<p>My older daughter drives an XTerra and I agree is it a great car, very easy to drive, with good visibility. I suggested we buy another one, buy DH resists buying the same exact car. I’m going to pass on the info I’ve received here about the FJ Cruiser, so we’ll see. I’m not the best driver in terms of manuevering in and out of tight spaces, and I don’t like the idea of additional blind spots, so it sounds like the FJ is not for us. I may look at the XTerra, Jeep Cherokee, and some others similar in size.</p>
<p>My brother in law just got a Chevy crossover SUV as a company car and loves it. I forget what it is called, though. He tends to be picky about his cars…</p>
<p>My mom has a toyota. Its a two door rav4 1998 model. It has never once given any major problem (aside from windsheild which was caused by flying rocks). She takes it in to the dealer every so often to get it checked out. It needs some new paint at the moment but that was caused by a windstorm/duststorm putting little indents into the paint. But other then that its reliegable and it gets good gas mileage. Also did i mention that its already over 100 thousand miles :)</p>
<p>and noticed and reported the described brake problem shortly after purchase. Dealer checked it out but said no problem. Kept reporting it to dealer and they downloaded a Corporate software package (for transmission) but it didn’t fix the brake problem. There is a tendency when pressing on the brake for it to not slow at times, so you feel (and do) keep going forward more than expected up to that car or intersection and naturally press harder.I have reported it to Toyota Corporate and Transportation Safety Board. No recall on HH as yet.</p>
<p>Curiously had one past event too when my car engine “surged”, i.e., sped up unexpectedly. Reported this and that’s when they downloaded the transmission software. I haven’t had it since.</p>
<p>All of this seems like a computer software problem to me, which Toyota needs to fix. </p>
<p>I’m still paying off for this car. The Blue book values keep dropping, but not the city taxes on them. Don’t know what insurance will do as yet.</p>
<p>Thanks. I’ll check it out. Yesterday I saw a smallish SUV by GMC that looked really nice. I just looked it up-The Acadia, starting at $31,700. Damn. Back to the search…</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of corporate excuses, I think I make that clear daily. But in the case of the Audi, I just read an op ed in the NYT, which stated that they never “fixed” the acceleration problem because there wasn’t one. They introduced the feature which, as described above, keeps you from shifting out of park unless your foot is on the brake. now standard in all cars. This fixed the problem. So it actually was the case that it was people stepping on the wrong pedal, and then stepping harder when it accelerated instead of braked. As skeptical as I normally am, the story made sense to me.</p>
<p>Quote: Do you think many people realize Scion and Lexus are also Toyota? </p>
<p>YES! We live in the area where the whole family was killed in a runaway Lexus. We have a Scion Xb that we love(d) but we had to have a $2000 valve job on it!!! It was only 4 years old with 50k miles on it. OUCH! </p>
<p>Never been an SUV fan myself. Just bought at VW Jetta TDI, and it’s fantastic. Lots of power, great handling, comfortable. Minimum 40 MPG, and diesel is the cheapest fuel in our area, usually 5 to 15 cents less than regular. But no, I wouldn’t touch a Toyota ever again, even if someone gave me one for free (if that happens I’ll take offers).</p>
<p>It’s true that there wasn’t a problem with the accelerator, but there was a problem the design of the car - one that made it easier than most other cars to mistakenly apply the gas instead of the brake when engaging the transmission. </p>
<p>Dismissing that as “driver error” seeks to deny the problem. But the rash of Audi sudden acceleration crashes showed there was indeed a problem, a big problem. When you’ve got a product that a segment of your customers cannot operate properly and safely, but they can do so with your competitors’ products and could also with your own products of previous design, you’ve got a problem - a design problem. And this particular problem wasn’t fixed by informing drivers. It was fixed by changing the design of the car. Quite properly so.</p>
<p>If you want an SUV style vehicle for your D and don’t want to pay a fortune and want one that’s reliable and fun to drive, consider a Hyundai Tucson. The warranty can’t be beat (100K miles) and it has a lot of features for the price. We have one that’s 5 years old and not a single thing has gone wrong with it.</p>
<p>I think the whole thing is overblown. Toyota’s are no more dangerous than other vehicles. There have been many, many recalls of US-made and other cars over the years. Someone mentioned the Pinto. </p>
<p>Any mechanical device can have a problem. We currently have 3 Toyotas (none recalled), and have had 3 others, the most recent totaled in a winter accident with over 180,000 mi. </p>
<p>When I was learning how to drive, I remember learning what to do if the accelerator stuck. It was even a joke, it was such a common claim of drivers of all sorts of models of car. While I don’t doubt that some people have had a problem, I don’t think it is a widespread or as dangerous as other problems might be (blown tire, loss of power steering/brakes, inattention). </p>
<p>I’ll continue to take my chances with a Toyota and let my children drive them.</p>
