How To Stop Your Runaway Car

Consumer Reports Shares Important Safety Tip

The past few days the automotive news world has been dominated by one story: Toyota’s massive recall involving nearly five million vehicles in the North American market alone.

Colossal Recall

This unprecedented recall and related sales stoppage is sending shockwaves through the industry, but perhaps most stunning of all is the way that Toyota is handling or should I say mishandling the crisis (see The Auto Writer: Toyota Calamity Presents Fresh Opportunity For Rivals).

Toyota is trying to look like the hero by not selling cars on their lots which could have a defective gas pedal, floor mats, or both. But, evidence is coming forth that Toyota knew about this problem as far back as 2004 and only took action when the heat was turned up on them.

Emergency Stopping

ABC News has been at the forefront of exposing what is going behind the Toyota wall of secrecy when it comes to the problem. They also have hooked up with Consumer Reports in a bid to show Toyota owners a way for them to stop their cars.

The video above is updated from one released last November, but your best response in the event that your car careens out of control is to slam on the brakes and shift the transmission into neutral.

Pumping the brakes can cause you to lose braking while turning off the ignition may lock up your steering. You need control over your brakes and your steering when you are faced with an emergency situation.

Contact Toyota

Toyota has offered little guidance to customers to date on what their remedy will be for recalling and fixing affected vehicles.  What the Japanese automaker is saying customers who have any questions or have experienced any issues with their accelerator pedals should visit Toyota.com, contact the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331, or call their local Toyota dealer.

Your dealer, however, may not be able to give you a definitive answer right now which means you need to decide if you are comfortable with driving your Toyota, Lexus, or Scion vehicle.

In any case, studying the video can give you some tips on how to maintain control of your car in the event, God forbid, it suddenly lurches out of control.  Safe driving!

Resources

Toyota: Latest News About Toyota’s Safety Recall Campaign

Safety Research and Strategies: So, Who Called Toyota?

While Toyota Flounders, GM Delivers A Fresh Kick