NHTSA Investigates 44,000 Hybrid Highlanders After They Begin To Strand Motorists

Wonder how long the Recall King has known about THIS issue? Toyota has a way of stonewalling customer complaints - such as those voiced by owners of MR2 Spyders re engine failures - until a lawsuit/government agency forces the Recall King to face the facts. I discuss this in a recent blog post re Toyota's response to complaints about Prius headlights: http://uc2.blogspot.com/2011/02/prius-defect-shows-contempt-for.html

In Toyota's defense: All automakers will not rush to judgment based on a few cases. However most will issue a TSB and allow the dealer to make the appropriate route for action based on factory consultation.

Over the years I have had a variety of issues repaired for free outside of warranty after arming myself with the facts and a well placed appeal.
This includes appeals to Toyota and Lexus. All were approved repairs at their cost or assistance with minimal cost to me. It is all about how you play the game sometimes.

There's an ever growing crowd of customers who apparently didn't "play the game" very well with Toyota. In the case of engine failures in MR2 Spyders, two major car clubs - one in America and one in Europe - must not have "played the game" very well either.

It take two to play. However most people do not document or defend themselves well. This makes it easy to "fall victim". Now on the other hand if only one party will listen then you are screwed. Your CSR can be your best friend.

what is 32 out of 43000 as a percentage? and that's over almost 6 years? like 5-6 complaints a year in NA?

32 that complain. I believe the general consensus is only 1 out of 1000 will write a letter to the NHTSA to complain about it.

This number of complaints represents 0.07% of the owners. Again, people are motivated by what they *believe*. In this case, the NHTSA is acting aggressively after what was *believed* to be widespread cases of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Based on that previous (erroneous) belief, they are looking for a similar smoking gun here.

Fun Story...
A man got married at age 25, and his new wife was horrified to discover that he ate a huge helping of bacon and eggs for breakfast each day. No matter how much she explained the dangers of cholesterol and fat, her husband would not change. "This will be the death of you," she would say to him. At age 92, he died of a massive heart attack. "See!" she proclaimed, vindicated, "I told him it would kill him!"

No doubt more driver error..."oh..THAT is what that "D" means". or "oh, I am supposed to push the accelerator?? I thought the car would just go by itelf".

Still no headlines here about the Honda ( 700 000 due to defective motion springs that stall engines ), Cadillac ( Rear suspension toe link 44 000 ) and Ford ( F-150 Doors may open during colision 300 000 vehicles ) recalls this week

Funny how things work eh ?

Eh ?

This is a very small number, nothing to be alarmed about, and Toyota is being responsible and recalling them, Toyota is also being green and making those few people walk.

Toyota Fans trying to save face. LOL!

For a company that builds "The best quality cars in the world" they sure seem to be doing plenty of recalls and are always under investigation. Why is that?

Lexsucks, I bet you don't drive a Toyota or a Lexus, but I'd rather deal with a responsible manufacturer who chases down any issue with innovative technologies while trying to deliver great cars to us, than one who hides issues '' cough '' VW '' cough '' by sending customers emails telling them ' find out if your car has a problem '

Drive safe !

"I wasn't a Toyota fan til I got into this website. From now on all I'll buy is Toyotas and Lexus and nothing else."

- Good for you. I prefer to not be a brand whore.

And none of you losers answered my question so I'll ask again:

If Toyota builds "The best quality cars in the world" then why are they always doing plenty of recalls and are always under investigation?

Answer the question please. You guys know that the truth hurts, so rather than answering a question that you cant, you'll probably end up call me names, say that I'm a child, or that I live in my mother's basement. LOL!! Anything other than admit to the fact that Toyota is building crap cars right now. Have a nice day.

You want to know why Toyota has more recalls this year than any other company out there ?

It has nothing to do with quality, actually if you remove the '' Accelerator recall '' the same way NASA just done, you'll find out Toyota is dramatically below average when it comes to recalls.

The reason Toyota is recalling vehicles is to simply '' America-Proof '' their vehicles.

And that's the truth

To make sure people don't confuse pedals, fake accidents ( the way James Sikes did ) or go out of their way to sue them out of millions ( you know the good old american way ) for nutty claims

When the engine turns off at a red light which it's supposed they think the engine is stalling. Just read the manual the gas motor turns off to save fuel when stopped........34 morons......

Never gets old. Hey toyota, how about add this line, to your stupid commercials; instead of "still number one," how about a voiceover that says, "still number one (in recalls!)"

Maybe this was in response to them accelerating out of control and killing innocent people; just make them unable to move at all, for the occupant's safety?

Nice comment. And now Toyota has had to issue even MORE recalls for sudden, unintended acceleration: http://www.freep.com/article/20110224/BUSINESS01/110224021

Apparently, the Recall King can't even design floor mats correctly.

Funny how it took Toyota to rely on an american company ( CTS automotive who makes the pedal )

To get into a mess.

and don't get me wrong, Americans do allot of awesome things, but cars, well ...