Anybody want a new Toyota or Lexus.

[Crossle]

He had enough time to call 911! WTF was he thinking? Maybe he should have been thinking about stopping the car before getting on his phone.

 

That article offer no other suggestion of a problem other than the floor mats period. They talk about the push button start, but if that had happened in a Nissan Altima, a Mazda RX-8, a Prius, a Honda S2000, or any other number of cars that don't require a key to be inserted then they would have been blamed for having a complex system. The floor mats just pointed out that cars are getting to technical and that maybe simple is better.

 

I'll take a normal key and no keyless entry, and key locks on all 4 doors any day. Less shit to fail in my mind.

[TTQ B4U]

Sad story for sure. Four folks needlessly killed. However, if he was veteran California Highway Patrol Officer then why is it he supposedly panicked so easily? I can see being pretty caught off gaurd, but come one, put the car in neutral and hit the brakes. If he had time to accelerate, have someone dial a phone, I would think they had time to look at the shifter and move it to nuetral. It's a standard notched shifter.

 

http://www.familycar.com/RoadTests/LexusIS/ImagesIS350/Console.jpg

 

I had this happen to me in my old company car, a Saturn Vue SUV. Punched it to go around someone and the pedal stuck to the floor matt. Popped it in neutral and hit the brakes and let the engine bounce off the liimiter until I jerked the matt out of the way.

[Avenger1647545502]

I would think they had time to look at the shifter and move it to neutral. It's a standard notched shifter.

 

At 120mph. In heavy traffic. With the wife and kids panicking behind him. In a vehicle he wasn't familiar with. IN HEAVY TRAFFIC. The sad fact is we're all sitting here in front of a computer with a calm environment and plenty of time, we're NOT there in the "OH SHIT" moment with the adrenalin pumping.

 

BTW, I disagree with calling this "Toyota's Firestone". A better simile would be "Toyota's EEC-IV" or "Toyota's cruise control brake disconnect switch."

[NOS50]

I would buy nothing but Toyota or Lexus except for my "performance" car and that's because I can't afford an IS-F.I would not stop buying a brand because of an incident where a obviously ignorant man killed his family.I drove an ES350 as a Demo for 1 year and had abolutely no problems with the all-weather mats.Put the car in neutral and hit the brakes,that goes for what ever car your driving loaner or not.They have to recall millions of floor mats because people are too stupid to keep them connected to the floor (they provide clips AND extras in case they break with COMPLETE instructions).Oh no I have to go out to my garage and get rid of the all weather mats in my IS300 that have been in there for 4 years now.

[TTQ B4U]

At 120mph. In heavy traffic. With the wife and kids panicking behind him. In a vehicle he wasn't familiar with. IN HEAVY TRAFFIC. The sad fact is we're all sitting here in front of a computer with a calm environment and plenty of time, we're NOT there in the "OH SHIT" moment with the adrenalin pumping.

 

I'm sorry, but I have been there with a pedal stuck at 65-75mph as I punched it to go around someone. 250hp 3.5l Honda Motor and she moved out fast for an SUV. Instantly I was like HOLY SHIT Can't recall if I actually hit the brakes or tapped the gas peddle in efforts to jar it loose, but I clearly remember shifting to neutral without any issues. She bounced off the limiter more than a couple times as it reved/cut fuel, reved/cut fuel, etc...I do remember the sound.

 

I don't car if i am in a strange rental car, I can move an auto down two notches to the -N- position. Besides, I've driven in a new ES350 and while they are fast, it's not like he was going to go from 65mph to 120mph in a split second. There was certainly a reaction time that would allow for more than just steering. Hell, my wife in the passenger seat would likely be the first to move the shifter to Neutral.

 

Not slamming the guy, just pointing it out as I see it. Hell, as someone behind the wheel accellerating without control, there are only three things you can do. Hit the brakes, try and shut the car off...perhaps he was confused about that, but shifting to neutral...should be a pretty quick thought. I would think so; especially being a vet. police officer who drives for a living and likely has been in and out of car in a hurry. I'm more likely to do that as I know if I kill the ignition, I'm going to lose my power steering and brakes.

[6 Speed S4]

looks like I'll be doing a lot of warranty work lol

[RX-7 Addict]

Had this happen to me in an old Mercedes. Throttle was staying open and I had to ride the brakes for a few miles, shifting in and out of neutral. then the brakes died .. thought i was going to die, but I eventually pulled off the road and nailed the e-brake. This guy should of thrown the car in neutral or at least hit the e-brake

[ImUrOBGYN]

I would buy nothing but Toyota or Lexus except for my "performance" car and that's because I can't afford an IS-F.I would not stop buying a brand because of an incident where a obviously ignorant man killed his family.I drove an ES350 as a Demo for 1 year and had abolutely no problems with the all-weather mats.Put the car in neutral and hit the brakes,that goes for what ever car your driving loaner or not.They have to recall millions of floor mats because people are too stupid to keep them connected to the floor (they provide clips AND extras in case they break with COMPLETE instructions).Oh no I have to go out to my garage and get rid of the all weather mats in my IS300 that have been in there for 4 years now.

