Toyota Prius dumbsh!t has $$$$ troubles.

[Artie Owl]

Well, the easy answer to the whole problem is learn to drive a friggin stick, then they'll know what neutral actually is.

 

A friend of mine told me that onStar had some recording of a competent emergency response person who couldn't put it into neutral and he and his family crashed and died and onStar recorded the whole thing, but to be fair, I can't find anything to support that story.

 

If the gears aren't touching I don't get how the car could still draw power, but when people panic they usually don't do the smartest things.

[NeoConMan]

Yep this is the kind of idiot that calls the police because he locked himself in the car

It occurred to me this morning - we've become a nation stuck on an escalator.

 

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[pete c]

im pretty sure the fire breathing prius guy in cali, was wearing a corvette owners club jacket?

[Thundergod]

Am I the only person not surprised by this?

 

We've all heard of the sudden rash of runaway Toyota cars and trucks' date=' eh?

Okay, since I challenge ANYBODY to demonstrate to me this is even possible - even in the most

powerful vehicles Toyota builds - this is the sort of story I have trouble believing anybody could create.

 

It's not just that I don't believe these people, I can't believe how fxcking stupid they think [i']we[/i] are.

The guy in the Prius wants us to believe that his fire-breathing powerhouse hybrid was out of control?

 

Now in Santa Ana, California the Orange County district attorney has filed a lawsuit against Toyota

accusing them of knowingly selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles with "acceleration defects."

 

It's the drivers that are defective!

 

The lawsuit accuses Toyota of using deceptive business practices to become the world's top automaker.

Says the prosecutor; "We demand to know: Did Toyota, in their relentless pursuit to become the No. 1 carmaker

in the United States, put profits over people?"

 

To help with their grandstanding bullsh!t, the DA's office has hired a private law firm with expertise in

consumer safety liability cases. Then why do we even have a District Attorney's office at all?

Only in California...

 

Toyota already recalled over 6 million vehicles in the USA.

Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator/braking problems.

What does "linked" mean?

 

At least 89 class-action lawsuits have been filed against Toyota in the USA, while the US Government

owns part of - and controls ALL of - General Motors and Chrysler. Interesting, eh?

 

 

 

Now back to the Prius dumbsh!t.

On Monday, James Sikes called 911 to report that he was behind the wheel of an out-of-control Prius

going 94 mph on a freeway near San Diego. Twenty-three minutes later, a California Highway Patrol

officer helped guide him to a stop, a rescue that was captured on videotape.

 

Since then, it's been learned that:

 

— Sikes filed for bankruptcy in San Diego in 2008.

According to documents, he was more than $700,000 in debt and owed roughly $19,000 on his Prius.

Seems he's behind on his payments on the car now;

 

— In 2001, Sikes filed a police report with the Merced County Sheriff's Department for $58,000 in

stolen property, including jewelry, a digital video camera and equipment and $24,000 in cash;

 

— Sikes has hired a law firm, though it has indicated he has no plans to sue Toyota;

 

— Sikes won $55,000 on television's "The Big Spin" in 2006, Fox40.com reports, and the real estate

agent has boasted of celebrity clients such as Constance Ramos of "Extreme Home Makeover."

 

 

 

While authorities say they don't doubt Sikes' account.....

Wait a minute here, they don't doubt his "account" eh?

If the "authorities" are so damned stupid, God help us all!

THEY are the authorities! I EXPECT them to doubt a story that makes no sense!!!

 

Seems several bloggers on the web would be more knowledgable about it, they ain't buying it for a second.

And a man who bought a San Diego area home from Sikes in 2007 questions whether the 61-year-old

entrepreneur may have concocted the incident for publicity or for monetary gain. He told FoxNews.com he

immediately questioned the circumstances surrounding Monday's incident.

 

"Immediately I thought this guy has an angle here," the man said Friday. "But I don't know what the angle is here."

 

The man, who asked not to be identified, said the home he purchased from Sikes had undisclosed

problems that eventually cost him $20,000. He tried to sue in civil court, but Sikes had filed for

bankruptcy during the process.

