Accelerator, Brake Issues Generate Buyer's Remorse Among Some Prius Owners
By Scott Doggett March 16, 2010
By Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor
Reports of brake and accelerator issues involving the Toyota Prius have generated a surge of buyer's remorse among some of the hybrid's owners, while others believe the issues are overblown, possibly in an effort to get Americans to buy U.S. brands, comments at Edmunds' CarSpace automotive forum show.
Typical of the comments posted at CarSpace recently is this one:
"I experienced brake failure with 1000 miles on my new car and now I don't feel so intelligent driving the thing!!!!! Actually, I feel stupid. Should have been smarter and paid attn to what was going on. Several people asked me if I was crazy when I drove up in my new sleek beautiful blue baby. Well crazy I was!"
Wrote another visitor:
"According to the Gov. there are 100's of reports of cars still having accelerating problems. Out of millions that isn't many but there should be NONE. I guess you have to ask yourself the old Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry line. 'Do you feel lucky today?' "
Actually, Eastwood as Harry Callahan said: "I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
Bob McDonald, who with others monitors CarSpace for Edmunds, told us that some of the chatter "feels like a feeding frenzy." It reminds him of comments he's heard from a friend who works at a Toyota service center.
Speaking of that friend, McDonald said, "He tells me that people are coming in saying things like, 'Two years ago my car crashed into the back of my garage, what are you going to do about it?' Everyone looking for something for nothing."
But there's no shortage of visitors to the chatroom speaking in defense of the Prius and its maker. One, after reading the claims of a California man who said his Prius just took off on him and feared putting the car in neutral because it might "flip," decided to do a little testing:
"I drove my Prius to work a couple of times and decided to test shifting my vehicle into NEUTRAL. I consistently find that bumping the joy stick toward the steering wheel shifts the transmission smoothly into NEUTRAL. Therefore, I do not understand why anyone experiencing bursts in acceleration have any problem regaining control of the Prius."
Added another visitor, in response to the runaway-Prius allegation:
"Did you catch the part where he claimed on the 911 call he was afraid to shift into neutral because the car might 'flip?' And he allegedly belonged to a Corvette driver's club? This guy is a fraudster of the highest order."
Others, to quote one visitor, "find it strange that suddenly all these problems are popping up. Personally, I think a lot of it is BS propaganda to get us to buy U.S. made cars."
Ah, the conspiracy proponents. There's never a shortage of them online. American unions and the media are "behind the blitz to discredit Toyota," claimed one visitor to CarSpace, while another stated: "I'm not listening to all the BS the media is putting out about Toyota."
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