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Toyota apologizes to Canadian car owners

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The US government did it first, now the Canadians. Seems like Canada is just copying us by attacking Toyota as well.

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Officials said they are also in the process of changing the decision-making process on recalls, removing the final say from the company’s Japanese headquarters to a four-person global committee with one North America representative.

Shouldn't the global committee board be the ones to advice Toyota headquarters what they should do when it comes to recall. Toyota needs to take leadership, responsibility, and accountability. Toyota passing the buck to the global committee is not going to solve the problem of PR nor recalls.

“We regret that this has caused our customers both anxiety and inconvenience,” Toyota Canada Inc. president Yoichi Tomihara said in a statement Tuesday.

If that is the case then maybe Toyota should be doing PR as to installing the break override system on all of their cars which will most likely regain customers confidence and satisfaction. Toyotas are safe to drive.

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There will be a "Toyota World Apology Tour" soon. Someone can sell t-shirts!

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As a native of Detroit, Michigan, I have to wonder if the problems with Toyota aren't at least partially the fault of those people who are assembling them rather than the car itself. There have been no problems that I an aware of with the Prius in Japan (where I currently reside) and I haven't heard anything from Canada, Australia, etc. It seems odd that all of the crashes appear to be in America.

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Samwatters, the parts in question are made in US for the cars being built in the US.

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BPoint: So is it fair to explore the possibility that the fault lies at least partially with those who are building the car rather than the company's design of the car?

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BPoint: So is it fair to explore the possibility that the fault lies at least partially with those who are building the car rather than the company's design of the car?

It would be if that were the case, but it is a design error..for the time being anyway...

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But if it was a design error, wouldn't the problems be spread across the globe?

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The problems have been spreading across the globe...

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Thanks, that's what I was wondering about!

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"It would be if that were the case, but it is a design error..for the time being anyway..."

A design flaw that only manifests itself in North American parts? So, in other words, you're suggesting Toyota uses a different design for the North American market than it does for Europe or Japan. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

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A design flaw that only manifests itself in North American parts.

Actually a design flaw that has manifested itself all over the globe (except Japan, for some reason). Oh but yes I agree that something doesn't make sense, something is inconsistent in the situation, I'm not sure what it is though....

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" . . . something is inconsistent in the situation . . .

It most certainly is. And I find it highly unlikely that any company would set itself up for the kind of legal and financial repercussions that Toyota certainly faces here by actively choosing to use defect-free parts for one market and defective ones for another. Such a ploy would inevitably be discovered, and amounts to economic suicide. Toyota is most certainly not the sort of corporate enterprise prone to committing suicide.

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Ok, I'll spell it out for you: All the parts are defective, even the ones in Japan. They were all flawed at the design phase. Toyota just has enough pull in Japan to get a full recall suspended.

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The poor kanuks got their apology as an afterthought to the apology to the US. That's going to chafe....

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Canadians are used to suffering -No apology is needed unless a brakeless, on-the-gas car veers off a gravel road and hits a tree or large rock. -and even then they would most likely just blame themselves.

Would a horse-mounted Canadian Mountie be able to stop a runaway Prius? -that's the question Canadians need to know.

I think a Toyoda visit with the PM over a few Molsons is in order though. -Just to get the facts straight about these American Toyota incidents.

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"Joe Volpe revealed that Transport Canada had received a total of 125 complaints about Toyotas. But Toyota officials said many were unproven and stemmed from incidents dating several years back, saying media publicity often drives customers to recall previous problems they may have ignored at the time."

And viola- here is your problem ! Toyota wants you to believe them- but they don't want to believe you ! Whoa, the gall of these guys never ceases to amaze me. First they tried to blame their sticky pedals on "driver/owner" error. Then they fessed up and admitted- "OK, there might be a problem with wear and design" ! Then as the list of deaths, accidents, and reports continued to climb, well into the hundreds, they tried to quash investigations at the NHTSA by sending out previous employees of Toyota to meet with their old buddys and "wink-wink. ol buddy ol pal" their way out of any real investigation whatsoever. Eventually the media caught on to the scandal and Toyota has been making excuses ever since !