<p>Coureur–I’m not sure one way or another, but there’s been a sudden increase in Toyota reports since it made the news. So the question is, were Audis causing the driver error, or were reports of them fanning an increase of more reports? Again, I don’t know. No personal connection here; never owned an Audi, or a Toyota.</p>
<p>Beware of 2-4 yr old Chrysler SUVs. DH was “upgraded” to one when he rented a compact car in SJC, and while parking it, he put it in reverse, but the damn thing lunged forward! It was a good thing there was a small concrete barrier in front of the car, otherwise, who knows what could have happened (DH was looking over his shoulder to make sure he was not backing into someone). H reported the incident to the rental agency. I have no idea if they did anything about the car or whether this is a widespread problem with these SUVs.</p>
<p>Courts, safety boards and multiple independent investigators,
journalism and otherwise indicated that there wasn’t an acceleration
problem. No accelerator problem; no acceleration problem. Just user
error.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Manual transmission variants had the same pedal placements as cars with
automatic transmissions. There were no UI problems with cars with manual
transmissions.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Warning: Contents of cup may be hot</p>
<p>Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health</p>
<p>Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking is
Dangerous to Your Health</p>
<p>SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease,
Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.</p>
<p>SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces
Serious Risks to Your Health.</p>
<p>SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking By Pregnant Women May Result in
Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, And Low Birth Weight.</p>
<p>It is unclear that that mechansim does as you claim. I’d guess changing
pedal placement had more to do with it. But we as a society accept risks
in the things that we use.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of thousands (conservatively) of Windows computers
in botnets and these botnets cause a lot of damage to consumers,
governments and companies. In general, hijacked computers are due to
user error. Some countries have considered licensing computer users.
We could blame Microsoft but Microsoft tells us that we should run the
appropriate antispyware, antivirus and firewall programs. Even these,
though, don’t offer full protection as even a tech-saavy company like
Google was hacked.</p>
<p>There are many areas where users are simply stupid or don’t care. We
have a major problem with mobile phone users making calls or sending
text messages while driving. Do you blame the phone maker, the telco,
the car manufacturer for that? Or do you blame the user.</p>
<p>Warning: you shouldn’t drink large quantities of alcohol before
operating this vehicle.</p>
<p>Excerpt referring to the Audi investigation:</p>
<p>In 1989 NHTSA published “An Examination of Sudden Acceleration.” This report was intended to end all debates on SUA. Its primary conclusion was that only the driver’s foot or the cruise control could move the throttle to the wide-open position. The study also noted that SUA could be caused by simple mechanical failures of the throttle cable or floor mat interference. Under these conditions, a significant increase in the driver’s ability to stop the vehicle was also noted. However, the general spin was that NHTSA could not find any vehicle defects causing SUA. The condition, the agency concluded was the result of driver error, although the agency noted that it could be induced by poor vehicle design (i.e., brake, accelerator pedal placement and offset). The study recommended the installation of automatic shift-locks (ASL), which require the driver to depress the brake pedal before the vehicle can be shifted out of Park to prevent the driver from depressing the accelerator instead of the brake.</p>
<p>Dr. Antony Anderson, an electrical engineering consultant in the UK who has examined numerous SUA crashes, says that NHTSA’s definitive research report is neither definitive nor research. The agency based its report on nine underlying assumptions, but did not provide the basis for those assumptions. The agency defined sudden unintended acceleration as only instances where the vehicle lurches suddenly forward or in reverse from a standstill. This automatically discounted many other situations in which a vehicle’s throttle is wide open in direct contradiction to the driver’s demands, be it at full speed, a slow speed or in a cruise control mode. Further, he says, the systems that NHTSA examined in the late 1980s bear no resemblance to fully electronic throttle systems of today.</p>
<p>“It’s a travesty,” Anderson said. “That report has no relevance whatsoever, but manufacturers have sheltered themselves behind it for years.”</p>
<p>Repeating for emphasis:</p>
<p>“…although the agency noted that it could be induced by poor vehicle design”</p>
<p>I’ll never give up my Toyota Echo. NEVEEEEER.</p>
<p>I haven’t had any problems with my Echo, but I did have a Ford Escort that started speeding up on its own so I had to grind on the brake constantly to keep it at a safe speed. Very annoying.</p>
<p>I experienced a sudden lack of deceleration once - the throttle return spring on the carbureter broke - so I turned off the engine and pulled over.</p>