Toyota gets a D; Congress Too.

This post serves to publicly establish a few facts about Toyota, and about the $30,000 2007 RAV4 Limited that I bought at the end of 2006.

I soon had a few reasons to be less than completely satisfied with the quality and reliability of my car. There was the annoying fact that, unbeknownst to me, Toyota or the dealer had outfitted the vehicle with starter tires; and the fact that suddenly last year, the car's engine began smoking and left my wife stranded (turned out the water pump needed to be replaced, after less than half of its projected life. Toyota took care of the repair under warranty, but we had to have the car towed and it was in the garage for several days while we made do with a rental.)

The scariest thing to happen with the RAV4 involved an incident of sudden spontaneous acceleration. I'm putting it on the record here for the first time, but will be sending copies of this post to Toyota's U.S. headquarters; to NHTSA, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration; and to the dealership (Downeast Toyota in Brewer, Maine) that declined to replace the accelerator during the latest service inspection a week or two ago.

Last year, in the late spring or early summer, I took a short drive from Mount Desert Island to Ellsworth. It was a Sunday, late morning, not a lot of traffic on Route 3. I was doing maybe 45 miles per hour when all of a sudden the RPMs went wild, the engine howled, and the RAV sped off as if someone had dumped a boulder on the accelerator pedal. My heart was in my throat as I tried to stop the car. Repeatedly pressing the brake didn't do it. I then stuck my foot underneath the accelerator pedal and pushed up with the toe of my shoe a few times. That worked and subsequently I could depress the brake and it responded normally.

It's hard to know for sure, but I think I was briefly up to 70-plus miles. The V6 is remarkably powerful on this midsized SUV, and when the driver — or "something" — floors the gas, the vehicle tears away like a Daytona contender. That wasn't such a desirable feat in this instance. Sure, the episode was over in seconds, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

I assumed at the time that maybe the driver's-side floormat had somehow crept up and impeded the free operation of the pedal, a theory that Toyota also seemed to find plausible (though not for the RAV4, apparently). So I threw out the mat and didn't replace it with anything. We have dirty carpeting now, but we are alive.

Of course, in recent weeks, we've all learned that millions of Toyotas are potentially afflicted with a sticky accelerator pedal. Toyota issued a recall that made headlines around the world. Two weeks ago, we drove our car to Downeast Toyota when it was time for its 60,000-mile service anyway, and we insisted that the accelerator be replaced. We discovered later that the dealership hadn't done so, even though we advised that we'd had a potentially life-threatening incident involving a sticking accelerator. The dealership will not replace the accelerator because Toyota says that the 2007 RAV4 has no accelerator problems. In other words, our car is not part of the recall, so we're out of luck no matter what I've personally experienced.

That's where we stand today.

The purpose of this post is to put Toyota Japan, Toyota America, and the dealership in Brewer on notice. I'm addressing them here directly:

If I or my family come to bodily harm due to a re-occurring problem with the accelerator, you will be morally, legally, and financially responsible. If the car spontaneously speeds out of control again, and we end up killing or wounding others, or destroying our car, or damaging other people's property, same deal: You will be responsible in every respect. And either we or our heirs and survivors will hold you to that.

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The rest of this post concerns the unserious Punch-and-Judy show in Washington DC yesterday, when Toyota's head honcho Akio Toyoda testified before the House of Representatives. The Wall Street Journal had a pretty apt description for it: Capitol Hill Kabuki. Newsweek's Matthew Phillips was also less than impressed by the congressional "performance":

It was obvious which committee members have Toyota plants in their district, and which ones do not. California Rep. Diane Watson, whose district is just north of Toyota Motor Sales headquarters in Torrance, beamed and greeted Toyoda by speaking Japanese, while the most blistering questions of the hearings came from Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, whose district is in the heart of the rust belt and home to Ford and GM plants. ...

Next Tuesday, March 2, it will be the Senate Commerce Committee's turn to take its shots at Toyota in a general hearing about the carmaker's safety problems. Senate hearings tend to be more disciplined than their House counterparts. But don't forget: committee chairman Sen. John Rockefeller is from West Virginia, home to Toyota's billion-dollar engine-making plant, which employs more than 1,000 people. Don't be surprised if the questions are softballs.

These are the people who love to portray themselves as the cream-of-the-crop of our nation. At least in part, we rely on them to put our lives and those of our spouses and kids ahead of provincial economic concerns.

Did I really just write that?

I'm sorry. How naive.

Comments

[Mark.V.]

So those representatives believe they have the right to interrogate the CEO of Toyota, I wonder how many of them could withstand a similar interrogation from the CEOs of private sector corporates?

It is digusting that Toyoda has to subject himself to the humiliation of being crossexamined by people who have done more harm to the US economy than Toyota ever has or will.

BTW when your car suddenly accelerated did you think of switching off the engine?

[Rogier]

No. The better option would be to shift into neutral, which I've been practicing lately in case it ever happens again. I normally never use neutral in an automatic, although I'm in neutral a lot in my Saab, which is a stick-shift.