"Transport Canada has only confirmed that it has received 25 complaints relating to brake problems in the Toyota Prius and 33 relating to the models that were involved in the sticky pedal recall since 2005."

OK- thats 58 serious incidents that should have been investigated. Had that been done in Canada, possibly- maybe- perhaps;

"two relate to fatalities" would have, could have should have never happened. Bringing the number to 54 fatalities (alledged) is totally unheard of- unless you are a Toyota executive, whose actions indicate that such "collateral damage" is acceptable when the company's main goal was to be the #1 car maker in the world. I can't tell you the amount of contempt I have for such a cold hearted wreckless attitude towards one customers- especially foreign ones.

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Junnama; "Toyota just has enough pull in Japan to get a full recall suspended."

They also have enough pull, and audacity, to hide and secretly repair (alledged) hundreds of defective Toyotas in and throughout Japan. I have been finidng it quite interesting to read news reports that are now starting to speak of "no reported" incidence or "no documented" problems ! In short, repairs were done and either nobody reported them or the reports were hidden, destroyed, manipulated- whatever ! When we start hearing about an increase in "sudden acceleration" problems I do not believe this for a moment;

"media publicity often drives customers to recall previous problems they may have ignored at the time."

I believe that people probably took their cars in to be inspected, Toyota did some secret repairs, notified no-one, and sent the car back with an excuse about "timing belts" or "spark plug replacements"- things the average consumer would know a little about and probably say "yeh, just the timing off a bit" ! We know that repairs were done to Toyotas in Japan- Japanese executives admitted as such- but whether or not these were done in secret, behind closed doors in North America remains a mystery- only the executives know and none of them are willing to whistle blow at this point. This is the dark side of Toyotas corporate culture- "out" no one ! Not even for the sake of the public- as they are not one of "us". Scary !

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Actually a design flaw that has manifested itself all over the globe (except Japan, for some reason). Oh but yes I agree that something doesn't make sense, something is inconsistent in the situation, I'm not sure what it is though....

Simple. The majority of the recalls are "sticky pedals" in which the models are made in North America with CTS(Indiana based company) manufacturing the defective part. Since the accelarator pedals made in Japan are made by Denso, there are no problems. As for the recalls in Japan, it's limited to Prius, SAI, LexusHS250 for the ABS programming.

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Branded at 12:37 AM JST - 18th March. OK- thats 58 serious incidents that should have been investigated. Had that been done in Canada, possibly- maybe- perhaps; "two relate to fatalities" would have, could have should have never happened. Bringing the number to 54 fatalities (alledged) is totally unheard of- unless you are a Toyota executive, whose actions indicate that such "collateral damage" is acceptable when the company's main goal was to be the #1 car maker in the world. I can't tell you the amount of contempt I have for such a cold hearted wreckless attitude towards one customers- especially foreign ones.

The “sudden acceleration” is an ugly mix of media frenzy, sophisticated engineering, and complex human machine interaction. But on Toyota sudden acceleration complaints seems to show that the bulk of the incidents ending in fatalities have been reported by drivers aged 61 to 80. Which leads to a very obvious question. Could it be that human error, not defective design, is at fault here? The age distribution of all the drivers in 56 deaths since 1992 is pretty revealing. The highest clusters are the 61-70 and 71-80. The median age is 60, and just over half are 60 or older. That’s against just 16 percent of drivers over 60 across all automotive fatalities. Moreover, the age distribution of all sudden-acceleration complainants should be mapped against the age distribution of Toyota buyers overall, to ensure it’s not representative. But majority of Toyota purchaser is not between 60 and 80, reinforcing the continuing belief that driver error is largely to blame.

