Toyota Prius Out of Control

[SlimSkeeter]

Runaway Prius


James Sikes, a 61-year-old San Diego-based real estate executive, made national news this week when he claimed that his 2008 Toyota Prius sped out of control on California’s Interstate 8. Sikes said, “I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny…it jumped and it just stuck there." Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Sikes said, "I was trying the brakes...it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up." The story was picked up by major national media and ricocheted around the Internet.

According to Sikes, he was unable to shift into neutral, power down the car, or apply the parking brake—but but he did manage to call 911. Whle Sikes was on the call, which lasted 23 minutes, a California Highway Patrolman raced to the side of the speeding car. The patrolman used a loudspeaker to advise Sikes to apply the parking brake and foot brake simultaneously, and thereby successfully bring the car to a stop. There are conflicting reports about whether or not Sikes tried to put the Prius into neutral during the early part of the incident.
Runaway News Reports

A local television news report misreported that the patrolman used “his own police cruiser as a brake.” CNN reported that the main “claimed that he almost flew over a hill at more than 90 miles per hour in his Prius.”

There were other mistakes in national media coverage, including the report that the Sikes incident caused Toyota to issue a new recall for 2004 – 2009 Toyota Priuses. Those vehicles were included in a late 2009 voluntary safety recall—related to accelerator pedals that could be trapped by floor mats. There have been reports that some Toyota vehicles that received service in a separate recall are still experiencing problems, but second-generation Priuses, such as Sikes’s, have not yet been called into dealerships. Nonetheless, Sikes claims that he was turned away from a Toyota dealership when he tried to get the Prius serviced as part of a recall.

The 2010 model year Prius was recalled—but for software issues related to “brake feel,” not acceleration issues.

James Sikes was identified in a 2006 newspaper story as a longtime lottery player who won $55,000 and auditioned to appear on a California Lottery TV game show. Another unconfirmed report indicates that Sikes filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2008, and faced federal and state tax liens.

Sikes's wife, Patty, said Tuesday the family's Prius appeared to have a brief accelerator malfunction a few weeks ago. "It took off for a second, and then it just stopped. It was like a little hiccup or something," she said.
Bad Timing for Toyota

Regardless of the facts, dramatic images of yet another Toyota car involved in a runaway further undermines trust in the company's products. The incident occurred only hours after Toyota completed a presentation intended to demonstrate that the electronics in its cars couldn't be the cause of unwanted acceleration.

Toyota issued a press release on Tuesday to correct a Wall Street Journal report, which indicated that a new Prius recall was issued. According to the release, “There is no new recall being planned for the Prius to address this issue. To be clear, the 2004-2009 Prius was part of Toyota’s November 2, 2009 announcement of a voluntary safety recall campaign to address floor mat entrapment in certain Toyota and Lexus vehicles.”

On Monday, Toyota released a statement saying it had "dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the report and offer assistance." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said it will examine the Prius. "An investigator is flying out to California to examine the car and look for potential causes," Transportation Department spokeswoman Olivia Alair said on Tuesday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received about 50 complaints of runaway acceleration on the model Prius involved in the latest incident. More than 800,000 Priuses have been sold in the United States, since the hybrid went on the market in 2000.

As the story rippled throughout the Internet, web readers repeatedly expressed doubts about the veracity of Sikes’s story— many suggesting that he is an opportunist looking to take advantage of Toyota’s safety issues, others pointing to driver error as the root problem.





Yano....this is FUCKING incredible...

I have a serious problem with this. He says he was unable to shift out of gear... I have a very hard time believing that. I've never had that issue and I've never heard of it ever happening, short of a linkage failure. More likely to me, he is trying to capitalize on Toyota's recent recalls.


I wish this moron would have done the world a favor and earned a darwin award.

[SlimSkeeter]

Well...far be it from me to perpetuate a myth. It seems that more than just this douche have been having trouble with their 'Yota's. My brother in law has sworn by his, even though he had to trade the bloody thing in twice because it wasn't running right.... Wonder if he will stick to his guns now...?

