Same thing happened with Audi 5000's back in the day. They would accelerate for no reason. I saw a lawyer for Audi on TV blame "poltergeist". I kid you not.

This will all blow over.

I wouldn't start throwing dirt on the coffin yet but it's going to be a tough climb for them to get out of the hole they've dug for themselves.BTW I once inadvertantly shifted my 91 4Runner in reverse (automatic trans) instead of neutral when I hit a spot of black ice and there were no ill effects not even gear grinding but I didn't retry it to see if it would happen again.At the time I was going about 40MPH.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

The popular saying of today is " Their too big to fail..they need a bail out "...Tax payers get ready

I say F'em Let Japan bail them out.
But you are probably right JPD.

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
We routinely build and repair old school vehicles and carbureted engines here in the shop that can actually pass the current emissions/mileage standards. The automakers know how to do these things too and have known how for years. We use many of the tips and tricks that they used to use themselves.
The problem is technology for technologies sake. And the more complicated these things get, the more likely they are to fail, and catastrophically fail. None of these things are better than a mechanical connection and the algorithm that is the human brain.

How many here drive a Lexus or Toyota that is part of the recall?

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Here's an interesting little read that started going around at the time of the bailouts. You draw your own conclusions, I'm just the messenger.


Failing Like Japan
By Bill Mann

November 11, 2008



In 1990 I spent a heady summer living in a very rural part of Japan. It was an incredible time to be there, the dawning of the age of Japanese hegemony. Japanese land, which comprised less than 0.1% of the world, was being valued at an estimated $20 trillion dollars, or 20% of the world's wealth at that time. Business leaders the world round were flooding into Japan to study the "Japanese Economic Miracle," and sought to implement its keiretsu and zaibatsu corporate structures.



We were in the middle of nowhere, but all around our little town, land was being chewed up to build golf courses that offered memberships primarily to businessmen from Okayama and Osaka, cities that were each a multi-hour ferry and train ride away. The cost of membership ran in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was a long waiting list.



It didn't last.



The trouble with the Japanese miracle was that its basis wasn't management superiority -- though the country had some of the most admired companies in the world, including Toyota and Sony. Rather, the miracle in Japan was based upon over-loaning from the government to industrial conglomerates, which led, inevitably, to a bubble.



Unfortunately, the aftereffects of the Japanese bubble persist to this day, and they have deep implications as the American government considers making bailout loans to the Big Three: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.



Why Japan continues to fail


In late 1989 the Nikkei 225, Japan's leading stock index, hit an intraday high of 38,957. Today, 19 years later, it's at 8,800. This multi-decade loss speaks to two things -- one, just how out of control Japan's asset bubble was, and two, for the sake of maintaining jobs, the Japanese government has not made the hard decisions that would have allowed the country to grow.



In the aftermath of the bubble, Japan's government rushed in to prop up its banking system, which was teetering under the weight of nonperforming loans. Rather than letting businesses fail, this has had the effect of propping them up to continue operating. To this day the scope of the problem is still not known.



Without this information, investors both in Japan and outside have made a logical conclusion -- to take their investment dollars elsewhere. Japan's industrial sector has failed to meet its cost of capital over the last 20 years, in large measure because the government has allowed capital-destroying companies to continue to operate. Had these companies been allowed to fail, Japan long ago could have flushed out its system and gotten back on the road to economic health. In the name of protecting jobs, Japan's economy has continued to sputter, punctuated by spectacular bankruptcies in cases where the facade could not hold up. The cost of propping them up has been much, much more economic pain. Japanese call the long economic downturn ushinawareta junen, the lost decade.



Sure, but it's not your job we're talking about


As I look at the pressure being placed on the U.S. government to bail out or even nationalize American auto manufacturers, I see the same faulty logic being used. So desperate is the government to protect these jobs and these massive companies that it is willing to spend taxpayer money to keep Detroit afloat. It might be a good use of capital if the Big Three were thriving companies that had simply suffered from exogenous events that they'd reacted to improperly. But they aren't. These companies are sick and dying, and they have not generated a positive capital return in decades.



