Unintended Acceleration Issue

[Westfield 11]

I don't want to rain on your parade, but my goodness, that car's a deathtrap!! It may be simple, but it's also has no crumple zones, no side guard beams in the doors, no rollover structure, no airbags, and I believe no collapsable steering column. Also wasn't the dash simply a piece of steel with no padding on the 71's? The seat frames are also un reinforced which almost guarantees that you will suffer whiplash as the seat back will fail in any sort of rear end collision. Does it even have shoulder belts or just lap belts?

Please note that all these things would be deadly in an accident caused by someone else: all the careful driving in the world won't help you if some fool hits you.

Your are very courageous to drive that on a daily basis!

BTW, I am not against tiny cars as we own two smarts. However the state of the art has moved on a bit in the last 39 years.

 

[journey on]

Both Model A's (Ford, need I remind you) and the VW bug have gas tanks directly in front of the driver. Cheap but flammable.

More to the point, Toyada insists the Toyota problem is not electrical but mechanical, meaning there will be no investigation along those lines, unless our Congressmen insist.

Boris

 

[DaveS]

I don't want to rain on your parade, but my goodness, that car's a deathtrap!! It may be simple, but it's also has no crumple zones, no side guard beams in the doors, no rollover structure, no airbags, and I believe no collapsable steering column. Also wasn't the dash simply a piece of steel with no padding on the 71's? The seat frames are also un reinforced which almost guarantees that you will suffer whiplash as the seat back will fail in any sort of rear end collision. Does it even have shoulder belts or just lap belts?

Please note that all these things would be deadly in an accident caused by someone else: all the careful driving in the world won't help you if some fool hits you.

Your are very courageous to drive that on a daily basis!

Westfield II,
can't resist the following.....motorcycles don't have the above types of protection either.....(granted a bit more maneuverablility)....Pat's VW doesn't have a history of "unintentional acceleration" ....just saying... :shock:

....and yes, I owned 2 VW Bugs in the 60's (both of them, I equipped with seat belts and shoulder harnesses)....and a couple of motorcycles....still have a '72 HD Super Glide Chopper.

Your point is well taken, as a frequent visitor to motor vehicle collisions, I've seen a lot of positive effects from vehicle occupant safey equipment in the past 33 years. That being said, I'm certainly not one to minimize the importance of safety equipment.

Pat, cute :love bug. :lol:

As a kid when we took delivery of a brand new '51 Ford, may father installed seat belts and mandated that we all wear them. He was a frequent air traveler and felt that if they were good to wear in aircraft, they were good to wear in automobiles.

 

[localboy]

What I find somewhat disgusting is our lawmakers now waving gas pedal assemblies around and pointing fingers when they have much more important things to do. My direction would be to let the proper authority deal with this and let the grandstanding stop.

My thoughts exactly. It's a total waste of time but we all know the "D.C. game". Why tackle real issues like an out of control defecit & spending when you can make the competition (GM's) look bad.

 

[localboy]

My fair weather daily driver is looking better and better every day!



Pat's '71 VW Bug

Old school German simplicity at it's best. 8)

And your missing the side reflector on the rear tail light. :wink:

 

[dotnmarty]

Well I watched that and have a different take on it. A Republican Congressman held up two different gas pedals from two different suppliers. The pedals were obviously configured differently. One pedal was found in the cars which accelerated and the other was used in the same model car but not involved in similar accidents. He simply asked why individual suppliers were allowed to change configurations of the parts.I thought it was an appropriate question which neither Mr. Toyoda nor the CEO of Toyota of North America answered to my satisfaction.

 

[Westfield 11]

Much of the problem is that the appropriate authorities did not do their job for whatever reason. The two most obvious candidates being Toyotas hiring of ex-safety agency personnel as lobbyists and the Republican philosophy of deregulation and "starve the beast" a combination which left NHTSA unable and unwilling to deal with complex technical faults like these.

