Toyota Recall -- Driver error or manufacturer defect? Road Testament - 2/25/2010

Drive those Toyota's off a cliff before they drive you off one!!! JK...no disrespect to those who have lost Loved ones.

dumb episode what the hell

Sorry but I can't stand this crap anymore. This was the most boring show ever. These two are both tools!

The guys are missing the point. There is a difference between human error and major safety defect and Toyota trying to cover up the problems.

I think Toyota isn't getting a fair shake...  Although they handled the PR badly initially, they should have known the US press and public would over react.  I remember the Audi prob in the late 80s/early 90s and Toyota should have learned from it.  The american public and press are not fair when dealing with this sort of stuff.... Love ya for years, but one misstep and you are TOAST!

Format kinda sucks huh...?  Or is it the personality of the JF or Alex?  I can't decide, but either way I don't enjoy it.

JF is a tool!  He looks like a dork!  Get a haircut, speak clearer and louder, quit wearing your 80's blue-jeans with your wallet in your front pocket, and get off stage!  You suck JF!!  Have Derrick D and Alex Roy do the show!  Now that'll be awesome!!  JF SUCKS!!!!!

JF is horrible.  Alex Roy is not bad to listen to but for over 8 minutes?  Come on!  This show is extremely boring!!  And JF needs to stop slurring his words... he sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher... he needs to stay in his spot -- behind the camera and not in front of it.

Making the show cheap (two guys hanging in or by a home kitchen) may save money, but it is also a great way of losing your loyal audience... and hesitating to bring Derek D back versus two dudes talking in front of a video game screen is some bizarre logic. P.S. More F1 news please...

You learned how to co Host!! Nice guys, much better now that you respect each other! 
Great episode, really. 
J.F. you just need to relax a little bit more 

Keep it up guys!!

Great show! Alex roy is the fuckin man. Musical, you rock too buddy. I love hearing what you guys have to say about this toyota crap. People just can't handle cars these days. Nobody knows how to take an auto out of gear in a panic, nobody understands handbrakes or shutting off the motor. Its ridiculous.

Its ok though, all toyota drivers have NO SOUL. Natural selection at its best, getting rid of lame people. I dig it

Interesting discussion, but you need to back up all these theories with some good data.  Here is what I am going to do next week when I'm on a business trip with a rental car... you should do this too and show it on some next episode. At some reasonable highway speed, put your right foot on the gas pedal and the left foot on the brake and push both right down to the floor.  If the car does not stop, Toyota is screwed. If the car does stop, then all these people that claim accidents caused by unintended acceleration are useless drivers and need to shut up.  Do the study and report it on your next show.  Thank you.

Old Broadway saying "Give Them The Hook"

Boring. Can't wait for some more good shows. Winter must be putting you guys down!

These guys are throwing out semantics and are just talking for the sake of trying to set themselves apart by claiming the Toyota recalls are not that big of a deal, the hing of their argument is that only 30 reports, if that, of verified deaths due to unintended acceleration. There's indication that Toyota's software has very wide parameters that never register defects or problems because the system doesn't consider unintended acceleration a problem. If the software isn't logging errors then accidents are not going to be attributed to unintended acceleration. 

The only things these guys accomplished was waste 8 minutes of my time. They brought nothing new to this discussion. Do they even know what a car is? The Road Testament show is the male version of The View, a bunch of yentas chatting away about topics they know nothing about.

How come no one talking about g.m. and fords  FORCE RECALLS!

Just when they make something "Idiot Proof", they build a better idiot!

these guys again?
BORING!

I'm sick of the media covering this Toyota crap. I do agree with the person who mentioned that the government is fueling the media... Doesn't congress have anything else better to do with tax payers money then hold these pointless hearings? Don't get me wrong I'm no fan of Toyota. I think all the brands Toyota owns are well boring. the Design and style lack any kind of excitement, and although they did produce some quality built cars in the past I saw this coming. Toyota and Honda= BORING!!!

More dribble on this Toyota recall.  Enough already.  You're saying the media is blowing it all out of proportion, yet...you're media...and yet...you are regurgitating the same crap.  On the flip side, I could get a really nice deal on a new Toyota in spring.

you took down my comment  - jf your a fucking bitch !

Why does Alex Roy look like Darth Vader unmasked?

Hey Alex, JF. You are right with the media blowing up with the Toyota situation. I mean GM, Fiat/Chrysler is just being reestablished in the American market, Right now is a good time for the Detroit Big 3 to really push hard on selling wold quality cars. I think in my opinion Toyota will be history within 5 years or so. I do not trust Toyota anymore the quality and the reliability went out the window....Sad, I was looking 4ward for the Toyota FT-86....wait maybe Subaru provided the gas pedals.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Is FLD tours comming back ?

Screw Toyota & Lexus! If it was not for BMW I would be driving an American car

No more watching Fast lane Daily on Thursdays, this was boring

And as for this, its simple math, as you guys said:
toyota=automatic transmition+"safety" guard to prevent it from going into neutral while the engine is under load+push-button start (on some models) with "safety" guard preventing one from merely pressing the button and shutting the engine off while in motion+(engine kill switch * 0)+drive-by-wire accelerator+human error in programming+driver error+ sheer stupidity= death.  While I agree that this has been blown out of proportion, this equation fits for several models on the road today.  Perhaps this topic will force engineers engineers to re-think the "infailability" of their designs.

The reason the media has blown it out of proportion is because the federal government is fueling them. The federal government also owns GM! GM got it's a$$ beat down by Toys the last three years in a row. REVENGE?

Alex, J.F., you guys are absolutely right the problem is not as much the car itself as it is the drivers behind the wheel! My mom drives an '09 Camry xle, and I would never, NEVER put the peddle to the metal in that grocery getter. Now my Dad's '11 535i, or his old 540i, I would totally floor on the 5 or 405, with the steptronic, and never worry  about not being able to stop. Anyone remember when the Audi TT first came out? The computer would shut off the engine if it thought the car was getting low on gas, so people were flying off interstate on/off-ramps  because the gas would go to one side of the tank and the computer would think it was low and turn off to try and save damage from the engine. The LA Times did an article on it. I think that would be a much more horrific way to die. To be fair Audi IMMEDIATELY recalled the cars. LF-A you guys, very funny.

Just a heads up, TopGear.com is reporting the RS5 to have the 4.2 V8 with 444hp

It seems very strange that the U.S.Congress is involved with a recall since they now own part of GM and seem to be trying to show the people that they actually do something in Washington. When the Big 3 have a recall Washington seems to hide their heads in the sand. This seems to be a big con job that has every lawyer in the world wanting to get in on.

As both an engineering student and someone who can still remember driver's ed fairly well, I can look at this situation in a couple of different ways. First of all, I understand the impossibility of analyzing a design problem in enough ways to cover every possible situation. However, one of the automotive engineer's primary responsibilities is to keep the driver safe. So I can understand how something like this can happen, but blame should still be placed upon Toyota's engineering department.

At the same time, people need to know what to do if their cars start to accelerate unexpectedly. Put it in neutral. Done. Day saved. I was taught this in drivers ed. I've actually had this happen to me once in a BMW 528i, where the floor mat slid up over the gas pedal and the car started accelerating. I reached down, moved the floor mat and continued driving. Its not that hard to handle something like that as long as you aren't distracted.

And seriously, Alex, it's not that hard to bump your gearshift into N.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one that thinks the media has blown up this problem up to a far greater problem than it is. A few years back the linkage on my car's carb got stuck open. Instinct tells you to hit the brakes, go into neutral and kill then engine. assuming a car will always do what you want is the first step down a dangerous road. People need to prepare for the unexpected.