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Comments
Claybrook, the former federal administrator, noted that drivers often come under heavy scrutiny for reporting unintended acceleration.
"Attacking the driver has long been the answer that not just Toyota, but the entire industry, has had," she said. "Blaming the driver is old hat."
PS
Who but you and me have that clean of a background?
Exactly, believing a guy with that kind of corrupted financial record is desperate. I agree. It's like calling a known perjeror and racist to the stand in a murder trial. Oh wait, Marsha Clark did that in the OJ trial, and look where it got her.
Paying one's obligations is a sign of one's character
As to Sikes' background; I think it is relevant as it goes to credibility. This whole case is based on Sikes' version of the incident. I don't believe him, but that's just my humble opinion based on no concrete evidence at this point.
Awaiting further developments.
Regards, DQ
if it looks like... if it smells like.. its most likely ..
Did I miss a change in the Constituion by the current administration so that anyone who owes money is not allowed to have legal recourse or make a statement about something that happened? I listened to two trials in Columbus Thursday and missed this change if it's been effected already. :P
Notice the attacks of personal destruction against Sikes come as a last attempt to try to keep the toyotalexus past handling from being the issue.
Everyone else, in some poster's minds, are just old fuddy duddies who don't know an accelerator from a brake pedal. I notice many of these are people who have driven their toyota for a while and therefore I infer they were able to find the accelerator up til now. But all of a sudden toyota has bad placement of their pedals so their familiar drivers can't find the right one?
I stipulate that toyota/lexus has had a problem with the morphology of their pedals and the placement relative to possible encroachment items that other cars apparently don't have.
>Someone said it best, if you're going to go public with a story, you better make sure you have a clean background.
Does that apply to politicians also? We can have some real fun in the Obamaisms etc. forum if it does?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I do.
Notice the pattern of personal destruction is similar to the sludging coverup which blamed the customer at first (and last).
Even the lexus/toyota devotees helped the corporate effort to smear the end buyer and owner of the vehicles even those who followed the published recommendations and took their cars for the required visits to the dealer instead of independent shops because they were made to feel only the toyota/lex dealers could properly handle their car.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Read the reports and you will have all the facts.
"It's tough for us to say if we're skeptical. I'm mystified in how it could happen with the brake override system," Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales, said Thursday.
No Hoax
You are precisely right. I cannot believe so many intelligent poster's could be so misled by Toyota spin and damage control. If Sikes had the $billions to destroy Toyota that Toyota is willing to spend destroying evidence and consumers, we may get a more balanced picture. None of these thousands of cases of UA would ever see the light of day if not for the high profile CHP killer Lexus. Toyota does not dispatch engineers to investigate crashes caused by UA, they send attorneys.
Your opinion (as you indicated in your prior post and obviously it hasn't changed much), is that someone having the misfortune to have a house repossession and bankruptcy in their financial history is by definition fraudulent and corrupt (and probably shouldn't be allowed near puppies or kittens either).
Fortunately my finances are in good order, but if I were to look down on people who hadn't managed so well, especially over the last few years, I think I'd find my position a rather lonely one.
To despise someone because they're corrupt is IMO perfectly understandable. To do so because their health, age, or financial situation is different to yours is no more acceptable to me than despising them because they have a different skin color.
Bottom line, poor financial management can be associated with fraud and corruption (although there's no reason why the most corrupt of criminals shouldn't manage their personal finances competently), but in the majority of cases it's due to poor skills or misfortune.
I shouldn't really have to spell that out should I?
My guess it is one of those closely guarded secrets. Who is to say the dealers do not have a code for such touchy cases to circumvent having a record on file? Along those lines one 2010 Prius owner has posted they had an issue and found out that Toyota does not pay for towing on the new Prius. What might you draw from that?
I called the Toyota emergency service, was told there is no free towing service for the Prius. We had it towed to the dealer. They reset about 8 codes and said the car was fine. Two days later at noon, the car would not start and had to jump start and took it the dealer. They charged the battery and said it is fine. I think this model has some electrical problem. They should have tried a new battery, but did not do it.
http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/prius/2010/consumerreview.4...html
Another unhappy Prius owner.
I'm not quite as ready to blame Mr. Sikes as you are to blame Toyota. It could be that Mr. Sikes was so distraught over his financial circumstances that his driving abilities were impaired. After all, he had just left his lawyers office and might have received some very bad news. Or, since this is the same lawyer who is advising the family who was involved in the other Prius incident.................who knows what he might have been thinking.
I think a wait and see attitude is called for before we finally assign responsibility for the Sikes incident.
More info: http://www.autospies.com/news/RUNAWAY-Vehicles
Regards, DQ
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
With even top teir 2 year CD interest rates at no more than 2%, the cost of 0% financing has little value to anyone or cost to Toyota.
