Put it in neutral!
09/03/10 11:07 AM Filed in: Noteworthy News
With all the news stories involving runaway Toyota cars abounding right now, I wanted to take a moment to pass on a safety tip to anyone who may find themselves behind the wheel of a runaway Toyota or any other make of vehicle. Do not try to stop the car by simply applying brakes. From everything I've read, that won't work because the transmission is still allowing the engine to provide power to the wheels. Instead, put the car in neutral! Putting the car in neutral disengages the transmission, which prevents the engine from applying power to the wheels. This may or may not cause the engine to rev like crazy and scream like a banshee, but it will allow you to coast to the side of the road and stop the car. Leave the car running so that you still have power steering and brakes. Once the car is stopped, turn the engine off.
If you don't own a Toyota car, but know someone who does, please pass this safety tip along to them by whatever means available to you. If you have a website, or are a member of a social networking site, take a moment to pass this tip on to others by blogging about it, putting it on your wall, and/or however else you can think of. Until this problem is fixed and Toyota cars once more become truly safe to drive, everyone reading this needs to do all they can to pass this safety tip along to others.
As I read the stories involving Toyota's statement about the safety of its cars, and the most recent incident involving one of their cars running away with a driver in California, I couldn't help but be struck by the irony of that situation. I also couldn't help but wonder if the car in question had been part of the recall, and supposedly been "fixed" by Toyota. A question I would love to see answered.
That there is definitely a safety issue here is clear to anyone who is keeping up with the news involving these cars. What is actually causing some of these cars to suddenly accelerate still remains to be seen. I have a feeling despite what Toyota claims, the problem has to do with the electronics that help operate the cars. No matter what is actually causing the problem, I wouldn't want to own a Toyota Prius or Lexus right now. Nor would I want to own stock in, or be a CEO for Toyota right now.
In a perfect world, anyone owning a Toyota Prius or Lexus right now would be able to take the vehicle back, get a full refund, then go buy another make of car if they wanted to. This is not a perfect world though, and Toyota isn't about to start giving full refunds on their obviously defective vehicles.
The government has already received 34 complaints of deaths linked to runaway Toyotas. Should even half of these complaints prove true, and the juries find Toyota responsible for those deaths, Toyota is going to find itself paying out huge amounts of money to the families of those killed by their cars. They are also going to be hit with a large number of smaller class action lawsuits involving Toyota owners who are disgruntled about what the resulting publicity concerning their cars has done to the trade in value of them.
If you don't own a Toyota car, but know someone who does, please pass this safety tip along to them by whatever means available to you. If you have a website, or are a member of a social networking site, take a moment to pass this tip on to others by blogging about it, putting it on your wall, and/or however else you can think of. Until this problem is fixed and Toyota cars once more become truly safe to drive, everyone reading this needs to do all they can to pass this safety tip along to others.
As I read the stories involving Toyota's statement about the safety of its cars, and the most recent incident involving one of their cars running away with a driver in California, I couldn't help but be struck by the irony of that situation. I also couldn't help but wonder if the car in question had been part of the recall, and supposedly been "fixed" by Toyota. A question I would love to see answered.
That there is definitely a safety issue here is clear to anyone who is keeping up with the news involving these cars. What is actually causing some of these cars to suddenly accelerate still remains to be seen. I have a feeling despite what Toyota claims, the problem has to do with the electronics that help operate the cars. No matter what is actually causing the problem, I wouldn't want to own a Toyota Prius or Lexus right now. Nor would I want to own stock in, or be a CEO for Toyota right now.
In a perfect world, anyone owning a Toyota Prius or Lexus right now would be able to take the vehicle back, get a full refund, then go buy another make of car if they wanted to. This is not a perfect world though, and Toyota isn't about to start giving full refunds on their obviously defective vehicles.
The government has already received 34 complaints of deaths linked to runaway Toyotas. Should even half of these complaints prove true, and the juries find Toyota responsible for those deaths, Toyota is going to find itself paying out huge amounts of money to the families of those killed by their cars. They are also going to be hit with a large number of smaller class action lawsuits involving Toyota owners who are disgruntled about what the resulting publicity concerning their cars has done to the trade in value of them.