The Lexus Recall, a Harrowing Crash, and Suggestions for Toyota (survivor: my car nearly killed me)

[Omaha Steve]

Jeanne Bowen hails from the Midwest and plans to stay there since both the East Coast and West Coast look a little dicey to her. Her background is in the health care industry and management. She resides with her family and her ever shifting number of animals and friends.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/16/the-lexus-recall-a-harrowing-crash-and-suggestions-for-toyota/

I see Toyota is back in the news, this time because the company is recalling the Lexus over three-year-old reports that these cars sometimes stop at random. Which is the opposite of what happened to me and my Lexus.

In November 2008, my car nearly killed me.

I was almost home when my almost-new Lexus hybrid SUV went off the road, as if it had a mind of its own. When I told my friends and others about what happened, no one believed me. Of course, that was before all the headlines about the recall of millions of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Also before company president Akio Toyoda's contrite testimony to Congress, when he took "full responsibility" for the deadly defects in some of his company's cars.

I do know the accelerator from the brake pedal, and I have never mixed them up while driving. I also know I did not cause the crash that left me with broken bones and cuts. I'm not writing about what happened to prepare for a lawsuit, but rather to make some modest recommendations for Toyota and the federal regulators who oversee auto safety.

By way of introduction, I am a businesswoman, wife, and mother in the Midwest where I have been a community leader and activist on behalf of various causes over the years. I have driven all types of automobiles, in all types of weather, under all types of mental duress, including screaming children and visits to the ill and dying. Before my Lexus SUV went off the road and flipped, I had never had an accident. I had never had a ticket.



The day of the accident was overcast. There was no snow or ice on the road. I was driving home from the beauty salon in the town where I live when I felt my car pulling to the right. I stopped to check the front end, looking for a flat tire or something else amiss. There didn't appear to be anything wrong, and no warning lights were illuminated, so I continued on the last mile to my home.

In about one-half mile, however, my car left the road on the right and plowed over a boulder, mailbox, and utility pole before rolling several times. I screamed and shut my eyes and waited for the ride to be over. When the car came to a stop, I still had my feet on the brake pedal and my hands on the steering wheel.

FULL story at link.

[frazzled]

1. May I ask ...

what your constant obsession with posting about Toyota is about? I wouldn't want to say something like "do you get paid by the post," because I do not like to lodge those kinds of accusations. But you do seem intent on posting regular negative posts about Toyota. Just a few examples from lately (I'm not even going back to the period of all the runaway vehicle stories):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4465548&mesg_id=4465548
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4465239&mesg_id=4465239
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4459922&mesg_id=4459922
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4431304&mesg_id=4431304
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4449897&mesg_id=4450734
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8713190&mesg_id=8713190
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8448824

[Yuugal]

3. Toyota is non-union

Steve is. :)

[Omaha Steve]

4. Your free to post all the good Toyota stories you want

I'll be honest. We thought about a Prius when they first came out. It is union built in Japan by workers that get a better deal than the OLD UAW contracts here. Decided not to. Now we are so glad we didn't.

Maybe it is the 7,000 + anti labor cases the NLRB has in it's files on Toyota and it's dealers. Maybe it is because they aren't the squeaky clean corporation some people around here think they are. Maybe we DUers aren't all so progressive? Maybe it is because all these stories about defects deserve to be told. Some are 10 years old or more and are just NOW COMING TO LIGHT with Toyota paying the bill finally. And if these credible stories didn't exist, I couldn't post them.

From today: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8763797 Was the worker right?

So post all the green company loves the world posts you want about Toyota. They are out there. I'll only ask if you own a Toyota?

The sticker on my 09 Cobalt:

You can buy this sticker at Democratic Stuff. It sells so well it is as of this moment out of stock: http://www.democraticstuff.com/Please_Don_t_Put_My_Flag_On_Your_Foreign_Car_Bumper_Sticker_BS30173

Edit. My stand on Toyota has cost me a few friends on the DU and real life. But when I spoke at the Democratic County fund raiser against Toyota, I got cheers even from Toyota owners that had their eyes opened.