Most online savings accounts are below 1.5% now. Money is worthless thanks to GM & Chrysler (and oh yeah, the banks too. :mad: )
Perhaps because those nice GM and Ford cars had a nasty habit of failing to get you from point A to point B, often, frequently, and expensively.
This discussion is about toyota/lexus' problems and not about GM and Ford, and Chrysler, but I'll take the bait and point out that I haven't had my GM cars FAIL to get me from point A to point B
AND I'M ACTUALLY ABLE TO STOP MINE WHEN I GET TO POINT B instead of ramming through it at full speed with unintended acceleration.
I listened to a local mechanic shop owner call in. A lexus 350 (2008) owner called about his wife's from since 2008 about it wanting to jump and move. She took it in, and of course, the lexus store didn't find anything wrong and just told her to drive it. He later had it do this for him while he was driving. This is before the current expose of toyota/lexus' not handling these problems, and he decided his wife and children would never be in that $37000 car again, his words.
The repair store owner talked about his Thursday night card game with several other people who are "in the car business." They have discussed this all along. Early on, he said they laughed when toyota/lexus blamed the floor mats. Then they thought the pedal business was silly. But then a little bit of credibility came when they were shimming the pedals as a 5 cent fix. BUT WHEN THE RUNWAYS OCCURED ON CARS THAT HAD BEEN FIXED, he is now done. He does not give them credibility any longer.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
LOL......and I'll predict that the other crowd will claim that it's proof positive every SUA claim is fraudulent.
uh oh, better get Maaco!
What is his case exactly? I don't think he's suing anyone, he wasn't injured and his car wasn't damaged.
He's not someone I'd want to lend money to or to be my buddy, but it's interesting how the pro-Toyota lobby likes to turn these SUA incidents into a personal attack on the driver rather than entertain the possibility it just might be an issue with the car.
I'm not saying there is no problem with his Prius, there might be and I wish Toyota or somebody would definitively get to the bottom of all these SUA claims and incidents because until they do assumptions and speculations will predominate the subject!
but you know if him or anyone else goes and eventually sues Toyota that him being behind 5 months in payments is definitely going to be used against him claiming he made up the incident to try and get money!
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
And -There may be something wrong with the cars and I think there is but it hasn't been found yet.
I remember telling my son that most accidents occur close to where you live while asking him to buckle his seat belt. He was about 6 years old at the time. He looked me in the eye and said, "Let's move".
2013 LX 570 2016 LS 460
I totally disagree. I believe toyota/lexus knows exactly what it is. I believe Lentz hinted when he mentioned the cruise control. :lemon:
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
No surprise there! The CHP is widely known to be the laziest government entity since the DMW. You can't even get them to obey the law and take/make an accident report short of someone dying. DMW laws state if more than $500 property damage is done then you must file a police report. The CHP will insist its not necessary unless someone is seriously injured or dead, and unless you have someone with a very strong will at the scene (like myself) you'll never get those lazy bums to do a report.
It doesn't surprise me that they are too lazy to look into whether Sikes is credible or not; they'll leave that up to someone else to do.
No disagreement from me there, and if he turns out to be a bad hat he'll deserve everything that drops on him.
I'm just a little irked that these incidents are being personalized so much. I can only imagine the distress it must cause to the spouse and/or children of those killed to hear the pontificating that goes on about how it was the driver's own fault because they were old and feeble and didn't understand how to drive.
There have been, and continue to be, so many instances of SUA that it's not reasonable to conclude that the problem arises from driver error. Even after allowing for the fumble footed and the fraudulent, there remain a substantial number yet to be explained
I'm neither pro nor anti Toyota, but I'm not ambivalent either. As I see it the blame for this mess lies squarely with Toyota's upper management.
It started with a policy decision to improve profits at the expense of quality, and it continued when they ignored the feedback they were given by their employees and dealer network, and it's compounded with the refusal to admit even the possibility of anything other than a floor mat or pedal problem.
In contrast, I believe the factory workers and the dealer network in this country should be commended for bringing these issues to upper management's attention.
Toyota isn't all good or all bad, but so many people are trying to paint the picture as either black or white, one way or the other, and that's just not the reality of the situation.
I'm neither pro nor anti Toyota, but I'm not ambivalent either. As I see it the blame for this mess lies squarely with Toyota's upper management.
It started with a policy decision to improve profits at the expense of quality, and it continued when they ignored the feedback they were given by their employees and dealer network, and it's compounded with the refusal to admit even the possibility of anything other than a floor mat or pedal problem.
In contrast, I believe the factory workers and the dealer network in this country should be commended for bringing these issues to upper management's attention.
