Comments on: Is the Prius Haunted by Demons?

By: John Galt

John Galt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:49:59 +0000

My 1995 Honda Accord has 205,000 on the clock and it has a lot of miles left in it. Six years old, it cost more than all the other cars and trucks I’d ever owned, put together. And it was worth it. I should be looking for 2004 in the next few years, just in case. Toyota’s quality was measurably better than Honda, but they both are head and shoulders above anything made in North American or Europe.

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I traded my 1969 BMW for a Honda Accord when, one night in 1979, it failed to pull Russian Hill and I had to ask my passengers to disembark. With Honda’s zero maintenance costs and perfect gearing for San Francisco, it were as though I’d gone to heaven. I drive a Lexus SUV now, and I’ll take my chances as far as the alleged rollover problem is concerned. RA

By: chartguy

chartguy — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:10:35 +0000

Michael Fumento had a good analysis of this in the LA Times on the ninth: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fumento9-2010mar09,0,3126393.story

By: Mike l

Mike l — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:59:00 +0000

I’m sure Toyota will get through all the mess, it will take some time. I’ve owned a 92 Camry and I was very happy with it, never broke down on me. I’ve also owned a few GM cars from the 80s and let me tell you that’s when these cars started to use fuel injection and I broke down all the time due to electronic issues, that no-one seemed to understand at the time

The American Auto manufactures screwed themselves in the 80’s and 90s when they made junk that broke down. I still see Japanese cars on the road from the early 90’s I hardly see any Chev Luminas around from the early 90’s. I have to admit some Japanese cars don’t handle the Canadian winters up here to well they are rust buckets, and the motor will outlast the body.

Why don’t people shift their cars into neutral? All of these cars sound like they had automatic transmissions. The dumb drivers did not understand the PURPOSE OF THE BIG N and using the brakes?

If your car uses a throttle cable and it’s stuck you can also lift up the gas peddle with your toe – as per this article on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_throttle_control
cheers

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:58:16 +0000

Hey ! 1994 Dodge Cummins 439,000 and still going strong.(no computer) More power than one can imagine in a pickup @439,000 miles – 600 + ft pounds of torque, replaced 1 clutch friction, 1 set of brushes in the alternator, 1 u-joint in driveline, upper/lower ball joints and 4×4 u-joints, 1 sealed front wheel bearing assembly, two sets of brakes, 20 mpg at 7500 pounds.

Know you all are talking about Honda, but; couldn’t help myself.

Is Honda using the disconnected electronic system where there is no actual linkage ?

By: Other Paul

Other Paul — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:21:44 +0000

Keith,
Hope you don’t have restless-leg syndrome–could be disastrous.

By: keith

keith — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:49:27 +0000

Now I’m terrified of cars……. Tomorrow I think I’ll ride my bicycle to work. I hope the brakes aren’t defective!

By: wildsilver

wildsilver — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:27:40 +0000

As Monty Python would say “I know my place”

‘Calling Tokyo….come in please….’
‘Tokyo here, good morning Washington’.
‘What the devil do you think you’re doing down there in Okinawa’.
‘Our people exercised their democratic right to vote which you gave them’.
‘We didn’t give you democracy so you could elect anybody you like, that’s not our candidate, he can’t win, we can’t have any lefty pinko commie telling us what to do, get down there and sort it out fast or we’ll…..we’ll…. stop buying your Toyotas, yep, that’s it, no Toyotas and Nissan’ll be next. Bloody voters, who do they think they are.”
‘But….the Constitution…’.
“F… your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Japan is a flea. If this flea continues itching the elephant, it may just get whacked good …We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Japanese, If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long…”
(Slightly updated quote by President Lyndon Johnson, to Greek Ambassador Alexander Matsas – June, 1964)

“You are either for us or against us…….”

By: ben

ben — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:48:16 +0000

I had a 1999 Lexus GS 300 ten years ago. I had three accidents in which I hit my brakes and my car continued to lurch foward. I always thought maybe it was just the Anti lock brakes kicking in, and it was I who did something wrong. After hearing about all that is going on, I’m thinking it was the car, and maybe a larger Toyota problem that existed for years. I never had this problem with any other car I’ve ever driven.

Toyota already apologized for cutting corners and not properly responding to customer complaints. Who are you Rick, to second guess both Toyota and the people who experienced deadly problems with their cars? I guess you just know better.

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For one, Ben, I am an editorialist. And for two, you seem to have missed the tongue-in-cheek flavor of this particular editorial. RA

By: chuck

chuck — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:06:34 +0000

both of these differing statistics came out of msm financial pages today…driving me NUTS…

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EBTPKO0&show_article=1

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/10/news/economy/state_unemployment/index.htm

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:19:24 +0000

Rick- Sorry to hear about your bad Bimmer experience. I’ve owned a ‘71 2002 for going on 13 years and an ‘88 325iX for 6 years. Repair cost are a little pricey because I can’t wrench them myself (other than routine and basic maintenance). But the enjoyment factor of driving well built and engineered and handling cars makes up for that in spades. I know plenty of folks driving similar vintage 3-Series BMWs and they will reliably do 200-300k and up if looked after. I’d much rather spend $30k (if I were in the market and it needed it) on the ‘88, make it “new” again, and drive it for another 20 years than spend it on a new car…just doing my part for the enivronment by recycle and reuse.

As to your post, yes lets get to the bottom of this “ailment” as it is just another symptom of the “not my fault” culture we live in…