Runaway Toyota Prius

[knagl]

More fuel to Kirk's fire:

Did Bankrupt Runaway Prius Driver Fake "Unintended Acceleration?"
http://jalopnik.com/5491101/did-bankrupt-runaway-prius-driver-fake-unintended-acceleration

[KirkLasVegas]

More fuel to Kirk's fire:

Did Bankrupt Runaway Prius Driver Fake "Unintended Acceleration?"
http://jalopnik.com/5491101/did-bankrupt-runaway-prius-driver-fake-unintended-acceleration

I'm telling ya...I have a bloodhound's nose for bull$hit.....
I can't PROVE it..but I feel its a scam.....

[brichter]

Priuses aren't slow, only their drivers are.

It's a little "Locomotive" takes a while to get it there, but it will do 90 after a while.
Remember, it *IS* a Electric Motor-Generator setup......

Actually, the setup isn't very much like that of a locomotive. Locomotives use huge diesel engines to drive huge generators to power electric motors, and they have no batteries. The limiting factor in a train's acceleration isn't power by any means, it's traction and the mass of the train itself. If you disable the electronics which provide traction control, a locomotive pulling a heavy load will literally spin the drive wheels until they melt and tear up the tracks while they're at it until all you've got left is a pile of slag.

A Prius uses a gas engine to drive the car, as well as an electric motor to assist, and even take over propulsion, if the power needed to move the car is low enough. At speed, the gas engine will charge the batteries when it is being used to power the car down the road, and the electric motor serves double duty as a generator to charge the batteries on deceleration.

At wide open throttle from a dead stop, the gas engine and the electric motor serve to drive the wheels, and all that torque from both the gas engine and the electric motor make it a quick little sucker across the intersection. Once it gains some speed, the electric motor runs out of torque quickly.

A guy I work with bought one of these and I've driven it a few times, the issue with the brakes it the transition time from slowing down with them lightly applied as it uses the generator to charge the batteries to activating the brake system. If you know what to look for and you fool with it, you can go from slowing down gently and hammer the brake pedal, it will take almost a second for the brakes to kick in!  

<edit> neither he not I have ever experienced the "unintended acceleration" issue.

[StatFreak]

Okay, I experienced unintended acceleration once... 

No really.. It was the day after I bought my Corvette.   I was going about 80 down a major six lane (in each direction) freeway with almost no traffic at all in my direction, and I thought I'd just try a little taste of what the car might do. I downshifted to third, then shifted to fourth and looked down to discover that I was going over 120mph, and I hadn't even pushed the pedal down that far!    The phrase "oh, s#$t" might have wafted through the cabin and I quickly decelerated and was glad that none of Kirk's cousins were nearby. 

Of course, after that day I experienced a lot more INtended acceleration. 

I have a Toyota Corolla... I wonder if I can try some of this BS the next time I get a ticket?

[brichter]

I have a Toyota Corolla... I wonder if I can try some of this BS the next time I get a ticket?

Yeah, let us know how that works out for you, okay? 

[Op-Bell]

I read today that several class-action lawsuits have been filed by opportunist lawyers on behalf of Toyota owners whose car's resale value has dropped. PBS News reckoned the damages at stake from this could be ten times the payments to people who actually damaged the car or got injured. Bloody money-grabbing crybabies.

Wait a minute, I own two Toyotas. What's that lawyer's number again... 

[StatFreak]

I have a Toyota Corolla... I wonder if I can try some of this BS the next time I get a ticket?

Yeah, let us know how that works out for you, okay? 

FINE. 
I will.
 

[CaptainHappy]

Funny, that's what my wife says every time she's on the car with me....

My throttle cable had busted on my Skidoo one winter morning.
So I pulled the sheathing off of it and just attached
the single cable wire from the throttle down to the carb.
I yanked on the pull cord to start up the engine and turned to go left a bit...boy that was a mistake...
At full speed in a matter of seconds - I slammed into the side of my mom's stone house.
Bent the ski's to crap...not to mention my front 2 teeth against the handlebars...lol

Many years later, Bombardier came out with wrist-strap "kill engine" keys -
similar to the kind you wear when riding Jetskis on water.

That could of come real handy when I flipped the skidoo over later on after I tried to
go across a deep ditch and the &@%#$ machine ended up on MY belly on top of me??!!
Gas pouring out and the tracks spinning like nuts because the bloody motor was still running!
Try reaching up and hit the red button while it's on top of you! Very difficult at best! lol

Uhh...Bunker I don't think you should be driving ANYTHING...     

Funny, that's what my wife says every time she's on the car with me....

I'll bet you drive a mean golf cart, though! 

Check here:  Can you get a closeup of the driver?

CH

[gordy]

Did it twice. Backing out of my driveway. Car sharply accelerated. Found to be basic human error. Put foot on gas instead of brake and pressed hard to stop. Car shot  at great speed until correction made.
     The "victim" who has been getting all the media adoration has been connected to the porn business. This provides a plausible explanation. It is just like happened to a friend driving with a gal on a country road. At a climactic moment, unintended acceleration took place. He swished through a snow fence and penetrated deep into a cornfield. True story. His father sought an explanation for the scratches on his car. Cant recall whether Steve used recall as an excuse.NLG members should be able to come up with a name for this type of unintended acceleration.

[stayouttadabunker]

The problem with trying to explain to a police officer that you're going too fast
with that story,  is then you haveta go on TV afterwards and
declare to the reporter that "I'm not driving that car anymore!"

      DUCK!!!!    


lol  I love it!