What are the scariest words in the world? "I'm from the government and you're on your own."

 

[Dreamer]

In defense of Pat's very cool ride, even if it did suffer from sudden acceleration, it would be 3-5 minutes before it became an issue! Plenty of time to react.. :wink:

 

[dotnmarty]

Please note that all these things would be deadly in an accident caused by someone else.

As my favorite philosopher/engineering physicist, Sancho Panza, has stated "Whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it's bound to be bad for the pitcher."

 

[B~C]

in defense of all old cars, the ones with the solid metal dash with the rear view mirror mounted to it, the ones without crumple zones, air bags, ABS brakes and seat belts....those where the good old days & were the reason we didn't have no dag gum health care crises back then....yup....todays safety ladden cars are the reason for the current health care issues. In the good old days there was no lingering in the hospital after a wreck ringing up a monster bill, ya died quickly and damn it, ya liked it

 

[Sea Wolf]

in defense of all old cars, the ones with the solid metal dash with the rear view mirror mounted to it, the ones without crumple zones, air bags, ABS brakes and seat belts....those where the good old days & were the reason we didn't have no dag gum health care crises back then....yup....todays safety ladden cars are the reason for the current health care issues. In the good old days there was no lingering in the hospital after a wreck ringing up a monster bill, ya died quickly and damn it, ya liked it

Yup. and when my time comes, I hope it's quick, otherwise I'm pulling out the tubes and borrowning Pat's Bug! :lol:

Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[localboy]

In defense of Pat's very cool ride, even if it did suffer from sudden acceleration, it would be 3-5 minutes before it became an issue! Plenty of time to react.. :wink:

Hey, now wait a cotton pickin' minute! I got me one of them VWs and it has a HELL of a LOT of get up and go...of course it's been, um, modified just a bit...

Hi-torque 2.1 liter :twisted:

[/img]

 

[B~C]

WOW, I'm looking at that and thinking, that must be a lot of work to adapt a durn chromed up Hoover vacum cleaner to a bug

 

[DaveS]

Please note that all these things would be deadly in an accident caused by someone else.

As my favorite philosopher/engineering physicist, Sancho Panza, has stated "Whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it's bound to be bad for the pitcher."

Actually, it was Westfield II that wrote that, however I do concur with him.

 

[UncleRichie]

One wonders how much of there computer is manufractured in china?
Richard

 

[localboy]

WOW, I'm looking at that and thinking, that must be a lot of work to adapt a durn chromed up Hoover vacum cleaner to a bug

:lol: If you've ever driven a stock VW of that era they are not exactly "quick". However, if one was so inclined and didn't mind spending a butt-load of cash on after market parts, machining, balancing etc one could build a rather quick VW. Trust me, that thing scoots. ~150 horses with close gearing that can handle revs into the mid 7,500s, all pushing an 1,800 lb car down the road. :twisted:
My 1965 Type 3 VW "Notchback"

 

[Sea Wolf]

Uhhh....I know it's none of my durn business, but wouldn't it be more convenient to have that fire extinguisher on this side of the fire ? :smileo

Or is it remotely activated?

Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[T.R. Bauer]

Uhhh....I know it's none of my durn business, but wouldn't it be more convenient to have that fire extinguisher on this side of the fire ? :smileo

Or is it remotely activated?

Joe. :teeth :thup

That isn't a fire extinguiser, that is a well diguised NO2 bottle.......

 

[T.R. Bauer]

Shouldn't this be under fishing.....it sounds fishy to me. I have always been reluctant to send our hard earned money across the big pond to the competition so they can invest more money into their business interests.

Wow, me and a guy from Wasila are on the same side on this one. You wanna help America, buy American.

I have to be the most flaming liberal in all of Wasilla..... I didn't vote for McCain and Palin. While most of us followed and still follow Palin in lock step up here, but we don't all think like our last governor.

 

[localboy]

:lol: It actually goes in the car. It was back there for some reason when I took the pic.