That drivers 60 to 70 years old had complaints at six times the rate of those 20 to 30. Complaints were also more common among those unfamiliar with the car involved, and people of short stature. All cars involved had automatic transmissions. How can a driver place a foot on the wrong pedal? Maybe “noisy neuromuscular processes,” in which a limb doesn’t do quite what the brain tells it to, leading a driver’s foot to deviate slightly from its intended path. Drivers misaligned in their seats raise the risk too. In the panic following acceleration when the driver expected braking, the immediate response is to press down harder on the “brake” pedal, leading to further acceleration. Drivers typically do not shut off the ignition, shift to neutral, or apply the parking brake.

Putting it into perspective that the 56 deaths the paper cites over 18 years are just a miniscule fraction of the 420,000 total deaths in vehicle accidents during that period. That Toyota’s sales ranking from 2001 to 2010, it was third in total U.S. car sales was far higher than its ranking for number of safety complaints to the NHTSA, where it was 17th.

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-OK- I admit it. Canadian drivers are just better drivers than Americans and complain less. -Fact. Not as good as the Scandinavians, -but damn close.

In city driving it is a different story.

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Simple. The majority of the recalls are "sticky pedals" in which the models are made in North America with CTS(Indiana based company) manufacturing the defective part.

I know, don't let the facts of the global recall (except Japan) get in the way of the story you want to tell... anyway, this will all be a moot conversation soon, as the fact that Toyota doesn't know the cause of the unintended acceleration is now coming out (starting today on the AP)....

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sfjp330;

"But on Toyota sudden acceleration complaints seems to show that the bulk of the incidents ending in fatalities have been reported by drivers aged 61 to 80."

Playing with numbers again ?

"California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, his wife, Cleofe, 45, their daughter Mahala, 13, and Cleofe's brother Chris Lastrella, 39, were traveling on a freeway near Santee on Aug. 28 when their vehicle reached speeds of more than 120 mph, hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames."

This is the incident that shocked the world into acting. Average age- 35 years old ! Toyota is about to do more than just apologize- relatives of this family have filed suit and will rake in millions ! Sad.

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"I can't tell you the amount of contempt I have for such a cold hearted wreckless attitude towards one customers- especially foreign ones." [Emphasis added]

Ahhh . . . There’s that often-denied bias rearing it's pretty little head again. It seems it's the "foreignness" of Toyota that gets your goat, despite you knowing perfectly well the cars in question are being built and sold in America by an overwhelmingly predominant American staff being paid American salaries which go into American bank accounts to pay for American goods at American stores.

"But damn, damn, DAMN that there's a foreign name on those cars!!"

(“Never you mind Ford quietly fixing defects in the ABS of its hybrids, despite having known about them for years. They’re local boys, so we’ll cut ‘em some slack. But I warned y’all ‘bout ‘dem damned furiners!!”)

No, friend, it’s not just the Japanese market that is seeing a complete absence of this “sudden acceleration” phenomenon. Europe has not experienced it, there are no reports from China, and nothing at all from Russia -- three of the next largest automotive markets outside of Japan or North America.

“{sputter! sputter!} B-B-Buh . . . Wuh-whaaa…?!” some might say, followed by a rambling diatribe of baseless allegations about some mysterious all-powerful Shadow Toyota Shogun pulling the strings of the global automotive market. But that would only fit the already-tired pattern of cramming the square peg of unsubstantiated accusations and rumor-mongering into the round hole of truth that characterized the first few months of this story.

While the recalls are indeed global -- as a matter of safety -- the sudden acceleration defect has only been found in North American-built models. And despite intense international media exposure -- combined with that global recall -- reports of sudden acceleration have yet to crop up in other Toyota markets. Funny that.

Which brings us right back again to the mystery of why these problems have occurred only in the North American market.

That Toyota made a serious error of judgement in not taking the early reports of sudden acceleration seriously is not in question. That there is something unknown at work here that is causing the highly sophisticated fuel system of a handful of Toyotas to malfunction is also undeniable. But let's not try to make this more that it is with this wholly dishonest call-to-arms against Toyota as some evil corporate juggernaut out to kill American drivers. Simple logic and fact dictate otherwise.