 

"It got to the point where it wasn't worth me paying legal fees to go after a guy who was broke,"

he said. "I ate the 20,000 bucks."

 

The man said Sikes came off as a dishonest businessman who was difficult to work with during the

transaction. "It didn't surprise me," he said of Sikes' recent troubles with his Prius. "I thought this guy

is trying to pull a scam here."

 

Toyota executives have talked extensively with Sikes and said they're "mystified" by Sikes' account.

"It's tough for us to say if we're skeptical," Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive

operations for Toyota Motor Sales, said Thursday. "I'm mystified in how it could happen with the

brake override system."

Esmond said all Priuses are equipped with a computer system that cuts power to the wheels if the brake

and gas pedals are depressed at the same time — something Sikes was doing.

 

Sikes' reputation apparently precedes him in Northern California, as well.

 

"I've been warned that he used to do business here," Jim Pernetti of AAA California Document Services

told Fox40.com, "and that I should be very wary of anything with him."

 

Sikes called 911 on Monday to report that his gas pedal was stuck and his blue 2008 Prius was speeding

at 94 mph down a freeway near San Diego. A CHP officer helped bring the car to a stop, but not before

two calls to police dispatchers that spanned 23 minutes.

 

Asked why he didn't simply put his car in neutral, Sikes said: "You had to be there. I might go into reverse.

I didn't know if the care would flip. I had no idea how it would react."

 

Sikes, who did not return several calls and e-mail messages, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that

the incident was no hoax. "I've had things happen in my life, but I'm not making up this story," he told

the newspaper.

 

 

Couldn't put it in neutral?

THIS MAN IS A COMPLETE IDIOT!

My God, are people really this fxcking stupid?

And if he's lying, is this nation stupid enough to believe him?

And if the American public is so stupid, are all of the lawyers and judges?

 

 

Okay, listen up everybody. Neo's Driving School is now in session.

 

If your accelerator pedal gets stuck all the way on the floor for some reason, try this;

 

1. Step on the goddam brake pedal! HARD!!! WITH BOTH FEET!!!!!!

Somebody prove me wrong if you can, but I doubt that even the V-8's Toyota builds will overpower

the brakes in their vehicles. If you're already going 80 mph when it happens, I could see the brakes

getting hot and fading before you can get stopped - maybe - but I doubt it.

a. Apply the emergency brake. It only operates the rear brakes, and has little effect at high speeds,

but anything will help at a time like this.

 

2. Then turn the ignition key off.

"Oh, but that did no good, the motor wouldn't shut off!"

Bullsh!t. The engine may still be turning because you're rolling, but it will NOT make any power.

The brakes will be harder to push as you lose power assist - same with the steering - but they still work.

 

3. Okay, then BUMP the shifter up to NEUTRAL. Let the engine rev to the limiter - it won't hurt it.

And yes, you can easily bump the shifter to NEUTRAL, federal law requires it to function that way.

Here's the way it works on every automatic-equipped vehicle sold in the USA for years now.

a. You MUST put your foot on the brake to take it out of PARK.

b. You MUST release the shift lever lock either with a thumb button, trigger, or by pulling the lever toward

you. Some cars with console-mounted shifters have gates the lever must be maneuvered through.

c. Once the shifter is in REVERSE it can be simply bumped into NEUTRAL with no locks to use.

d. Same thing when you have it in DRIVE, simply push the lever into NEUTRAL. Without depressing the

lock mechanism, it is impossible for it to travel past NEUTRAL into REVERSE.

 

(3.1 Please God, let this go without saying, but if it's a manual transmission push in the clutch!!!)

 

4. Pull the shifter all the way to low or 1st gear. Once it downshifts (remember, it's at full throttle) it will

remain in the lower gear - limiting your speed. If nothing else, this will lessen the impact speed.

 

 

And this assumes that the key wouldn't shut off the motor and you couldn't get it into NEUTRAL.

Which tells me that you're either a complete idiot, or a liar.