Toyota isn't all good or all bad, but so many people are trying to paint the picture as either black or white, one way or the other, and that's just not the reality of the situation.
mac....this is probably the most sensible post I've read in this entire thread.
Kudos!
I shouldn't really have to spell that out should I?
There's a big difference between poor financial management and misfortune, versus owning multiple houses you never intended to pay for, and having over 60,000 in CREDIT CARD debt!!!
Seriously, you can't be serious.
If there is nothing to smear, then you have a very credible witness.
When the overwhelming mountain of evidence points to all these SUA incidents being cause by driver error, incompetence, and just plain stupidity/fraud/what have you, it is hard to entertain the idea of real SUA happening.
How come everyone that has experiences like Sike's alleged experience seems to have the same troubled background that he does?
As far as what parts broke down, pretty much everything by the time it reached 65K miles, and I had to finally get rid of the damn thing. I would of needed a TRUMP sized bank account to get that car to reach 100K miles.
Funny, the first offer for trade in coming from the Toyota dealer (gave it to my parents to trade in) was $800.
Go read MSN autos' user reviews of the 1995 Neon. Pretty consistent experiences across the board.
on a corporate level, how about the lost opportunity for TFS to write loans @4 to 12%, instead of zero?
They do...all of them? :surprise:
Actually it wouldn't surprise me if some had financial issues given the turbulence of the last few years. I know several good people that have been hit very hard; it didn't turn them into corrupt fraudsters though.
As for an overwhelming mountain of evidence pointing to all these SUA incidents being caused by driver error, incompetence, and just plain stupidity/fraud/what have you, I'm afraid we'll have to agree to differ as I don't see that at all.
I would certainly accept the possibility of a small percentage, but all? C'mon, do you really believe that?
They are probably a pretty rational group.
Some other Insurers are doing the same reviews, covering all brands, of course.
He's got a history of recent insurance claims for "stolen" property.
He's got apparently 700,000 in debt in various forms. Thats a ton of money!
He's got a history of making police reports for several instances of "stolen" property, including right before one of his houses got forclosed on.
He's apparently got Toyota as one of the many creditors he owes to in his bankruptcy filing.
He's apparently behind on his payments for that said Prius in question.
I believe a vast majority (maybe 95%) of UA cases are made up or mistaken cases of human error. I can believe that a very small minority of cases are due to the car going "haywire," in some manner or another. However, I can't believe that neutral and "turning it off" are never solvable options.
you do have to wonder how he got a loan for the Prius, although fuel was pretty cheap by the end of 2008.
Thanks for noticing.
How Hard Is It To Stop a Prius? Not Very (Inside Line)
>If there is nothing to smear, then you have a very credible witness
You clearly haven't been around courtrooms much or that statement wouldn't have been made.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
he probably drove a Cadillac, not a Toyota.
plus, i added TFS corporate impact.
I work for a state transportation authority that uses 2002 to 2006 Toyota Prius's as company cars for their field personnel. We have about 8 Prius's in our fleet. Most of these cars have about 70,000 plus miles of stop and go New York City miles. I have seen many of these Prius's driven hard on purpose by co-workers, yet their powertrains and suspensions still seem to be very sturdy. Never any complaints of stalling or SUA. One time someone left the dome light on in one of these cars and the check engine light came on when we jump started it. The car ultimately had to be sent back to the dealer for repair.
If there is nothing to smear, then you have a very credible witness.
There we agree. You have described Toyota to a Tee. They have much to be smeared over and lack any credible witnesses to date.
You buy a little $8000 POC econobox and expect it to compare to a $15,000 midsized? What planet are you living on? That is a small step up from a Yugo.
We are discussing $20k to $60k Toyotas and Lexus with inferior electronics man. There is a big difference between the cars that are having UA and a 1995 Neon that should have never been allowed off a surface street.
Now that's not fair. First, I got the "Sport" model, so it's the loaded top-line Neon model. If I recall correctly, it was a $15,000 car with a $500 over invoice deal. I remember that included Tax, title, and license, but for the record, let's be fair and call it a $15,000 car; which it was. Yes, it was supposed to be a compact car, but not really an econobox. If it was $8K, I could understand that, but it wasn't. With 1 year of age and depreciation, then yes, but frankly, I wouldn't pay more than $8K for any Chrysler vehicle now.
It was just ever so slightly cheaper than a Civic at the time. I should have gone with the Civic. I'd be much richer today if I had.
If Chrysler would have been honest and priced the Neon at $8K, and then advertised it as "TEMPORARY" transportation (fine print; not to be used as a daily driver), I could forgive them, but since it was fraudulantly sold as a REAL permanent vehicle, no forgiveness is forthcoming.