[Rusty34]

Toyota was doing a pretty good job of grabbing all the headlines a few years ago with reports of sudden unintended acceleration events pouring in. As GM is currently being blamed for their handling of the switch problem the Toyota PR department also initially tried to minimize their involvement by first blaming floormats and then by issuing gas pedal recalls but the problem reported by investigating engineers turned out to be somewhere else. The issue came to light after a Camry was found upside down in a pond with four fatalities inside and the cars floormats were inside the trunk. Toyota circuit boards are assembled with lead free solder which when exposed to certain environmental conditions would allow "tin whiskers" to grow and eventually form a bridge between solder joints. In some vehicles which involved fatalities it was the perfect storm sequence of events, if you will... circuits would short together and trick the ECU into signaling the drive by wire throttle to go full open. Shifting to neutral wasn't possible since the gear shift handle is no longer connected to the transmission with a mechanical linkage but the gearshift is now a switch which signals the ECU to command a shift via the motorized gear range selector. Attempting to switch to neutral wasn't working because it was connected to a runaway ECU.

A major clue here is the fact that every driver who survived an unintended acceleration event reported being unable to stop the car with the brakes. This might point to a corrupted ECU also interfering with the antilock brakes module which regulates brake pedal hydraulic pressure to each of the four wheels to prevent wheel lock-up. No matter how hard the driver stomped on the brake pedal the car kept accelerating.

There is another important point to keep in mind. Every car sold in this country regardless of horsepower is equipped with brakes powerful enough to bring it to a stop with a stuck wide open throttle. Consumer Reports recently tested this on several different makes and found it to be true. In addition they tested them with full throttle at 100mph and the brakes still stopped the car.

This might be something for hotrod builders and those who have old cars with 700hp crate engines installed to bear in mind, will they stop under these conditions?

Ford loyalists would also do well to remember the Ford ignition switches of the 70's and 80's which would overheat and start a fire. Major recall with many lawsuits over that one too.

Cars manufacturers all operate about the same. Depending upon the price range you end up having about the number of problems you paid for. All manufacturers occassionally build a great car but they always manage to screw it up by replacing it with the next model they hope you will trade for.