It's not as if this were an unpredictable outcome, as I noted in 2003 when GM raised 13 billion in debt to shore up its pension system. To what end would we bail out these companies? To keep them from collapsing? Wake up -- they have already collapsed.



The "end," of course, would be to keep thousands of jobs, particularly in Michigan and Indiana, from disappearing, to keep pensioners from being mauled at a point in their lives when they cannot afford it. These are loyal, good company people. What is happening at the Big Three affects them deeply, and it is both unfair and cruel. To think otherwise would be inhumane. I have some experience here, as my own grandfather's pension withered away as the textile company he devoted his life to collapsed, in no small part because it refused to relocate its factories to cheaper places.



But economic growth only comes when capital is allowed to flow to its most productive uses. I am very sorry, but propping up Detroit's dinosaurs is not productive. They have destroyed capital for a generation. They have too much debt, they have above-market labor costs, they have shown minimal aptitude at developing automobiles that people want to buy at prices that allow the companies to turn a profit. They are losing to Toyota and Honda. Their parts suppliers are, as a group, collapsing, with Dana Holding Corporation and Visteon teetering on the precipice.



Pain delayed is not pain avoided


There are no good answers here -- none at all. Whichever way we go, there is going to be substantial pain in the American auto industry. But a government bailout of recidivist capital destroyers is a particularly bad idea, as it perpetuates the destruction, and delays capital formation for more productive uses. It is a bitter, bitter pill. Better to let the Big Three take their medicine, attempt to reorganize in bankruptcy and attempt to emerge anew as smaller, more nimble competitors.



At a minimum, it helps keep the Japan scenario off the table. It's been easy to see that the political decisions made in Japan to protect companies and jobs have been destructive. I've often thought that one of the reasons American capitalism is superior is our willingness to allow companies to fail. Now I'm not so sure.

Toyota learned how to make cars from the US inventors and also learn PR and excuses from us as well.

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08 Fender Highway One Tele-Sunburst
09 Squier Custom Tele II-Blonde
04 Squier Standard Strat Antiqueburst
07 Washburn D10SCE natural with Rosewood backing
Fender Mustang II amp


Experience is the best teacher

Getting back on topic -

You take your car into the dealer and they tell you there is no problem because the computer control module doesn't know there is a fault in the accelerator pedal position sensor(s).

Once Toyota fixes their software so it can at least recognize the fault condition, then they will begin to learn if the surging is very rare or happening fairly frequently.

Yes it could have happened to any manufacturer, it's how you deal with it after it's known that is at issue.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I drive an '08 RAV-4 for my daily driver but i am also into vintage American iron as well. My car needed the oil line change but not the accelerator pedal.

One thing I think should be pointed out, although it's slightly off topic, is that this accelerator pedal recall should really be a floor mat recall. There's nothing wrong with how the pedal works. It functions properly but the floor mat can slide around and cause interference. I imagine the bean counters looked at it and decided to go with the pedal simply because there were in fact two different physical dimensions used for the same unit. A mat would have required ALL vehicles to be recalled but a pedal would only require SOME be recalled.

My first car was a '68 Chevelle when I was 17. 327-300HP, th400, it was really sweet when i think about it. Too bad I disrespected it and drove it into the ground but that's just youth. The gas pedal used to get stuck on the floor mat every time I floored it. After a While I got tired of kicking and flailing away at the mat and just cut a portion of the mat away.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I just sold my Toyota yesterday for a Saab, has nothing to do with any recall, the truck was a '98. Just thought it was ironic. Now, I drive a '68 beetle and a '98 Saab 9000.

I don't think the American Government tried to hide the Ford Explorer/Continental tire problems of the early 2000's, right? Maybe they did, but I remember a lot of media coverage and recalls.

Another interesting note on this topic... it was an American company that originally supplied the throttle pedals that are being replaced.

My old, but faithful, Chevy Impala was built in Oshawa, Ontario (Canada).

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!