Safety Info to convince reluctant spouse, please

The feel of the brake issue occurred only at low speed. I am sure other can provide better info than I can at this time.

If you test out the tire tests on tirerack, Prius stops faster than BMW 328i using the same tire model but different size.

 

Doesn't matter...I bought the Prius anyways, the care is safe.

Nice piece of machinery, you cannot hold a problem any car maker has against them - --> I didn't.

No regret here

 

You will find all the "runaway" Prius stories are hoaxes and have been shown to be. Skeptics still claim that Toyota is buying the results so the truth never comes out, but they also dont believe men went to the moon.

The prius has 3 different brakes + parking brake. Also Toyota Hyrbids are the only vehicles to include brake overrides, making the runaway scenario even less believable.

The only brake "issue" that currently exists, is a non-issue. It is the lag time between regenerative braking and friction braking difference is adjusted. It is not acceleration, or leaping, or anything like that. The human body perceives it as such but it is not, it is just a decrease in decelleration, or the technical term that was pointed out a few weeks ago is "jerk".

Prius is one of the safest cars out there, buy with confidence.

 

A co-worker told me this conspiracy theory that he heard from a Honda salesman. Not sure how true this is. He went to Honda looking for a new vehicle. As he was talking about Toyotas, the Honda salesman had this to say.

Every car manufacturers have its own shares of unintended accelerations or defective braking systems or some kind of defect that can cause catastrophic accidents. The US government had spent billions of dollars bailing out the US auto makers. GM is coming out with the Volt, a car that GM banks to win the US alternative/hybrid market back from the Japanese. The current major players in the alternative/hybrid vehicles are Honda and Toyota. Honda has the Insight II, Civic Hybrid and Civic GX. Toyota has the Camry Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, the Prius and the Prius PHEV due in 2012. Honda has no real competition to the Volt as of yet due to lack of pure electric drivetrain and the fact that Honda is pursuing Hydrogen fuel cell that no one gives a rats nice person about. Toyota is releasing the Prius PHEV in 2011 for MY2012 which is a major competitor to the Volt. Keep in mind that the US government just spent billions upon billions of dollars bailing out the US automakers, twice. Toyota being the worlds largest auto manufacturer and is releasing a PHEV that's a major threat to the Chevy Volt. Something has to put a bump on Toyota's road to world alternative vehicle domination. When the news broke out on the CHP officer and his family were killed in a Lexus loaner car that had unintended acceleration, the media, US automakers and the government embraced the opportunity to investigate and probe Toyota's problems. The Honda salesman said that they could have just as easily picked Honda instead but he's glad that Toyota was picked instead of Honda.

I'm not saying this is the true but it's something to think about. I mean seriously If Toyota's are so bad and unsafe why aren't anymore tragic accidents involving a Toyota in the news? Right now, all the news involving a Toyota are driver error. It's not like you go to a Toyota dealer, buy a car, get in, start the car, put it in drive and all of the sudden it runs into a wall.

If the media and the government investigate any car manufacturers foreign or domestic they can easily find just as much defects and recalls as Toyota if not more. I remember years ago the media made the Ford Taurus sound like it can burst into flames at anytime due to faulty ignition. Everyday there was a new recall on Ford.

On the Toyota side, the recent most ridiculous recall was the spare tire carrier cable on the Siennas. Seriously??? Spare tire defecation coming soon to a Sienna near you!!! Anyone ate Sienna schit lately?

Bottom line is Toyota vehicles are just as safe if not safer than any other manufacturer. It's the crazy drivers out here talking on their cellphones, not paying attention that you need to worry about.

 

I have two sources:

Prius Fatalities 2001-2007

This is a study of 2001-07 Prius fatal accidents. The fatality rate was half that reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the same period. But there is a second source, insurance cost:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/ad...velopment/2010_Comparison_Insurance_Costs.pdf

Check the family sedans area and you'll find the Prius is the 3d lowest. But this may not be enough.

For many folks, facts and data are not enough and there has been a bunch of FUD thrown up. You may want to also share this link that shows the Prius brake problem was diagnosed and fixed:

Newsroom : Newsroom Home Page / Toyota

Toyota Vehicles : Video Library / Toyota

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

ps. You might invite the wife to visit here and post her questions and concerns. Folks are pretty good about researching issues and concerns.

 

I am not sure you do, once she fears her car, every quirk it ever has will make her fear it more.

Yes, we know that the Prius brakes are superior to 'normal' cars, and last virtually forever, but I do not think we are dealing with facts here.

Ford makes some nice hybrids your wife has not heard of, the Nissan Altima comes in a hybrid version, some Honda Hybrids seem to save gas. No, they may not not as ideal as a Prius but in the trade offs between ideal car and Ideal wife, one hope you always choose wife.

 

While i do not call it a conspiracy theory, what you said is true. The whole Toyota issue was a ploy by the US government to help the Detroit automakers, especially GM. And also look at how the media went into over drive to report it as headlines. But not one headline about the recent news that the NHTSA after extensive testing found that it was driver error that caused the accidents. And the NHSTA reports it days before GM announces that it would be going for a public offering. If people remember right, the government did the same to Audi in the late 1980's eventually destroying its reputation.

I had a Toyota Camry before. I have a Toyota Camry and a 2010 Prius. And i would not have made that purchase if i did not have trust in Toyota.

 

I hate to say it but I agree with Jim. My rabbi once told me that a "happy wife means a happy life".

