weak for the capability of the car, and vacuum boost is
moderately easily sapped by the turbo in Left Foot braking manuvers.
Nonetheless, I would think that the tests by Car and Driver support that
driver panic has caused a majority of the disasters for the Toyotas, however
more intuitive controls (AND prevention of the "runaway" conditon in the
first place) probably would've have helped prevent more of the "accidents".
At least my Mom is driving a Passat, and for me, none of my cars has less
than 3 pedals, so it's not an issue that directly affects me (until a
runaway Camry T-bones me or something).




On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Grant Lenahan <glenahan at vfemail.net> wrote:

> all correct. The TV station is full of relative idiots.
>
> Grant
>  On Jan 27, 2010, at 5:14 PM, Mark Rosenkrantz wrote:
>