 

 

 

 

I just had to quote it... brilliant. I thought the same...

 

 

Anyway, if your hi tech car was out of control and flying directly towards NY's airport airspace, would you call the police and wait 23 minutes for them to arrive (and film the "rescue") or jump out and save your life?

[Thundergod]

It occurred to me this morning - we've become a nation stuck on an escalator.

 

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

As a nation? What about as a planet?

[NeoConMan]

Never been to Ecuador - that one's in your hands TG.

 

[NeoConMan]

In 1984, I was driving for a trucking company for a few months.

We hauled fuel from various pipeline terminals in a 200 mile radius back to our storage tanks, or sometimes

delivered it directly to customers. When there was no fuel moving, then we hauled crushed limestone from a

quarry in the Texas panhandle back to our stockpile yard in SW Kansas, and sometimes delivered it as well.

 

The truck I normally drove was a Kenworth conventional, as was most of the fleet.

The oldest truck in the fleet was a standby cab-over junker, only used when another was down for maintenance.

We ALL hated it, and made fun of whoever was stuck with it.

 

That being said, they all had identical powertrains;

Cummins NTC 400, 13 speed Roadranger, and 4:33 gears.

Top speed was around 75, unless the engine was ran beyond the 2,100 redline to the governer limit at 2,400.

Not good for the motor, but there was more speed to be had....

 

I was stuck in the old cab-over piece of sh!t one day while my truck was in the shop, and they sent me to

Oklahoma to get a load of gasoline - a long ways from home for that old beater.

Everybody laughed, saying I'd never get home before dark.

 

Oh, and it wasn't a legal load - I was ordered to fill the tanks all the way to rim - 9,000 gallons.

This was actually pretty common way back then, we drove mostly secondary roads in farm country.

When loaded, the truck would weigh about 85,000 pounds - 5k over the legal gross weight limit.

(Quick math: 9,000 gallons x 6 pounds per gallon = 54,000 pound payload in a 30,000 pound truck)

 

 

So, on the way down there, in the middle of nowhere, I get pulled over for speeding.

Well, the speedo didn't work, but I could use the tach as reference since it matched my truck.

Still, the truck seemed to want to really spread its wings at higher speeds.

Signed my ticket for 74 in a 55, thinking at least I have proof the junker would go that fast....

 

 

 

Got loaded, and was headed back home when the throttle would not come off the floor.

I was in top gear, somewhere beyond "74-ish" and the truck kept accelerating - all 85,000 pounds of it.

The turbocharger was screaming, forcing air into the engine, and the black smoke billowed behind me.

The motor was at maximum rpm making maximum power, and the pedal would not come off the floor.

 

I could not hook my boot under it, and the cab-over design kept me from reaching down with my hand, as there's a huge hump in the middle of the cab - over the engine - hence the name of cab-over...

 

Well, damn.

 

I was about to turn the key off when I considered the repercussions of killing a hot diesel.

The turbocharger life expectancy is terribly shortened if they aren't idled for a few minutes before shut down.

I've had a turbo eat itself on a couple different engines, one of them dumped shards of metal into the engine.

Long story short, it destroyed the entire engine - and I ain't going there.

 

I applied the brakes to see if I could drag it down some, it worked but I knew the brakes would probably

be on fire by the time I got the truck to a complete stop.

 

Well, I'll just kill it.

The kill switch did nothing.

(The actual key didn't matter on those old diesels, all it controlled was the starting/charging system)

 

In resignation that I had no other choice, I applied enough clutch that the shifter could slip the transmission

to NEUTRAL and simply let the motor run away while I got slowed to a stop. It immediately shot up to the

governer, which mechanically capped its speed to about 2,400 rpm - a death sentence for those big engines.

Especially when they have no load to pull against, like coasting down a hill, they can self-destruct.

 

I was half expecting giant chunks of Cummins diesel to come flying through the cover next to my seat.

The engine was screaming, rattling, and otherwise near the end of its life as I coasted down.

This took awhile, since I did not have the luxury of the normal practice of engine-braking assistance.

