Remember the story the other day about the woman in New York who slammed her runaway Prius into a stone wall? In an interesting little twist, the police say she was actually on her way to the Toyota dealership to have her car serviced when the incident occurred. [More]
Transportation & Infrastructure
Woman Crashes Toyota Into Church, Blames Stuck Accelerator
By 3.11.10
Another day, another report of a Toyota crash being blamed on a stuck gas pedal. This time, it’s a 76-year-old woman in Connecticut claiming her recalled Toyota Camry went nuts on her and — in spite of her best efforts to stop it — crashed into a church. [More]
Toyota Probably Should Have Written This Spam's Subject Line More Carefully
By 3.11.10
“Amazing Incentives For Select Toyotas That Will Not Last Long.”
Reader Maida did a spit-take when this email from a Toyota dealer offering 0% APR for 60 months landed in her inbox. Yeeks, talk about a syntactical pileup.
Gerber Machete Recalled Because It Could Cut You
By 3.11.10
Gerber Legendary Blades is recalling 149,000 machetes in its Gator line, because you could slice your hand open if it slides across the blade. Yeah, we kind of imagine that’s one of the things you’d want to watch out for if you’re carrying an 18-inch blade that’s razor-sharp on one side and saw-toothed on the other. Of course, it’s one thing to slash yourself because you’re off playing Indiana Jones without knowing what you’re doing, and quite another to have it happen because the knife’s handle wasn’t designed as well as it could have been. [More]
Scarves With Microwaveable Heat Packs Recalled Due To Fire And Burn Hazard
By 3.10.10
The Therma Scarf, a polyester/cotton blend scarf with pockets and microwaveable heat packs marketed by infomercial powerhouse Telebrands, has been recalled. The scarf’s heat packs, made of flaxseeds, pose a fire and burn hazard to wearers. In a related story, someone actually thought it would be a good idea to make a microwaveable scarf with pockets. [More]
Cadillac Is Ashamed Of The GM Name
By 3.10.10
In a move to remove some of the taint of bankruptcy and bailout, luxury car maker Cadillac is taking steps to distance itself in the public eye from its parent company, General Motors. [More]
VIDEO: Does Putting A Runaway Prius Into Neutral Slow It Down?
By 3.10.10
As more reports of runaway Toyota Prius vehicles begin to pile up, there is an ever-widening chasm between those who ask “Why didn’t the driver just put the car into neutral?” and those who reply “Because it doesn’t work on a Prius.” Well, one series of incredibly interesting — but also entirely unscientific — road tests will likely only add fuel to the debate’s fire. [More]
Yet Another Toyota Prius Goes Rogue, Smashes Into Wall
By 3.10.10
Things went from bad to worse to downright awful for Toyota on Tuesday as yet another of their Prius hybrid vehicles was involved in an accident involving a stuck accelerator pedal. [More]
Toyota Still At Loss For How To FIx Problem WIth Prius
By 3.9.10
A day after a 2008 Toyota Prius went rogue at speeds over 90mph on a California interstate, Toyota has admitted that, even though the Prius is on the current recall list, they don’t quite know how to fix the problem. [More]
U.S. Airways Fined $40K For Not Properly Revealing Prices Online
By 3.9.10
For anyone who has ever been put off by an airline’s overly complicated explanation of their already cryptic fare schedule, there might be a slight, sweet taste of vengeance in this news: The Dept. of Transportation just slapped US Airways with a $40,000 fine for not disclosing their full ticket prices on their Web site. [More]
Mercedes Shows Off New Safety Feature For Cars
By 3.9.10
Last week, Mercedes showed a bunch of journalists some new safety features it’s working on to prevent deaths in the event of a car crash, and BNET describes them. I hope you like air bags going off all around you–the demo even has air bags for the car. Sadly, the people-scooper feature–something about when you hit a pedestrian, the car “scoops” the body onto the hood and keeps the person there, probably so that his screaming can alert you that you’ve been in an accident–will only be available in Europe. [More]
Toyota Prius Runs Wild At 90mph With Stuck Accelerator
By 3.9.10
This is probably not how Toyota wanted their week to start. Yesterday afternoon in Southern California, a man called 911 because he was unable to unstick the accelerator pedal of his 2008 Toyota Prius and continued to drive at speeds of over 90 mph until finally coming to a stop. [More]
Toyota Workers Say Bosses Have Ignored Safety Concerns For Years
By 3.8.10
Adding a bit of fuel to the anti-Toyota fire, six Toyota manufacturing employees now say they wrote a memo to company executives in 2006 voicing concerns about vehicle safety and long-term impact on the company, only to be completely ignored. [More]
Salmonella In Common Food Additive Leads To Recall Of Pretty Much Every Food Ever
By 3.7.10
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a flavor enhancer, similar in composition and tastiness to the much-maligned monosodium glutamate, that is seemingly unavoidable. Thanks to salmonella contamination in the HVP paste at Basic Food Flavors, Inc. in Las Vegas, the FDA has recalled every food containing the product, ranging from salty snacks to salad dressings to soup and gravy mixes. The list of recalled foods containing the product is still growing, and encompasses familiar brand names ranging from Walmart’s Great Value brand to McCormick to Trader Joe’s. Now we now get to find out exactly how complex our food supply is and how widely used an additive HVP is. [More]
Who Will Advocate For Toyota Owners In Japan?
By 3.6.10
Toyota has been criticized–and rightly so–for its handling of the recall clusterfracas in the United States and Europe. But how many cars have been recalled for possible unintended acceleration issues in Japan, where consumer protections are much weaker than in the U.S., Canada, and the E.U.? According to today’s New York Times, that would be zero. Even though some Japanese drivers have had similar runaway acceleration incidents, consumer protection in Japan is weak and the government tends to side with industry. This means that car owners experiencing problems have nowhere to turn. [More]
Toyota Dishing Out $250 Million To Workers At Closing Plant
By 3.3.10
As if the poor fellas at Toyota didn’t have enough on their hands with this massive recall, hearings in Washington and cars that just won’t get fixed. Now the car company is giving away $250 million to workers at a soon-to-close plant in California. [More]
Think Your Recalled Toyota Is Fixed? Maybe Not
By 3.3.10
As Toyota continues to slog through the millions of cars and trucks on it massive recall list, several drivers whose vehicles have been to the dealer and back are saying that there cars are still experiencing problems with sudden acceleration and bad braking. [More]
Nissan Recalls 540,000 Cars
By 3.3.10
Due to potential problems in brake pedal pins and fuel-gauge components, Nissan is recalling 540,000 cars, 179,000 of which are in the US. [More]