[madmom]

5. Why not? If the stories are true shouldn't they be told so as many people as possible sees them?

[Omaha Steve]

7. Hello?

[frazzled]

8. I don't know what you want me to say

I got my answer, I guess. These articles aren't posted out of interest in safety or quality but because of the non-union status of Toyota. That is fine if that is your agenda, but I think you should be stating it upfront each time. Because that is not how general readers see it. They think if they buy a Toyota they will die. If the issue was either quality or safety, you would be posting articles about even union-made automobiles that similar serious problems. A 15-second google, for instance, turns up this article from March of this year:

General Motors has issued a recall for 1.3 million Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac vehicles sold in the U.S., Canada and Mexico after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into more than 1,000 consumer complaints of the power steering suddenly ceasing to work on some vehicles. Among the reports of steering problems linked to vehicles were at least 14 car crashes.
The GM recall, issued on March 2, includes the 2005-2010 model year Chevrolet Cobalt, the 2007-2010 Pontiac G5, the 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit, and the 2005-2006 G4. The Pursuit is sold in Canada and the G4 is sold in Mexico. GM said it has been investigating the problem since 2009, and determined that in rare cases, the power steering motor on the vehicles can die and cause difficulty steering at speeds under 15 m.p.h.

http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/gm-recall-chevrolet-cobalt-pontaic-vehicles-8640/

I am highly supportive of labor issues. But I think this is not a good way to advocate for them. It misses the mark. My belief is that you need to address worker rights and pay and benefits directly, head on. And keep the product bashing out of it. Especially these kinds of anecdotal, unsupported articles. It's scare tactics, and pretty guerilla. And to people who get it, it's pretty transparent. It doesn't feel honest to me. A company should be attacked directly on its labor policies. I think you'd get a lot of support for that. But as you notice, no one is listening to a thread like this, because it misses the mark. I bet a thread laying out your differences with Toyota labor policy would be much more interesting and better received.

[donco6]

9. I always read Omaha Steve's posts. I don't always comment on them.

And I'd say he can use whatever tactic he wants.

[Omaha Steve]

11. Much of it is safety

Unsupported articles? I don't think you have been reading my posts very closely. Most are major MSM. This article isn't, but she is a full time paid writer.


If it were not for the unintended acceleration problem, most of these follow up stories on major older Toyota problems would not have seen the light of day.

Ten years old defects for seat belts and air bags JUST GOT RECALLED 2 weeks ago. Safety.

Steering problems 3-8 years old Toyota says are not a safety problem. Not recalled, but they will do the repairs. Steering to them isn't safety?

Toyota has a closed source black box. Up until the recalls hit, there was only ONE laptop in the entire USA that could read the stored crash info. And we have to trust Toyota on what it says the black box says. Every other car maker is open source that anyone with a laptop could read.

It is a long list and I've posted most of them.


Do you wonder why only unionized plants in Japan are making the Prius? Do they not trust their not so skilled workers around the rest of the world?

Toyota Motor To Use Fewer Contract Engineers; Do More In-House: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100707-702441.html

Seems they have a history of not wanting to pay full time help that know what they are doing. They closed the only unionized US plant they had to move to the right to work state of Mississippi. The Fremont plant had several good reason it should have been building the Prius.


I have also commented on the Cobalt steering problem because I OWN ONE. It was posted in LBN before I knew about it. Compare that to the list of now known much older and long hidden Toyota problems.

If it was just a US union worker vs non-union worker, my posts would have lost any meaning a long time ago. Again my wife and I almost bought a Prius. So there must be much more reason than you give me credit for.

My lunch break is almost over. I'm sure I'll have more to say over the next few days.

OS

[Omaha Steve]

12. "non-union status of Toyota"

Other than picking on the Nissan Altima we owned, I haven't been slamming any other forgiven car maker. So give me some credit on that issue. Safety must be part of it?


"Especially these kinds of anecdotal, unsupported articles." Did you look at the links you listed above? AP, Bloomberg, NYT, ...

And I didn't provide a link before when I was at work: Toyota offers free fix, but no recall, for Corolla, Matrix steering: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/07/toyota-offers-free-fix-but-no-recall-for-corolla-matrix-steering/1

I've vented enough. Have a nice day. :-)

[Johonny]

10. just the daily car wars post, relax.

They are at least more interesting than the Apple Armageddon posts.

[Zoeisright]

2. Thanks for posting this. ALL of the truth about Toyota needs to come out.

[OhioChick]

6. K&R n/t