The problem is that Toyota LOVES LOVES LOVES gated shifters (where the gears are arrange in an odd pattern) and Neutral was up and to the right of Drive.

If you just pushed the shifter up, you would simply upshift a gear, not go into Neutral. Very specific movements are required to shift the gear into Neutral or other gears, and it's not immediately clear how to get into Neutral due to the shape/position of the gates.

This has confused my parents before on rental Camry's and Avalons when we travel, and I can see this confusing people in cars they rent/borrow, especially in emergency situations. It took my dad over 30 seconds of staring and fiddling with the shifter to figure out how to go into Reverse on a rental before, and my dad's not exactly an idiot with cars. He tried shifting from Reverse to Drive also, and got stuck in Neutral in Toronto traffic while trying to get out of a parallel parking position. I slapped it in gear for him, and we lurched out.

This shifter design is dangerous, in my opinion, and I've disliked them whenever I've came across them in vehicles.

For reference, see picture of ES350 shifter below.

http://www.autotropolis.com/web/imag...st0640_087.jpg

This is a quote taken from Toyota's FAQ about how to handle a runaway car.

- Shift the transmission gear selector to the Neutral (N) position and use the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine.
- If unable to put the vehicle in Neutral, turn the engine OFF.

Now I have to wonder, why did they include the phrase If unable to put the vehicle in Neutral? Is there some problem which could prevent a person from shifting a car into neutral? I find their inclusion of this phrase to be quite odd.

Also, I don't think you can turn the engine off in Drive?

^Werd. I did that to the company's Prius, and it would beep at me.. :@ It would only shut off (with the push button on/off) when the car's in neutral

you can always turn the engine off in any gear, you just can't remove the keys unless it's in park.

Should test this out on my friend's Camry... too_slow says his company Prius won't turn off except in Neutral or Park.

^I tested it out again this morning. When I cruise at 50, it would only beep at me if I try to shut it down (held it for longer than 15 seconds).. The car does not decelerate or shut off when I hold onto the button.

When I cruise below 20, the car would feel like it went into Park (by holding down the on/off butting for 5 sec) by decelerating at a very rapid pace before the engine would shut down

I forgot about the prius hybrid's funny key system. It might be different from the normal cars, as far as shutting off in certain gears only. I know that normal cars will shut off in any gear.

^Haha.. yeah, you have to stick in the entire keyfob into the dash to start the car with the On/Off button (similar to VW Passat, all bimmers, mini's etc)

too_slow: hmm seems like a sketchy design to me.. I'd want to have complete control of my engine at all times. If it's on fire, I want to shut it off NOW.

I'm going to play with some of our more advanced cars with push button start / hybrid and see what they do.

that's why on a normal car you would turn the engine off then immediately turn it to ACC. You still retain your steering when you're there, albeit nonpowered.
Posted via RS Mobile

Here is a detailed video of the CTS pedal assembly and what exactly is wearing out:

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/29/v...tor/#continued

Yes that is true and I have seen this with my own eyes. Extreme hypermilers do this while coasting to stop.

My friend did this to my car while we exchanged cars. :eek: I was quite pissed at him.

Its reliable as fuck, but once you get behind the wheel, it won't stop worth shit, cause its pedal to the metal, like a crash test dummy into a brick wall! First they canned all their sportscars, then started making pos canadian/usa built by gwilo crap for cheap, now they go into turbo warp mode on their own to your death!

Toyota so virgin on recalls, they don't even know what to do!

Ford must be laughing right now, because the body count of dead toyota owners might superceeds their own legacy of fuckedness.

Imagine driving to a funeral with your toyota, and the gas pedal gets stuck on full blast and you drive into the event and take out the parlbearers and smash up the coffin, corpse and all and imprint a toyota symbol onto their ass?! Then get out, and be like 'ma bad, damn Toyota!'

I think Toyota will take serious notice, once their clients start to drive head-first with gas pedals struck through their showrooms, or one of the big boss's own kid dies in his camry headfirst into a tree TRD style!

TOYOTA YOUR FUCKED!!!

HOLLY SHIT!!

sigh what a tragedy

01d

january is a terrible month for japan
first JAL files for bankruptcy then toyota suffers major cut back in sales and poor PR

Creepy :( I would have tried turning off the car, use the e brake, shift it into park, drag the car on the side barrier to slow it down...

But now I'm just not going to buy a toyota.

LOL, just thought of a way to get out of a speeding ticket...

"Officer, thank goodness you were there! My pedal was jammed and I was accelerating out of control, but I managed to unstick it..

These damn recalled Toyotas, you know?

Good thing you were there to help control traffic so this didn't end in tragedy!"

Ha ha...

(But sir, you're driving a Chevrolet...?)

Why didn't they slip the gear to neutral and brake??

Read the thread, will you?

Funny how you say that and then it actually ends up happening..

http://jalopnik.com/5461514/man-unin...ealer-showroom

Toyota is lying again to cover their ass

http://jalopnik.com/5461734/how-toyo...-to-matt-lauer