Toyota's Problems

Here's an old observation which is probably pretty typical:

In at least one sense Toyota is hoist on its own petard.  In the 1950s and 60s, at least in Flint among the people who drove crappy cars, unintended acceleration was literally not considered worth mentioning.  Toyota was a big player in the development of a motoring public who expect automobiles to be reliable and perform predictably and then became dependant on them.

I am not exaggerating about the lack of concern for unintended acceleration.  The car my parents referred to as "the old Dodge" would start racing its engine and surging forward several times a week.  My mother would throw the car in neutral and fiddle with the gas pedel until it settled down.  Not only would she not pull over, she wouldn't even interrupt the flow of conversation.  I never heard her mention it to anyone.  The thing that people would complained about was unintended lack of acceleration.  Eagerness in a car was considered a virtue.  It happened once when my father was driving and lighting a cigarette from a match.  He dealt with it without putting out the match and then finished lighting his cigarette.

Of course, I was a little kid riding in the front seat without a seat belt behind the steel dashoard breathing sidestream smoke. It is possible that one or more of the cheap cars I owned when I was young would accelerate unpredictably.  I wouldn't have considered it memorable, so I don't remember.

There is a controversy whether accidents are caused by unintended acceleration or driver error.  In Michigan in the 60s, failure to deal with unintended acceleration would have been considered driver error.  Engines surging, tires blowing out, ball joints failing, wipers failing, lights failing, steering abnormalities, parts falling off, etc. were all considered part of driving.  Now a driver is excused from having his car under control when the throttle surges open, the car is on ice and a front tire blows out.  It is all Toyota's fault; American car companies had drivers trained to deal with their crappy product.