 

I agree. Hell, my old Supra has mats that move around. I adjust it evertime I get in. I'm suprised at how many peoples cars I get into and their fuckin mats are all bunched up at the top. Your fault for being an idiot. I've also had my foot get caught on the center console of a car holding my foot on the accelerator pedal. I've had this issue on two cars. A Dodge and a Ford. In one case, I was in heavy traffic in Orange County California. It scared the shit out of me, but I was able to maintain; shift to neutral, hit the brakes as I pulled to the side, stopped, pulled the parking brake, got my foot undone. Fixed that fuckin issue when i got home. It had been the second time it happened.

[Mr. Jones]

There is quick programming change that a lot of cars have that could have helped this. IE: In my car if I hold the gas down and brake simultaneously, after a couple seconds the computer kills the throttle and goes into a temporarily limp. Theres no logical reason for somebody to be flooring it, and holding the brakes down for that long.

[Farkas]

My GTI did that too... made me mad cause I couldn't brake boost

[Bam]

Yeah, what I don't think people realize when saying he was going 120mph and didn't have time is that more than likely it took 20 seconds or so to hit 120mph unless he was already speeding quite a bit. I mean toyota's aren't a race car so I would assume while it accelerated it wasn't fast by any means. Even if he couldn't figure out how to put it in neutral, why not ease into the concrete divider? I mean grinding that would surely slow you down to an extent.

[Guest GMoney]

We are going to hear more and more of these stories. DBW, push to start, and push button transmissions, there is going to be more out of control cars. Car companies are slowly removing mechanical linkages to the brakes, throttle, and even steering to make cars safer. True they are much safer because accidents are due to driver error. What happens when a sensor or servo motor fails? Hell look at Mercedes, they have a car that will hit the brakes for you to avoid a rear end collision. I can't wait till the system fails and we have cars just randomly hitting the brakes.

[KennyFKINPowerz]

WOW. Well 4 people were killed needlesly so lets hope Toyota gets it figured out weather its floor mats or something else, before someone else gets killed.

[NOS50]

This is nothing new for Toyota/Lexus with this.It started back in 2007 with the ES350/Camry.They had one recall on the mats already where they redesigned the shape of the drivers mat and put BIG HUGE RED warning labels on every set of mats.It was attached with a piece of wire warning everyone about the dangers of putting them on top of other mats and the importance of keeping the drivers side mat secured down.You can't fix STUPID people!

[cptn janks]

Hell look at Mercedes, they have a car that will hit the brakes for you to avoid a rear end collision.

 

just what we need... same with the "lane divergence system" or whatever... more driver aids so the driver can spend more time talking on the cell phone, eating, reading or doing a myriad of stupid things other than wtf they should be doing which is paying attention to the fucking road.

[street pilot]

yeah this can only happen to Toyota or Lexus

[Tractor]

This is nothing new for Toyota/Lexus with this.It started back in 2007 with the ES350/Camry.They had one recall on the mats already where they redesigned the shape of the drivers mat and put BIG HUGE RED warning labels on every set of mats.It was attached with a piece of wire warning everyone about the dangers of putting them on top of other mats and the importance of keeping the drivers side mat secured down.You can't fix STUPID people!

 

Even my 2005 Taco is in the recall, but I don't see how anyone could get the floor mat stuck like that. They'd have to be pretty stupid in the first place, but I guess its every engineers job to protect stupid people from themselves.

 

I've often wondered what will happen when my truck's gas pedal position sensor (for lack of better name) decides that I floored it.

[Dammit Charlie]

GG.

 

I got really pissed when they said this was Toyota's Firestone.. BUT THE FUCKERS HAD THE WRONG FLOORMATS IN THE CAR.

 

idiots.

 

correct me if im wrong, but i know in this situation the car just had the wrong mats in it, but in other cases, how long have floor mats been around in cars? i mean cmon, if you cant design a fucking floor mat, you sure as hell shouldnt be designing cars...

 

 

There were replacement floor mats available from the manufacture that were covered under warranty. They'd simply pull out the original and install the new one in it's place. Everyone got a letter.

 

The new floor mats are about 3'' shorter under the accelerator pedal, to insure it's NO WHERE near the pedal. HOWEVER we had a LOT of retards at our dealer who would throw 3-4 floor makes ON TOP of the stock matt, because they were to LAZY to pull out the original.

[Dammit Charlie]

and by retards, I mean customers.