Surprise! Toyotas aren't defective!

History repeats itself.

Back in 1983, Audi was getting complaints about sudden acceleration in the Audi 5000 automatic. They couldn't really determine a direct cause, but issued recalls anyway. They even announced a service campaign to "correct a problem of drivers inadvertently pressing the accelerator rather then the brake".

PEOPLE WERE PRESSING THE WRONG FRICKIN PEDAL. The problem was that the Audi 5000 was a new breed of premium car. Americans who wanted premium cars were used to cars in which, as P.J. O'Rourke said, "On a clear day you can see the brake pedal from the accelerator" had this new european car with the pedals much closer together.

There was no design flaw. The Audis that were jumping into swimming pools (Literally) showed no evidence that the brake pedal had been applied at all. Here's a link to a summary of the Audi findings. The determination? "Pedal misapplication is the most likely cause of these accidents".

Try this at home: ANY car, I don't care what it is, has more powerful brakes than engine. ANY car. If you hold the brakes and gas all the way down, it will stop. Go ahead and try it. More proof? Try accelerating to 100 km/h in the distance it takes to stop from 100 km/h. You can't do it, I don't care what you drive.

So. over 25 years later, Toyota is faced with a similar problem. More old people are buying their cars (Check the average age of the people who have had sudden acceleration incidents here). The pedal placement is different on a Toyota than a Buick.

Here is a new study showing the exact same thing is the cause of the Toyota problem. People are STILL pressing the wring damn pedal! Toyota is spending all this money on 'repairs' that aren't actually doing anything to pacify the public, when there is no fault in the first place beyond the usual "Loose nut behind the wheel".

Sigh.

Something I posted on Yahoo Answers re Oil Changes...

The following is something I posted on yahoo Answers as a response to someone asking the "Labour price for a oil change". I must have been bored... but I like what I said!

---

Most shops provide a flat price for oil changes on most vehicles, depending on which grade and type of oil you choose. Be aware that they will always try to upsell you to a "premium" conventional oil or a synthetic oil. Neither of these is necessary as long as you follow your manufacturer's recommendations, which can be found in your owner's manual. The shop's cheapest oil will meet these specs. Anything else is paying more for no reason other than to feel like you're doing something good (You're not). (But it does feel good to think so, doesn't it!)

They will also check your air filter, passenger compartment filter and other maintenance items based on mileage. Do your own research ahead of time, because a lot of the time (Depending on the depth of your wallet) it is worth the premium they charge not to have to worry about changing these things yourself! They're not ripping you off - they're just trying to make money, and there's nothing dishonest about that, as long as they're not flat-out lying!

If you want to know if you can bring your own oil and filter and have a shop change it and only charge labour, be aware that the price they offer will seem like a ripoff. Sorry, but it will. But you're tying up a bay and their time, and they expect a certain amount of profit in that bay whether they're selling their own parts or not. Fair is fair.

Little Victoria sums up overpopulation...

My 5-year-old daughter Tori is sitting on the couch watching Bugs Bunny. She just said "You know what, daddy? Once the world it made, it can't stop."

"What do you mean, bear?" I said.

"Like, when there are people, they just get bigger and bigger."

"I've stopped growing, though!" I pointed out.

"Yeah, but there are more and more people, and they can't all just die at once!"

And she went back to watching Bugs Bunny. I'm going to try and remember things the girls say and post them here, if only for my own benefit. Sometimes little ones have a very clear view of things.

Obama is making impossible demands - Uh-oh...

Update: Here's another article on the same subject...

Looks like Obama is getting a little unrealistic already, as evidenced by this article, which says that he is contemplating allowing states to set their own fuel-economy standards. He forgets that he lives in America.

This is the perfect opportunity for the government to start training the American people away from gas-guzzling cars and trucks and into more sensible vehicles. The problem is that they can't MAKE the public BUY them! How can they pretend to legislate an economy target when the average is determined by the cars that people actually make the decision to BUY?

All California has to do is make the rich people buy Priuses instead of Bentleys and you've got a 30% fleet reduction right there. Will they do it? Nah. Can you put a Prius engine in a Bentley? Only if you don't want to go anywhere. Luxury cars are big and heavy and require larger engines and thus more chemical energy as a means of propelling them. You cannot make a 6,000 lb car get 30 mpg and also get up to highway speed within a week.

The only way for the government to control mileage is to set a minimum. Say 20 mpg. This will, of course, make all new large luxury cars and exotics illegal. Think the public will go for it? In this economy... maybe... but I seriously doubt it.

I guess what I find silly is the whole idea of trying to affect the average. It's obvious. Provide incentives to buy the more efficient cars and penalties for the less efficient ones. If $5000 for every Hummer sold goes into a discount on someone's Yaris (or Cavalier, if you want to keep the repair industry happy) you'll see the national fleet economy average drop in a hurry. The vehicles already exist that will lower the average, it's just that the average buyer has no reason to want them. My personal "fleet" consists of 5 manual-transmission four-cylinder vehicles. The largest engines of the bunch are 2.0 litres. 3 of them were made in the 70's and thus pollute more in the way of HC, CO and NOx, but their CO2 emissions are the same as ((or actually a little less than) the modern cars. I bring the average down. Dudes who have pickup trucks for no discernable reason (Unless they unzip, I suppose) increase the average. Fix THAT problem and you save a whole lot of CO2.

Wow, it's nice to have my homework done for me.

Click here for the best thing I've ever found on the Internet that wasn't at least partially naked or related to cars.

I can hardly even comment on it... it is absolutely perfect.

This blog proves that everything I believe has an exact opposite. It's so mind-boggling I can't even wrap my brain around it.