Wild rides (Paul Knight, Houston Press) (also appearing in slightly reworked format across the Village Voice empire)
The second problem happened while Sherman was driving into Winter Haven, waiting at a stop sign to turn onto a busy street. The traffic cleared a bit and Sherman sped up to merge, but quickly had to hit the brakes for an approaching stoplight. Trouble is, her Prius kept going.
“It was very scary, but finally after stomping it a few times, I finally did stop without hitting anyone,” Sherman says.
The dealer told her that the floor mat probably caught the gas pedal, but she says the “floor mats were nowhere near the accelerator.”
“Of course they made excuses, and then they said something about the computer, all gibber-jabber,” Sherman says. “I told them, ‘Garbage, I was driving it, and I know what happened.’ There definitely is a problem.”
The dealer was being more polite than honest. There’s no reason to insult a good customer, after all.
On the other hand, the older lady isn’t my customer, so here’s the likely problem: When you panic and stomp the accelerator instead of the brake pedal, there is acceleration. It is sudden. And quite often, it creates problems.
Toyota probably should quietly redesign the pedal layout of these cars. That would probably help a great deal with this mysterious sudden acceleration problem.