<p>The recalls are playing havoc with the repair departments at dealers. I’m normally able to call the previous day for an appointment the same day or the next day. The service writer that I spoke to said that they’re short mechanics and could get me in in a few days. They must be inundated if they’re putting off revenue customers for recalls.</p>
<p>I have a check engine light at 190K - my guess is that it’s an O2 sensor - I’m way overdue.</p>
<p>Interesting, BCEagle. Here in my neck of the woods in WA, the roads a crawling with Toyotas, so one would think the dealerships would be swamped with work, but I was able to get service appointments for both cars when I wanted (neither is on the recall list).</p>
<p>Are any of the new Toyotas safe to buy?</p>
<p>Who knows? They are going to put Smart Brake in 2011 models and I think that that will be enough to deal with pedal and drive-by-wire issues but that’s for 2011 models. I’ve never experienced UI in my 2000 Avalon but my car has far less electronics than current models. I guess that you can ask your dealer if you want to buy one.</p>
<p>I have a 2007 FJ Cruiser and have had no problems and it isn’t on the recall list. I’m happy with the vehicle.</p>
<p>I read an article and while it did say that Toyota had more UI problems, it also said that the percentage of problems was about the same as those of other manufacturers. There is one electronic glitch that I’ve noticed - it happens about two or three times a year where the doors unlock while driving. It usually happens when driving down a hill while turning left and going over a bump. It used to be startling but I’ve just learned to relock the doors. My guess is that it’s a software bug but it’s not a big enough deal to report.</p>
<p>Toyota is offering 0% financing for 60 months…awfully tempting!</p>
<p>[Toyota</a> rolls out 0% financing incentive plan. - Mar. 2, 2010](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/02/autos/toyota_incentives/]Toyota”>http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/02/autos/toyota_incentives/)</p>
<p>There was an article in the WSJ yesterday that has Detroit worried about the return of automobile price wars. That cheap financing costs automakers about $4,000 per car. A lot more than say, $2,500 in discounts.</p>
<p>I brought my car in for a routine service this morning and they’re going to do the steering column recall. It’s an incredibly rare and unlikely scenario where the steering wheel could lock while driving. They offered me a loaner car as the recall takes a few hours but I just went with a ride from their shuttle as I didn’t want to have to go through the paperwork for a loaner.</p>
<p>I talked to the shuttle driver and he said that things were going well at the dealership. They gave out raises to the employees this year (they didn’t do that last year) and they have been hiring people. Their shuttle used to end service at 3:00 PM. Now it goes until 7:00 PM and they’ve added Saturday service.</p>
<p>I heard that Lexus lost the top spot on luxury car sales to Mercedes due to the quality issues last year. Lexus has promotions out to try to regain the top slot but I think that time and a period of no recalls will do the most to restore that brand. My car has 205K miles and I still love driving the car. I saw several similar models in the service lot in fabulous condition (at least six years old) and I wouldn’t mind buying one but I’d guess that their owners aren’t selling theirs.</p>
<p>We chickened out and bought a Subaru Forester for our college-aged son, instead of the RAV-4. Still no problems with our Lexus or Camry, though.</p>
<p>Toledo, does he like it? My dad is on his 2nd Forrester in a row. First one he drove up to almost 200k before someone side swiped him and it got totaled. He was fine though, talk about safety restraints! He got a ridiculous amount of money back from the insurance on it too. They hold their value very well.</p>
<p>He loves his Forester, but has only had it since May. We’ve had our Camry since '98 and had an '89 Camry before that. </p>
<p>Got another notice this week to bring the Lexus in for the “floor mat fix”. Haven’t done it, as it seems so preposterous!</p>
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<p>^^^^I had a problem with my car accelerating seemingly of its own volition. It scared the crap out of me, so I took it to my dealer after several episodes in one day. Turns out I had had my car washed early that morning and the guy who put the floor mats back in the car put them in incorrectly and the mat was causing the acceleration problem. Once the mats were properly inserted, the problem was solved. I was a little embarrassed that I hadn’t figured this out on my own, but then again, I’d never heard of something like that happening before. </p>
<p>This was about 3 years ago on a Mercedes.</p>
<p>Most Toyota problems driver error</p>
<p>[Report:</a> Many of Toyota?s Acceleration Problems Due to Driver Error | 80beats | Discover Magazine](<a href=“http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/07/14/report-many-of-toyota’s-acceleration-problems-due-to-driver-error/]Report:”>http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/07/14/report-many-of-toyota’s-acceleration-problems-due-to-driver-error/)</p>
<p>Floor mats have a terrific potential for creating dangerous situations. </p>
<p>They can get rolled/folded and cause the accelerator pedal to be pressed “indirectly”, either from just trying to brace yourself to adjust your position in the seat, or from stepping on the brake and having the bottom of the brake pedal press the mat and the mat presses the gas pedal.</p>
<p>When this happens, its quite disorienting, and could easily provoke a collision, or some other action that creates an accident.</p>
<p>It sounds bogus, but its a lot more dangerous than phantom signals in the “fly by wire” throttle systems.</p>
<p>On my toyota, getting the floormat off the ground is difficult because of the hooks. I usually have to lift the mat up and move it closer to the seat to get the hooks out. This is often difficult because of all of the spikes in the mat.</p>
<p>I can imagine lots of problems with aftermarket mats. The floormats for my car are well over $100 to replace and most people probably just get something cheaper that doesn’t have the same anchoring system as the OEM mats.</p>
<p>Recently bought my second Prius. The first one is 5 years old and has been handed down to my sophomore in college. I’ve not experienced any serious problems with any of the 5 Toyotas we’ve owned over the years. My younger daughter is driving a 2009 Corolla . . . she’s the problem, not the car. My husband is on his second Lexus . . . no serious problems, not even any minor ones.</p>
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<p>Thanks for sharing. Guess I better have those floor mats fixed.</p>
<p>Is it my age or does anyone else remember learning to drive and being taught what to do in the case of unintended acceleration? Shifting the car into neutral and applying the hand brake were two things I remember. </p>
<p>We’ve had 6 Toyotas since 1991 (still using 3 of them) and have never had any kind of mechanical problem that affected driving.</p>
<p>^^^^^When my floor mats caused the acceleration problems, putting on the foot brake stopped it every time. Just my experience. It was kind of freaking me out, but the fact that putting on the brake stopped it did make me feel better. If that had not worked, I think my instinct would have been to apply the emergency (hand) brake.</p>