[CrAnIuM]

Well...far be it from me to perpetuate a myth.

Still ....

Since many electrical issues can be illusive to reproduce I am confident that there are MANY people contemplating ramming their car into a bridge abutment and I am equally confident that Toyota will settle claims on many if not all cases that have arisen to this point mainly in an attempt to salvage the image.


I'd wager that 15-30% of the claims ARE fraudulent and Toyota's law teams know that they are but in an effort to mitigate damage to the Name they will let em slide.

[SlimSkeeter]

I'd wager that 15-30% of the claims ARE fraudulent and Toyota's law teams know that they are but in an effort to mitigate damage to the Name they will let em slide.

Oh at least that many. I read last night where one of the former lawyers for Toyota walked away from the company because his conscience wouldn't let him rest (yeah, I know...lawyer, conscience...wtf?) and with him he took a bunch of documents that point towards illegal activity on toyotas behalf.

Here ...found it again!

[4nik8]

I can only imagine how many lawsuits will be reopened if that paper work is allowed to be made public.

[KommieKat]

I never cared much for Toyota (it's actually Toyoda in Japanese).

Their innovations actually came from Honda and other car makers. They paid patents to use Honda's Twin Cam.

To hell with Toyota.

[Negativecool]

Seems like a smear campaign against Toyota to me.

Too bad I don't really care.

Fuck the japs. That's right. I said what everyone else was thinkin but didn't have the balls to say.

Eat me.

[SlimSkeeter]

Seems like a smear campaign against Toyota to me.

Too bad I don't really care.

Fuck the japs. That's right. I said what everyone else was thinkin but didn't have the balls to say.

Eat me.

Ladies and Gentleman, Carlos Mencia

[Negativecool]

Carlos Mencia

You may go to hell for that.

[Cúchulainn]

Double-fuck the Japs. You never see this kind of shit on American cars. Only semi-comparable thing here would be the 1970's Ford Pinto, but that didn't internally fuck up. An outside force had to act upon the gas tank to make it explode. Toyota? They actively try to kill their owners. Fuck 'em.

Toyota - Moving Forward! Weather you like it or not!

[4nik8]

Seems like a smear campaign against Toyota to me.

Found this from November 29, 2006:

After the announcement, Ford’s Director of Global Quality Debbe Yeager commented "It’s a perception gap," referring to the struggle American companies have had overcoming the perceived and seemingly untarnishable reputation of their foreign rivals.

Even as GM and Ford have accumulated award after award on vehicle quality, you’d almost never know about such quality gains made by American companies - or quality declines of foreign companies - by listening to the media. Did you hear about it when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Toyota recalled more vehicles than it sold in the U.S. last year? Probably not. Did you hear about Toyota making an "elaborate apology" for their "worrisome series of recalls" that has "tarnished its reputation for quality?" Probably not. Did you hear about the Toyota senior manager quote that stated "We used to do quiet recalls called ‘service campaigns’ to deal with defects but we’re not going to hide anything anymore?" Such a statement suggests Toyota’s past recall numbers were probably much higher than we were led to believe, and they profited handsomely by having a perception of higher quality than they deserved. In Japan, prosecutors are looking into possible negligence on the part of Toyota for shirking recalls for the last eight years. How ironic. You probably didn’t hear about that one either because the American media doesn’t like to bash foreign auto companies - only American ones.

[CrAnIuM]

Psst ... this story is getting mad search #'s.

PLEASE everyone DIGG and/or Stumble this thread !!

[Josie]

Toyota - Moving Forward! Whether you like it or not!

^LOL

[Gravy]

Hybrid tissue boxes are almost as dangerous as the retards that drive them.

[SlimSkeeter]

Good grief....I now read that they couldn't recreate the incident. And furthermore have demonstrated that had he been going full out and hit the brakes, the engine would have cut out allowing him to coast to a stop...

[Josie]

Good grief....I now read that they couldn't recreate the incident. And furthermore have demonstrated that had he been going full out and hit the brakes, the engine would have cut out allowing him to coast to a stop...

Hehe, I suppose leeches should do better research before trying to milk a company ;)