Archive for May, 2010
Toyota Unintended Acceleration Scandal Update – 255 Days Later
On Friday, August 28th, 2009, Mark Saylor and his family died in a fiery wreck, the victim of unsecured and over-sized floormats in the Lexus ES they were borrowing from a local dealership. Saylor’s story was compelling because he was a California Highway Patrol officer, and because of a panicked 911 call recording Saylor’s last moments where Saylor said that his throttle was stuck.
The crash that lead to an international scandal. Image copyright NBCSandDiego.com.
The death of Sayler and his family gained national media coverage, eventually growing into a full scandal. Groundless accusations of malfunctioning electronic throttles combined with greedy and inept Toyota execs combined to tarnish the reputation of Toyota. In the 255 days since Saylor’s crash, the following has occurred.
Wilderness Regulations Threaten Off-Road Recreation
The latest craze in state and federal land management is to designate large tracts of public lands as “wilderness,” a term that sounds perfectly reasonable and innocuous. After all, who doesn’t love “wilderness?”
View of Yosemite national park
Of course, there’s a catch: The Federal Wilderness act of 1964 states that areas that are “untrammeled” by man (a.k.a., untouched) can be set aside as wilderness. This means they can never be built upon, sold, leased, mined, etc. It also means that “wilderness” can’t be used by trucks, 4×4’s, ATVs, snowmobiles, and even mountain bikes.
According to the Blue Ribbon Coalition (a special interest group dedicated to responsible recreation on public lands), the flurry of Wilderness bills being proposed and/or signed into law has raised a red flag in the access community and other multiple-use interests.
Toyota Extends Warranty On Tundra Frames
According to a letter sent out to Toyota dealers, Toyota has extended the warranty on 2000-2003 Tundra frames, which allows dealers to replace rusted frames on 2000-20003 Toyota Tundras at no charge to the consumer. This is excellent news for any Toyota Tundra owners dealing with frame rust issues as well as a strong symbol of Toyota’s commitment to quality and customer service. While this move didn’t happen as quickly as we would have liked, we strongly applaud this action.
Here are the specifics of the free frame replacement program:
Search terms people used to find this page:
- https://tundraheadquarters com/toyota-launches-00-03-tundra-frame-replacement-program/
- https://tundraheadquarters com/toyota-launches-00-03-tundra-frame-replacement-program/#:~:text=Here are the specifics of larger than 10mm in diameter
Toyota Tundra 3D Model Concepts
I found a fairly wide collection of 3D Toyota Tundra models on Google’s Sketchup website. For those that don’t know (which included me up until a few days ago), Sketchup is a free 3D modeling program provided to the public by Google (is there anything they don’t do?).
Click for a larger view
I stumbled upon these sketches completely by accident, and I think they’re pretty incredible. Check out 3D models of each sketch below:
SNL Toyota Acceleration Gag Video
The comedians at SNL did a nice job of lampooning Toyota’s perceived unintended acceleration problems – check it out:
It’s definitely a good laugh, and it speaks to a much larger issue – Toyota’s success and reputation is being co-opted by Ford (at least in the eyes of the public).
