I'm sure you've heard about the big Toyota gas pedal recall. It seems these cars are probably broken, and if so, we need to fix them.
But, a bit of perspective may help. Every one of these cars is equipped with a brake pedal and a gear selector with a "neutral" position. Although a stuck accelerator can certainly contribute to a crash, it is not as high on the list of criticality as, say, malfunctioning tires or brakes. Or tie rod ends. Or ball joints. Or any of the other items that are regularly recalled on vehicles.
I recognize we should fix this problem but there seems to be an awful lot of media coverage of it. Slow news days lately, or is there something I'm missing?
I think a lot of it has to do a giant showing it has a weakness. Toyota, who is known for quality, has a quality issue. They've actually had quite a few recalls in the past few years, so why this one sticks out more than the others, I don't know.
Whatever the reason, blame it on Obama, who can blame it on Bush. I hear that's how things work over there now.
Yeah that's true. It's like a perp walk for a big company.
Doesn't the Milkman have a recalled Rav4?
That's a negative. Only the facelifted (2009+) models are affected—ours is a 2006. I'm not even sure ours has drive-by-wire in the first place.
--D
On the upside, Ship and I are fantasizing about buying a Rav4 so the recall helps us delay our gratification until the S2k is paid off (again).
It's a decent car—let me know if you have questions.
My expectation around the recall mess is that Toyota will be in damage-control mode until everybody settles down, and will then offer something up to help rebuild confidence. Based on the way Toyota does marketing, my gut feel is that extended warranties across the entire model range are more likely than those targeting affected models, and both are more likely than cash-back incentives of any sort.
--D