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LFRagain- Sigh. "the cars in question are being built and sold in America by an overwhelmingly predominant American staff being paid American salaries which go into American bank accounts to pay for American goods at American stores."

You are soooo wrong on so many fronts there- where to begin.

The cars in question are built to standards and specs provided by Toyota- from top to bottom they control the design and manufacturing process. Odd, you don't see any "Americans" slapping your big mac together there in Tokyo do you ? And you certainly wouldn't blame the cute little miss hanako if that burger contained tainted lettuce from ones of Japans overseas neighbours now would you ? This is how Toyota works my friend- they procure the supplies from suppliers that meet their production requirements, plain and simple. Pushing responsibility on anyone else is not only childish, but like B'stone Japan learned- can cost you millions in gomenasai payments !

"Never you mind Ford quietly..."

Quietly raking in new customers at Toyotas expense ? Hardly being quiet about it- they reported 5 year highs for their stock yesterday ! Seems US customers are not as dim as many would suggest. The US airwaves are just full of ads now with stories of people giving up on Toyota- too risky !

"it’s not just the Japanese market that is seeing a complete absence of this “sudden acceleration” phenomenon."

So why did Toyota secretly repair thousands of vehicles in Japan before announcing a recall there ? Certainly that doesn't mesh ! Here was the ethical dilemma for Toyota- they started repairs in late January, early FEbruary in Japan but they still had thousands of vehicles on the road in both Japan and the USA that were sold last summer, fall, and winter- part of the "cash for clunkers" program in the States. Now how bad does that look ? The US government creates a program that will clearly benefit a maker like Toyota- who in turn floods the market with cars they know are defective ! Excuse me a second while I“{sputter! sputter!} B-B-Buh . . . Wuh-whaaa…?!”

"Which brings us right back again to the mystery of why these problems have occurred only in the North American market"

Actually what we are fnding is that these problems have occured in other nations but have only killed in N.A. ! The incidents in Japan have been hushed up and covered up by Toyotas secret repairwork going on for a good two months now- Thank the Americans and the US media for bringing to light this scandal- one that Akio Toyoda is slowly admitting to. Toyotas quest to be the #1 car maker in the world has had deadly consequences- many of which were known about for years and simply ignored or covered up until a horrific crash killed a whole family in San Diego. If it wasn't for the 911 call that the media got a hold of- well, Toyota would still be churning out one death machine after another. And who knows maybe the likes of LFRagain would be "LFR no more".

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I know, don't let the facts of the global recall (except Japan) get in the way of the story you want to tell... anyway, this will all be a moot conversation soon, as the fact that Toyota doesn't know the cause of the unintended acceleration is now coming out (starting today on the AP)....

It appears NHTSA doesn't know either. I think the problem is an "electronic" defect in which the car senses the age of the driver.

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Exponent used Gilberts own methodology and recreated his experiment and showed that it is nearly impossible for what Gilbert did to happen in the real world and only through human intervention would a situation like this occur. Exponent then applied the same test to a BMW 3, Honda Accord, Crossfire, Ford Fusion, Mercedes Benz E350 and they alll did the same thing, create sudden unintended acceleration without a fault code. Only thing different was the resistor values used to manipulate voltages. Never mind explaing how specific resistor values would establish a connection between two ground isolated wires.

This is the exact reason why regular people should not serve on a jury during a medical or engineering investigation. The normal juror is ill educated on highly technical content and are in no way qualified to process such technical evidence to render a verdict. This is why states setup specialized medical courts and engineering courts and are settled by independent medical/engineering experts. Average jurist would have no experience in applying the scientific and engineering methods which is always used to solve technological problems. This is how trial lawyers trick juries into awarding gigantic settlements. Trial lawyers cant trick independent medical/engineerinig experts. Anyone with basic electronic circuit knowledge can easily see how Gilbert falsified his test. Using a fraudulent ABC news segment is hardly evidence of anything and is great for convincing average jurists.

