Toyota now

[Redline]

Seriously, this was one things I specifically checked on 4Runners before I purchased mine. Being a manual tans guy I wanted to make sure I could use the gas & brake with the A/T at the same time for off-highway challenges. If they take that away, 4x4 driving just became less smooth and potentially more dangerous.

You know what the absolute worst part of all this is?

With a brake override in the darn car I won't be able to do a powerbrakin' long and smoky burnout down your street anymore!.....well, if I bought a new car that is.

 

[Cackalak Han]

I had '09 Camry for a loaner when the local dealer coated my Tacoma frame. I tried doing that a couple times (what can I say, it was a loaner) and I didn't have much luck.

I did like the car though.

That's because the Camry's a FWD car!! You should've pulled the e-brake.

 

[jim65wagon]

Yeah, when I said powerbrake I meant in a rear wheel drive vehicle and should have said new truck ( although a few manufacturers are making RWD cars again).....I've just been traditionally brainwashed into burnouts in 60's and 70's vintage cars.

 

[austintaco]

I work in the vehicle manufacturing world so I was curious to watch both days of the hearings on CSPAN3 to see how things would unravel, as I am sure there will be fallout that will affect all manufacturers as a result. It was obvious that lady was well coached by a lawyer. I am not calling her a liar….I just don’t believe things happened exactly the way she so vividly recalls. And the state trooper and his family in CA, I can't for the life of me figure out why he didn't shift his loaner Lexus in Neutral. Sad deal.

On the other hand, I had to laugh when the Michigan State Rep crawled on his soap box about how the car supposedly would not stop when she put it into Reverse. He carried on about this for a good minute or so.

Well, had he known as much about automotive safety standards as the thought he did he would have known that absolutely NOTHING will happen on modern cars if you toss the transmission into reverse while moving forward. This was a government safety standard that was created way back in the 60’s to prevent safety issues by driver’s accidently shifting a car into reverse while cruising. Old automatic transmissions of the 50’s and early 60’s days would lock up the rear wheels if a person accidently shifted them into reverse. Later transmissions do nothing when shifted in to reverse. If you are scared to try it on your own car wait until you get your next rental car. It works like a starter motor on a late model car. Once the car is started…you cannot scratch the starter into the flywheel by trying to start it again while it is already running.

Mr. Super Southern Illinois Auto Technology instructor dude could have fielded that comment but he was probably figuring out how he was going to spend all of his money he is earning from the lawyers he is acting as a hired gun and lap dog to.

In the small town I live in there have been several accidents where cars have driven into the front windows of stores, etc. One even resulted in a fatality at a Barnes & Noble book store. Another from a month or so ago drove into our Historic Riverwalk district. Guess what the drivers all had to say?? “I don’t know what happened…the car just took off”. The interesting part is none of these vehicles were Toyotas! Had they been driving Toyotas they would have been given immunity for their careless driving and became millionaires instead of taking ownership for their own actions.

Toyota is getting screwed in all of this! As I have been saying all along…this Toyota “Throttlegate” debacle is much more about politics than automotive safety. If you watched the actual hearings it was obvious.

well said. I would be the first one to buy another Toyota today, if I were not still extremely happy with my other 3.

 

[Redline]

Yep, I knew what you were saying , I was just adding something related and a negative of a brake pedal/throttle cut switch.

Yeah, when I said powerbrake I meant in a rear wheel drive vehicle and should have said new truck ( although a few manufacturers are making RWD cars again).....I've just been traditionally brainwashed into burnouts in 60's and 70's vintage cars.

 

[Haggis]

.....I've just been traditionally brainwashed into burnouts in 60's and 70's vintage cars.

I personally don't think of Toyota when it comes to burnouts...then again...like that completely stock Grampy wagon of yours could ever do a burnout. What's it got again...a straight Six? A wornout 283 spitting oil and Chevy parts on the asphalt? I mean really who would hotrod a station wagon? What would the cool kids in the Camaros do if they got their doors blown away by GrandPap's wagon?

 

[Rattler]

That's because the Camry's a FWD car!! You should've pulled the e-brake.

Oh I tried that too. It was a 4 cylinder. I did resist the temptation of taking it out in the nearby farm field.:sombrero:

 

[jim65wagon]

What would the cool kids in the Camaros do if they got their doors blown away by GrandPap's wagon?

They go "slack and agape!"

 

[AmericaOverland]

since I don't like the direction they are going with their models. Where is our diesel HiLux and 70 Series!?