 

+1 :d

 

My wife and I were hit in the passenger side on rear door. It was a 2005 rebuilt that I rebuilt myself. The air bags completly surrounded her and only one lens was knocked out of her glasses. No injuries to either of us. Both cars were totaled . We bought another 2006.

 

Much like the sudden acceleration problem that almost destroyed Audi in the 80s (In 1989, after three years of studying the blatantly obvious, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued their report on Audi’s “sudden unintended acceleration problem.†NHTSA’s findings fully exonerated Audi and some other implicated foreign makesâ€.

It looks like the "problem" now is the same as it was then: driver error. Can't cure stupid. Hopefully it won't take as long for NHTSA to issue their findings on Toyota, but it does appear political issues are delaying the report. Perhaps due to Government Motors ownership and potential windfall?

From the article "Release of Toyota Documents Blocked, Ex-Official Says":
Release of Toyota Documents Blocked, Ex-Official Says - WSJ.com

Since March, the agency has examined 40 Toyota vehicles where unintended acceleration was cited as the cause of an accident, Mr. Person said. NHTSA determined 23 of the vehicles had accelerated suddenly, Mr. Person said.

In all 23, he added, the vehicles' electronic data recorders or black boxes showed the car's throttle was wide open and the brake was not depressed at the moment of impact, suggesting the drivers mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake, Mr. Person said.

"The agency has for too long ignored what I believe is the root cause of these unintended acceleration cases," he said. "It's driver error. It's pedal misapplication and that's what this data shows."

 

If you tell us something specific she is worried about it would be easier to help. If its just a general feeling she has that since there was a lot of talk on the news, there must be a problem, it will be harder.

A quick, dirty, and hopefully accurate summary is:

3 issues were raised only one of which affected the 2010 Prius

1st Issue - Sticking Gas Pedals - Not Prius

These pedals were made by a North American supplier to Toyota and other manufacturers. The Toyota ones are being or have been replaced under a recall program but in any case, they were not used in any Prius.

2nd Issue – Floor Mats – Not 2010 Prius

This issue arose when people either installed floor mats for the wrong car or installed floor mats improperly. Under these conditions, the floor mats could slide forward and somehow sometimes catch the gas pedal. This is issue is also being dealt with. The recall affected the 2009 and earlier Prius models but not the 2010 model. I assume that this is because of the nature of the hooks in the 2010 that hold the driver's floor mat in place. The design of the 2010 gas pedal may also be different.

3rd issue - Momentary Braking / Brake feel issue – 2010 Prius

It was something that only occurred rarely and under light braking with your foot feathering the brakes at low speed. If you lost traction momentarily (eg going over a sharp bump) and didn't push any harder on the brake, you would not only lose braking while the wheel was not gripping the road but also for a noticeable moment after that while car switched from regenerative braking (which saves gas) to normal friction braking. It could give you a shock as could feel for a moment as though the brakes had gone. The brakes however were always available if you just

Some people never noticed it, some could not make it happen when the tried, most noticed very rarely and felt that it was more a quirk than a problem and a few, mainly in North America, were very concerned about it.

If felt that it was a quirk that I would like to see Toyota deal with if they could do so without compromising fuel economy.

Toyota came up with a change to the control program that seems to have solved it so I am happy. Any Prius made after Jan 2010 had the fix in place at the factory and the others have been / are being fixed under recall.

Bottom line is it’s not an issue now and for most people never a real concern

Bigger Picture

One of the reasons I bought a Prius was because it’s such a safe car. It had very low accident rates and the 2010 Prius has Vehicle Stability Control included on all models. This makes a huge difference in fatality rates and probably a bigger difference in accident avoidance.

The only significant thing that has affected my opinion on its safety since buying it is finding out that it also has Braking Assist which senses when you want to do a panic stop and applies maximum braking faster than a human can, thus further adding to my safety

Perhaps it wasn’t such a quick summary after all. I hope that it has helped

 

In addition to the nice facts provided by Bob Wilson, perhaps you can mention to your wife an intangible fact that makes the Prius safer than other cars: the Prius TEACHES us to drive more safely. Prius drivers don't tailgate, don't do jackrabbit starts, and probably go a bit slower than other drivers to get better gas mileage, which makes us safer drivers. The car makes us so.

 

How about the fact that my step mom fell asleep at the wheel and took out a telephone pole at 30mph and walked away from the crash.

 

We purchased our Prius in May 2009. My wife loves this car, even after 33,000 miles she still enjoys driving it.

We did have the brake recall software correction, which I felt no discernible difference before or after with the brake system.

This Prius is a safe car. I feel very confident when my wife goes to work if she is struck by another vehicle the safety features will work as designed and planned.

Also MPG are better than any other vehicle out there you can buy in the United States, including the Smart Car.

Real world driving gives us low to high 40's in the winter and low to mid 50's MPG in the summer with all year long 10% Ethanol Gas required in Oregon.

Alfon

 

What does your spouse have her eye on that you want to convince her out of?

My experience is that if she wants a SUV like a Lexus RX, you mostly out of luck.

 

Bob Wilson posted a most interesting article about Prius safety. I'm sure there is a more direct way to embed links to other PC forums but I don't know how so here's the link
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/83936-prius-flipped-four-times.html

 

The Prius is much safer than the Fiero I used to drive around in!

 

May be this initial information from NHTSA may help

Crash Data Suggest Driver Error in Toyota Accidents - WSJ.com