 

I finally got stopped on a wide spot in the road - in front of a farmer's house.

I jumped out, and tried to see under the cab to find a way to get my hands on the linkage to the injection pump.

No way, and it was WAY too hot under there.

 

Last ditch effort, I got back into the truck and managed to get it into gear with MUCH grinding.

By this time the farmer and his family were on their porch watching me.

Once I got it into gear, I SMOKED the clutch to drag the motor down (at full throttle) until it died.

 

 

Nobody was injured or killed, and I was only 18 years old.

 

 

Now, to get the cab lifted up and see what the cause was, and if there was any damage....

The throttle return spring had broken, the weight of the pedal alone was enough to push the linkage WFO.

I borrowed pliers and a couple screwdrivers from the farmer and was able to effect a temporary fix.

Oil level was okay, and the clutch had cooled off so it didn't stink so bad.

 

I decided to start it up to see if the transmission was broken or if the clutch was charred beyond function.

Everything worked just fine, so I returned the tools to the farmer - he was glad to see me leave.

When I told him the trailer was full of gasoline, he seemed offended that I chose his place to stop....

 

 

When I got to the office, everybody was gone for the evening.

I left a note saying the truck should not be driven and went home.

When I came in the next morning, they laughed and said

"No sh!t! That truck should not have been driven for the last 10 years!"

I showed them my speeding ticket, they laughed even harder and couldn't believe it.

 

THEN they decided to look at the throttle.

There were bigger problems than I thought.

 

The "engine stop" fuel solenoid had shorted out, destroying much of the electrical system.

I never figured out how this was related to the spring assembly that broke, but there were many, many problems.

The engine, transmission, clutch and mechanical pieces were okay, but that truck was down for weeks.

 

 

Now, I know that my combined superior intelligence/lightning-fast reflexes/cat-like agility are rare in this country.

I understand that there are very few people who could act so effectively and efficiently against the odds.

And to be in possession of such faculties at the tender age of 18 compounds the miracle of my being....

 

 

:D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/

 

 

For those of you who fail to see that my vain glory might be possible and think I'm just some guy on the web;

Then tell me why such feat would be extraordinary - because it is nowadays.

 

Most of the guys I ran around with in high school would have known to do the same thing.

My Dad simply shrugged his shoulders and said "Well at least the fxcking motor & tranny stayed together."

The mechanic at the shop simply said "Yeah, I could see where that woulda been a problem."

 

Most of the crane operators I worked with for a dozen years coulda figured it out too.

 

So, somebody tell me why people are getting killed in runaway Toyotas!

We had this same bullsh!t in the mid-eighties with some cars imported by Audi - another highly regarded make.

Audi is why we have to put our foot on the brake to take a car out of park now.

 

It was bullsh!t then, and it's bullsh!t now.

As long as stupid people are protected, then rewarded in the courts, the cumulative IQ will continue to plunge.

[Thundergod]

I finally got stopped on a wide spot in the road - in front of a farmer's house.

I jumped out' date=' and tried to see under the cab to find a way to get my hands on the linkage to the injection pump.

No way, and it was WAY too hot under there.[/quote']

 

Let me guess.... Indiana? Cornfields al around?

 

 

Last ditch effort' date=' I got back into the truck and managed to get it into gear with MUCH grinding.

[b']By this time the farmer and his family were on their porch watching me.[/b]

Once I got it into gear, I SMOKED the clutch to drag the motor down (at full throttle) until it died.

 

 

...tall guy, red headed wife, asian kids?

 

 

 

 

No way

[NeoConMan]

Let me guess.... Indiana? Cornfields al around?

 

Close - Kansas.

 

 

 

 

 

...tall guy' date=' red headed wife' date=' asian kids?[/quote'']

Nope.

Back then Kansas was hopelessly European/Anglo.

 

Freaks such as those you speak of were not well-tolerated and usually left by sundown....

 

(Okay, not really, but I had to work an insult in there somehow!)

 

Just sayin'....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lol]/ :D/