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Never mind explaing how specific resistor values would establish a connection between two ground isolated wires.

sfjp330, be careful with simplifications. The report from Exponent, which was posted on the Toyota website, just focuses on the cabling from the pedal to the engine control unit, forgetting the small board inside the pedal and forgetting the board inside the ECU. The layout in there may look completely different. It is not unusual to get shorts with relatively high resistance when dirt and/or moisture are creeping into your system. At the risk of Branded reading this speculation again as some sort of evidence - wasn't Toyota talking about moisture being a problem with the sticky pedals? They referred to it as causing mechanical problems, but it shows that there can be relatively high levels of moisture in general. There are a couple of other potential failure sources as well, like all the electrical components connected to these wires. Probably not even Toyota has enough information about the inside of the components to judge the possible failure modes. While Gilbert's experiment was not really convincing, neither is Exponent's rebuttal.

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Branded,

That was a long post that essentially danced widely around every point I made, but let’s get one thing straight from the start. You are liberally interchanging the recall regarding Toyota Prius braking software with the sudden acceleration issue, which has not occurred with any Prius’ so far (Mr. “I’m lying out of my arse” Sikes withstanding). You cannot casually exchange the two entirely separate issues just to muscle in whatever point you’d like to make at a moment’s notice. Well, I mean you can, but just know that you look silly for doing so.

The “quiet repairs” in Japan were software upgrades for the Prius’ ABS software, not for sudden acceleration. There have been no reports of sudden acceleration in Japan whatsoever. You got the inside scoop? Share. Links. Now.

And you’ve ignored the rest of the world as well. No reports in Britain. No reports in China. No reports in France. No reports in Russia. The list goes on. ONLY the North American market seems to be experiencing this phenomenon. You know better? Share. Links. Now.

Which brings us back to my second point, which apparently I have to spell out for you: If the designs of the various components that make up an automobile are standardized, which they indeed are, and those specs are used in a standardized fashion in markets all over the world, which they are, then it stands to reason that if errors are occurring in only one of those world markets, there must be a problem at the manufacturing level. More specifically, with North American CTS, the subcontracted parts supplier that made the defective parts.

Your hamburger analogy only serves to demonstrate how much you refuse to see the logical conclusion one can draw from where the parts were manufactured. This hypothetical burger joint wouldn’t be serving overseas lettuce. It would be serving domestic lettuce, which is precisely what’s happened with the accelerator pedal components that seem to be causing problems.

The vast majority of Toyotas built in North America are made from parts manufactured in the U.S., by American workers.

Now maybe you’re trying to imply that American autoworkers are traitors for working for a “foreign” company, and that they are subsequently in on some sort of deception along with Toyota’s alleged sinister plot. I understand how much Toyota’s “foreignness” angers you. But you’re basically saying that everyone at Toyota North America, from the American-born and raise CEO Jim Press to the lowest level assembly person was in on it.

OR, conversely, you’re taking the Nuremburg defense, e.g. “We poor befuddled American workers, having been thoroughly hoodwinked by a sneaky and tricky adversary, just didn’t notice anything was wrong while we kept pumping out the parts and collecting our paychecks.”

Which is it?

Or are you still inclined to pin everything on Toyota?

Never mind CTS.

Never mind the NHTSA that essentially looked the other way when its sole job was to ensure auto manufacturers adhered to the strictest safety guidelines.

Toyota’s error was in not aggressively pursuing the very first report of sudden acceleration and seeking the cause. Toyota’s error was responding too slowly to the death of the CHP officer and his family. Toyota’s error was in being too arrogant to admit that perhaps there was something wrong with the acceleration components. But to say that this is entirely Toyota’s fault from the start based on the unproven assertion that the part they designed was defective from the drawing board is simple fantasy in light of the actual facts.

No one can reproduce the error, and the error only occurs in North American Toyotas. Yeah, some things are definitely not right here, but vast corporate deceit on the part of Toyota isn’t anywhere near the top of that list.

Also, do me a favor and keep your dismissive, misogynistic drivel like “cute little miss hanako” to yourself. It isn’t cute, witty, or amusing, and does nothing to further your argument beyond convince me you really do have some deep-seated resentment against the Japanese as a people.

