More Toyota bad news: Prius isn't working either, and federal regulators have known about the monster pedals since 2007!!

I'm sorry guys, I can't stop posting about this--It's so insane.

New reports this morning that Prius owners are reporting problems with their brakes.  So Toyota can't make brakes or accelerator pedals?  That's bad.  The problem appears to be electrical.  It's another blow to Toyota, who had the blockbuster hybrid as one of their few remaining untarnished products.

In other news, the Washington Post is reporting that federal regulators have known since 2007 that some Toyotas could accelerate suddenly.  From the WaPo:

During a little-noticed 2007 inquiry, investigators found that at least three of every 100 Lexus ES 350 owners in Ohio reported experiencing unintended acceleration, an unacceptably high percentage given the potentially fatal consequences, industry experts said.

"Anything over 1 percent would raise a red flag, particularly for the manufacturer," said James C. Fell, who worked at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 30 years, and was chief of research for traffic safety programs.

Okay, forget that I would be in favor of raising a red flag at anything over 0%, but three out of every 100?  That's crazy.  Apparently the investigators concluded it only affected a small number of cars, and couldn't figure out how to fix it, so decided to let it ride (so to speak).  Listen, I understand we can't do a recall for every minor safety issue, but could there at least be some kind of federal website that lists these reports so that car buyers can be informed?  I thought about buying a Toyota a few years back, and to me, three out of every 100 is a big enough deal that I would have been looking elsewhere.

Update: Transportation Secretary says you should stop driving recalled Toyotas. Would be nice if Toyota agreed

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he thinks people should stop driving recalled Toyota vehicles, and take them to a dealership to be fixed.  From the NYTimes:

Mr. LaHood said his advice to owners of recalled Toyotas was to “stop driving it, take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it.”

“We need to fix the problem so people don’t have to worry about disengaging the engine or slamming the brakes on or put it in neutral," Mr. LaHood said in response to questions.

While I'm glad LaHood realizes that Toyota's proposed solution is ludicrous, his urging is pretty useless if Toyota doesn't put in place mechanisms so that consumers can follow this advice.  Most consumers can't just stop driving their cars until Toyota is ready to fix them, and Toyota has specifically said consumers need to wait until their dealership is ready to fix their car, which given the volume could take quite a while.  Toyota needs to be offering rental cars of a different make to every consumer driving a recalled vehicle until their dealerships are able to fix them.  And to expedite that process, they need to be hiring additional staff and adding resources immediately.  All of this will cost an arm and a leg, but in the long term, a lot less than another accident happening after the recall was supposedly put in place.  Let's hope Toyota's message to consumers catches up with LaHood's.

Toyota car safety issues are scary. Toyota's response is scarier still.

This Toyota thing is getting bad.  Not only has Toyota halted production and recalled over 9 million vehicles, but they still have no good answer for the millions of consumers at risk from their runaway cars.  Consumers have to keep driving, and wait until Toyota contacts them to get their accelerator pedal fixed!  This from the company that for months blamed the runaway car problem on improperly installed floormats, even though multiple drivers reporting issues had no floormats on the driver side.  Finally, they've admitted the problem may be with the design of the accelerator pedal itself (this man thinks it may be an electrical problem, in which case Toyota's pain is just beginning), but only after months of downplaying the issue.  That's right, Toyotas are speeding out of control and killing their drivers due to faulty accelerator pedals.