Turning off the engine could work but you lose power brakes and power steering so it's not as safe as shifting into neutral.

[disinter]

If you are so concerned for your safety, then why not get a different vehicle?

[Steve R]

Good point disinter. I enjoy this blog and am surprised that a libertarian such as Rogier is not taking responsibility for his own safety and that of his family.

[Rogier]

If you could please wire about $30K to my bank account, I'd be happy to do just that. Not gonna happen? Then how about you buy my RAV4 at its current Kelly Blue Book value — about 18 grand?

If you again decline, who *will* make me whole? My disposable income (like the rest of the country's) is close to zero. Who will pay a sum big enough to allow me to buy a comparably-outfitted safe family car, DESPITE the fact that the one I'm selling has a publicized accelerator problem that could prove deadly?

And let's say I *did* find a sucker who'll buy it without the car qualifying for the necessary repair / replacement ... Is that the kind of libertarianism you have in mind — looking out for number one by selling a defective car without regard for what may well happen to the buyer and his / her family?

Got ethics?

In good faith, I paid 30 grand for a Toyota that has a frightening safety problem, and *I* am the one who should "take responsibility"? Huh. I thought maybe taking responsibility is now up to the company that shipped millions of defective vehicles to clients who shelled out good money for reliability and safety, the two top Toyota selling points.

[Megs]

Libertarians have no problem holding other people accountable for making dangerous products. Toyota has been praised for trying to get all the affected vehicles back to dealerships for recall work to make them safe again and what's disappointing here is that they are saying there is no problem with Rogier's RAV, which obviously DOES have the problem. What they really need to be doing is addressing every possible problem, especially when it's a life-endangering one. I'd like to saee half so much work as has gone into dumb cellphone driving bans go into something that will actually make everyone on the road safer.

That said, I still miss and love my 87 Camry, which I had to leave behind when I moved countries. I imagine it is still running grandly as it was when I had it after it was already ten years old. The only reason I bought a Ford 6 months ago was because the value for money was so much better than Toyotas, which were way overpriced on the used market because of their reliability and perceived awesomeness.

[Don]

Did I suddenly wake up in the Twilight Zone? Is there nothing these criminal politicians won't stick their weasley noses into? If I was Toyoda I would have told them blow it out their collective asses.

Onto the RAV4, just pay someone to replace the *cable* that links the gas peddle to the engine. The internal wire within the cable housing is binding. Or, even easier, find the ends of the cable, spray a liberal amount of WD40 into each end (use the little red tube)then work the peddle vigorously for about a minute.

As for the $30k, there simply is not a vehicle on this planet that is worth even half that amount to me. In Sep 1990 I bought my first and last brand new vehicle, a 1991 Chevy S10, for $8,888.00 with all the bells and whistles and here it is almost 20 years later and it still gets me from A to B in about 20mpg. Lot's of people got too caught up in the stylishness of ramming around town in their brand new ride and have lost touch with what is really important. But they're all gonna receive a stark reminder in short order.

[benpal]

"Repeatedly pressing the brake didn't do it." Come on, Rogier! Even at full throttle in first gear (the highest torque), you can easily bring the car to a stand still. The law of physics and mechanics, you know.
Try it on an empty parking lot.

[Rogier]

BP: I can only assume that it's an electronic gremlin, something in the software that renders the brakes inoperable, or greatly diminishes their stopping capacity. I don't profess to know. All I know is that this same phenomenon has been reported by dozens of other Toyota drivers too.

Look, if a driver has been in a bad accident and seeks to perhaps justify his mistake by saying he's the victim of a faulty brake or what have you, and even tries to get a settlement out of it, then that person's statements would need be scrutinized. Like you, I might be a little skeptical. But I have (as of yet) come to no harm, and I'm not suing Toyota or anyone else, nor do I intend to. If I'd made it all up, what possible motive would I have? You've been a reader of this blog long enough, perhaps, to give me some credibility?

[hermesten]

1) I can't believe a smart guy like you is falling for our criminal government's self-serving attack on Toyota; and 2) I don't understand why a guy who says he has zero disposable income would spend $30,000 on a car. But I'm sort of like Don in that regard, and I don't understand why anyone who has to worry about spending $30,000 would spend it on a car.

[Rogier]

Piss off, both of you (Don and hermesten). It's none of your fucking business what I drive, and I will thank you to refrain from telling me how to spend my money or to inquire where I got it from. What part of the name of this blog do you not understand?

And I didn't "fall for anything, ht, OK? My experience with my RAV accelerating spontaneously occurred more than half a year before the current brouhaha. But I sure appreciate your concern.

[jace]

ht: just because the recession screwed us all over, it doesn't mean Rogier HAD a larger disposable income. Before the recession I was getting about an extra 500 a week. now i am only getting about 100 extra a week due to pay cuts. i was lucky enough to even keep my job. before, i could have easily put down a down payment for a car and gotten pretty much what ever i wanted. now i would think twice about getting a new car