“The US government creates a program that will clearly benefit a maker like Toyota- who in turn floods the market with cars they know are defective ! Excuse me a second while I“{sputter! sputter!} B-B-Buh . . . Wuh-whaaa…?!”

Again with the anger at Toyota’s foreignness. Something you want to share with the group, Branded?

“Actually what we are fnding is that these problems have occured in other nations but have only killed in N.A. ! The incidents in Japan have been hushed up and covered up by Toyotas secret repairwork going on for a good two months now”

No, we haven’t found anything of the sort. I’ll give it to you straight: You lying about the first point and simply speculating about the other.

“Thank the Americans and the US media for bringing to light this scandal

Again with the American worship. What is it that compels you to disregard hundreds of millions of people on the planet outside of the United States that haven’t experienced this sudden acceleration problem?

Are you calling them liars?

Are you suggesting that Americans are just infinitely more canny and able to spot corporate deceit that anyone else on the planet?

Are you saying that Americans are wise beyond measurement, while everyone else is gullible and dumb?

Or maybe you’re suggesting that Toyota just paid off the rest of the world to keep quiet?

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LFRagain- you are so lost that it's difficult to now where to begin, I'll minimize my comments as much as possible cause- you'll never get it !

"You cannot casually exchange the two entirely separate issues just to muscle in whatever point you’d like to make at a moment’s notice. Well, I mean you can, but just know that you look silly for doing so."

really- I thought that this was exactly what Akio Toyoda has been doing with his broad based wide spectrumed world-wide apologies. Hey if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for the rest of us- lfragain excluded of course.

"Your hamburger analogy only serves to demonstrate how much you refuse to see the logical conclusion one can draw from where the parts were manufactured. This hypothetical burger joint wouldn’t be serving overseas lettuce. It would be serving domestic lettuce"

Really ? So why then does McDonalds Japan use Aussie beef ? Hmmm, that was too easy.

"American workers, having been thoroughly hoodwinked by a sneaky and tricky adversary, just didn’t notice anything was wrong while we kept pumping out the parts and collecting our paychecks.”

Or, as the ongoing investigation points out- Toyota has hidden much of the data from investigators for years now ! Take care with your accusations against the suppliers- like I've mentioned before- nobody was giving them credit when Toyota was raking in millions and milions for decades, why turn on them now ? Looking for scapegoats are we ? Even Toyota knows better than to try and throw them under the bus- as you are trying !

"No one can reproduce the error, and the error only occurs in North American Toyotas."

No- Toyota can't reproduce the errors ! Imagine that !

"I’ll give it to you straight: You lying about the first point and simply speculating about the other."

And I'll give it to you straight- I received a stern warning from the editor of this site for using such language as "you lie". In all fairness you should receive the same warning as I- subsequently I will not retaliate with name calling and childish antics like you have displayed here- I will remain civil.

"Are you suggesting that Americans are just infinitely more canny and able to spot corporate deceit that anyone else on the planet.?"

I dunno- ask the families of the 50 plus killed in these Toyotas (alledgedly).

"Are you saying that Americans are wise beyond measurement, while everyone else is gullible and dumb?"

I dunno- ask the 100's of people injured in these Toyotas (alledgedly).

"Or maybe you’re suggesting that Toyota just paid off the rest of the world to keep quiet?"

Your words- not mine !

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So it's time to cut to the chase- What exactly are lawyers out there saying ? Maybe this can help;

"Why Toyota is Liable"

In the lawsuits filed against Toyota by Lieff Cabraser's clients, the plaintiffs charge that:

-Toyota had full knowledge of the numerous complaints regarding its vehicles, that such vehicles were susceptible to incidents of sudden unintended acceleration, and thus that such vehicles posed a significant risk of injury and death to vehicle occupants, other motorists, and pedestrians;

-Toyota failed to exercise ordinary care and breached its duty to manufacture and sell safe automobiles by:

-producing vehicles Toyota knew or should have known were defectively designed and/or manufactured and were therefore prone to failure under normal driving conditions, potentially causing injuries and/or deaths; failing to incorporate within its vehicles and designs reasonable safeguards and protections against sudden acceleration; and failing to adequately identify and mitigate the hazards associated with sudden unintended acceleration in accordance with good engineering practices.