Yeah, I'll say it again. I have noticed that for the buyers who cannot afford to own, drive, AND maintain the hulking SUVs, the trend is towards small SUVs that are basically sedans that have their trunks turned up 90 degrees, giving the appearance of a small SUV. And that trunk space behind the rear seat keeps shrinking over the long run. What they may be trying to do is create cars with little carrying capacity, whether it be to go on a camping trip, going to a music gig, or evacuating out of a hurricane zone or a natural-disaster zone (this last point has me worried - this would be a perfect shot set up for people who want to come in with FEMA and confiscate stuff after after it has been left behind). Meanwhile, people with the means are able to load up their hulks and trailers with their most precious stuff and go. I don't like where this is going...

Stephanie

 

[AmericaOverland]

If Toyota had a press release announcing a 4 cyl. diesel crewcab Hilux straight-axle f&r 4x4 with only PW, PL, cruise & air I would be at the dealer ordering.

And ten years down the road, I'd be buying it off your hands if you decide to sell it. I'd be adding it alongside my Scout II. The mods would include "mechanizing" the windows and the locks. It would depend on how they build the body. If it's going to be box-on-frame, I'd do it, but a unibody, no...

Stephanie

 

[Rattler]

And ten years down the road, I'd be buying it off your hands if you decide to sell it. I'd be adding it alongside my Scout II. The mods would include "mechanizing" the windows and the locks. It would depend on how they build the body. If it's going to be box-on-frame, I'd do it, but a unibody, no...

Stephanie

No unibodies here either. I would buy a car if I wanted one of those.

Buy it in 10 years from me? It wouldn't even be broke in yet and I doubt it would have hit 100k with me.:sombrero:

 

[AmericaOverland]

With all the driving my wife does ('04 Ford Escape, 180k+, very few trouble but I don't think that will go on much longer), I would love to see her pick up a Corolla but she hates the look of them. She would throw rocks at me if I suggested a Prius. I would probably throw them at myself too as a matter of fact. Those things are hideous!

They are hideous! I've hated the 90s sedans. They all look alike with no character, very much unlike the Lincolns that ran around in the 70s/early 80s. Now, they just look like anything else. Somebody needs to check the ritalin contamination in the water system... Or maybe lead in the chinese pipes?

Now, I don't even like sedans, period, and I still own one (Corolla). But I'm keeping it because a car is a car is a car to a point.

Stephanie

 

[Rattler]

They are hideous! I've hated the 90s sedans. They all look alike with no character, very much unlike the Lincolns that ran around in the 70s/early 80s. Now, they just look like anything else. Somebody needs to check the ritalin contamination in the water system... Or maybe lead in the chinese pipes?

Now, I don't even like sedans, period, and I still own one (Corolla). But I'm keeping it because a car is a car is a car to a point.

Stephanie

I'm not driving it.:sombrero: She lives her Escape too much. She will probably just get another low-mileage used one.

 

[AmericaOverland]

My words to the American public and Congress, and Government Motors. "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." Toyota IS big enough operate solely outside of the U.S. I don't think it has ever crossed anyone's mind, and Toyota would hurt badly for it, but the biggest bargaining chip you can have is the ability to walk away... and they can. If things get too ugly they may end up pulling a large section of their product offering from the U.S.

And Toyota and other manufacturers may do that anyway, if WE CONTINUE TO ALLOW the US Gov't to dictate to us AND the manufacturers the nanny equipment that goes on these vehicles and the emissions requirements that could eventually require 24th century technology to tackle (scoffs). Emerging economy are at the point where they can start supporting the level of business these manufacturers require to keep operating and the manufacturers can leave behind the US market to their own blinders.

If I had all the money in the world, I'd be buying dozens of older cars and keeping them in environmentally-controlled conditions for replacements and spare parts. We may end up like Cuba, post-Soviet and peak oil in terms of the vehicles they drive or don't drive down there. It is an interesting place in terms of how they have survived and thrived in spite of hardship.

Stephanie

 

[AmericaOverland]

My only grip with the 2005 and later Tacomas is the standard equipment electronic shift transfercase. I hate that crap but see no reason why an FJ tcase couldn’t be swapped in. That might be my next project.

DO IT!

Mechanize that sucker! Get all that electronic crap out of there! What good is it going to do you in the outback if it's 105 degrees and your power windows are stuck UP (pardon the pun)?

Stephanie