Toyota Recall Affects Thousands of Staten Island Residents
A few months ago I blogged about braking problems car owners were experiencing with their Toyota Prius'. Following the previous recall regarding Toyota floor mats, I wondered if Toyota would do the right thing and order an immediate recall of the Prius or would they make a purely economic decision after the recent "floor mat" recall. Despite the the skeptical public sentiment that the recall was caused by inept driver's and not because a mechanical problem, it has become all too apparent that Toyota was trying to hide a problem with the accelerator pedals in their North American models.
Toyota recently announced voluntary recalls of millions of their cars sold in the United States due to "sticky" gas pedals. After months of blaming the problem on improperly installed floor mats, it has been the gas pedal all along. Since Toyota announced the floor mat recall, there have been more than 60 cases of runaway Toyota's. Its clear that the floor mats was just a way to buy Toyota more time in figuring out how to fix the sticky accelerator.
Despite what people say about trial lawyers, does anyone think that Toyota would undertake such a massive recall without the threat of a lawsuit from a killed or seriously injured victim of a sticky gas pedal? The answer is a clear "NO". All Toyota would have done would be to try and buy more time and blame the problem on driver error, like they did by claiming the floor mats were the problem. Toyota left thousands of Staten Island residents questioning if it is safe to drive their cars. They tried to blame you for the unintended acceleration and only after the true problem came to light did Toyota take responsibility. As the ever decreasing chances of the public health care option passing dwindle, the call for tort reform remains strong. Can we really afford to allow such massive corporations as Toyota with a way out that amounts to a free pass? All tort reform will do is allow corporations to put profit over safety. Such a course cannot be followed.
“TOYOTA” The manufacturing sacrificial sacrifice. Complaints of deaths due to sudden acceleration in Toyota cars, like the Audi that went 0-60MPH at a turn of a key that involved death and injury, I don’t recall any apologies from Audi. Recalls aren’t new take a look: http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/saf-sec-sur/7/vrdb-bdrv/search/search.aspx?lang=e Ford 1419 recalls, Chrysler 309 recalls, Cadillac’s alone 190 recalls Toyota 139 recalls; and them with out sin cast the first stone. Domestic(?) auto makers now push to produce everywhere but north America, Toyota and Honda with plants in US and Canada are turning more domestic then Ford, Chrysler or GM who just opened a new line in Asia. "Domestic" means production that takes place within the country's borders (Wikipedia). http://twitter.com/economicblow