There you go lfragain, the words from the mouths of "Americans".

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Exactly, Branded! The piece of text you copied and pasted from the Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein's website clearly states that those words come from the PLAINTIFFS. How many were there again?

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So long as a Toyota doesn't kill Canada's finest citizen, Alice Munro, I'll rest easy.

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gonemad at 09:06 AM JST - 19th March. wasn't Toyota talking about moisture being a problem with the sticky pedals? They referred to it as causing mechanical problems, but it shows that there can be relatively high levels of moisture in general.

Moisture might be a part of the problem. However, compare to Denso, the CTS built unit is prone to continual wear and change in friction level over the long haul. But having two small plastic surfaces rubbing against plastic does not strike me as an elegant, reliable or durable design, and one that is presumably subject to long term deterioration from natural and unnatural causes. But it’s difficult to imagining this assembly still functioning as intended that far down the road, nevertheless even five or ten years from now. Yet Toyota is apparently staying with this design, with some further modification, for ongoing new car production.

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Branded at 10:02 AM JST - 18th March. Playing with numbers again ? "California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, his wife, Cleofe, 45, their daughter Mahala, 13, and Cleofe's brother Chris Lastrella, 39, were traveling on a freeway near Santee on Aug. 28 when their vehicle reached speeds of more than 120 mph, hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames." This is the incident that shocked the world into acting. Average age- 35 years old ! Toyota is about to do more than just apologize- relatives of this family have filed suit and will rake in millions ! Sad.

The vehicle, on loan from Bob Baker Toyota/Lexus, actually had the wrong floor mat installed. It was an all-weather floor mat from a Lexus SUV, which given the angle of the ES350's floor and its distance to the bottom of the accelerator pedal caused the jamming. Saylor and his family were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a complete and utter tragedy.

Was it Toyota's fault? Was it the dealership's fault? It's tough to say, but we can be certain it wasn't Mark Saylor's fault. The vehicle had the wrong floor mats in it. Nobody double-checked it. Nobody from the dealership considered what might occur. But, how could they see the future. In a world of a thousand possibilities, it would be difficult for them to expect acceleration problems with any of their vehicles, let alone the Lexus they loaned Mark Saylor.

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"Toyota apologizes to Canadian car owners"

Yet we have no details of the two canadian citizens involved in the fatal crashes. I think it's important to know the particulars so sidecar lawyer wannabes can stop asking questions like- "Was it Toyota's fault?" As I see it, the more we focus on "floor mats" the more we are inclined to conclude that "Thats" not the problem. We then move up a bit to "sticky pedals"- which also doesn't appear to be the problem. Too many drivers are reporting gas pedals going to the floor "on their own". We are now finding some are able to manualy yank the pedal back up- most recently a driver on Lake Oswego Oregon did this- but it was the 5th or 6th time his car had acted this way. So it appears that floor mats and stickyness is not the main problem- all fingers are starting to point, like so many engineers in the US have suggested, to the electronic/computer system.

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Branded at 10:02 AM JST - 18th March. Toyota is about to do more than just apologize- relatives of this family have filed suit and will rake in millions ! Sad.

I think you answered your own question. "I think it's important to know the particulars so sidecar lawyer wannabes (like Branded) can stop asking questions like- "Was it Toyota's fault?" and you are wannabe. How sad.

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Too many drivers are reporting gas pedals going to the floor "on their own".

Branded, I don't know whether you were suggesting the literal meaning of gas pedals moving down by themselves. I have read such reports. The funny thing is that none of the modern Toyotas do have any mechanics which could move the gas pedal. Perhaps the problem with their cars is actually evil spirits and Toyota should employ some exorcists :-)

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