Not just floormats

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-- Boris

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Boris Mohar
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Info passed on to my #2 daughter who owns one. Thanks! ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

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What puzzles me, if he couldn't turn off the ignition why didn't he shift into neutral? If the brakes fail there still is the parking brake, sometimes called emergency brake for good reason. Not very powerful but when I did maintenance on my wife's Toyota I was impressed how thick the steel cable actually is. I don't think one can break that by hand.

Most of all, make a check list, at least a mental one. And test it. I try to do that whenever I sit down in a new car. On my Mits, for example, I discovered one not so nice feature. The starter won't crank if the clutch isn't depressed. Meaning it would be impossible to do what we were trained to do, using the starter to crawl out of a dangerous intersection or railroad crossing after the engine quit. Knowing the procedures makes all the difference when all you've got are seconds.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg

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A non-redundant drive by wire system is sure to fail. I always wondered about the Corvettes wired throttle, and more recently the Electronic steering on Hondas. But the Lexus's push to start, never made me think of a push to stop button.

Cheers

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Martin Riddle

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Years ago at LAX I rented a Chrysler product, drove down to Anaheim, discovering a sticky throttle that I had to stick my toe under and lift to keep it from running away. When I got to my hotel I called Dollar or Budget or whoever'n hell it was to complain and request a replacement car. They sand-bagged me, saying it'd be morning before they could replace it. I said, "Fine, If I can't stop it I'll just take it out of gear and blow the engine." I had another car in 20 minutes ;-) ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

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Infiniti's "keyless" cars do require push to stop. Wonder if they'd stop an engine in gear and running. I'll try it next time I get service. My Q45 has a fairly conventional "key" except it's actually an RFID tag. The "G35" loaners are "keyless" fob-in-your-pocket. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

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My worst case was a Ford where the driver seat back rest fell onto the rear bench while turning from one interstate onto another, worst spot it could happen. No matter what they might say about Toyotas these days they are mighty fine cars and the quality is superb.

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Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Joerg

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I think shifting from D to N at 120MPH might make the transmission jump out of the car but you're right, at least it'd stop the acceleration.

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T

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Actually I had a '68 Toyota Corolla where the driver seat broke loose from the floor when I was SB on 68th St. (Scottsdale, AZ) where it crosses Indian School (Valley Ho corner) then descends quickly about

6' :-(

Thank God I was only 28 and agile as hell... managed to get myself upright and stop the car without hitting anything ;-) ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

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Under the circumstances I don't know if I'd worry, but we had a case here many years ago where a transmission casing blew apart and killed a person sitting on their front porch adjacent to the street :-( ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

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I had a similar deal with a National (I think it was) some time back. I was driving down from the Minneapolis airport to Rochester and the oil pressure light came on. I called National and told them I wanted a new car. They said they didn't have any, so I just said OK. 1) You've been notified of the problem. 2) I rented the car to drive and would do a significant amount over the next few days. Somehow they made a new one appear out of thin air.

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krw

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Doesn't that just frost you when you get that kind of treatment?

Which is why, in recent years, I've settled on Enterprise Rent A Car... they actually behave like they're glad to have me as a customer. (And I really dig the babe meeting me at the shuttle bus with a bottle of water and walking me to my car... no bull-shit, no kiosks... just away you go :-) ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

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I've always rented from the company the one paying the bill tells me to. At the time it was National but since then it's always been Hertz. I had a #1 club membership from my PPOE. The #1 club made renting quite painless.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've rented a car for myself (other than at a dealership - and there I didn't pay anything ;).

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krw

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Working for myself, _usually_ choice of car rental agency is mine alone... exception, large companies with fleet deals, or the guv_ment :-(

I used to use Alamo exclusively... #2 son worked his way thru college working for them at the Phoenix Terminal 4 counter... so I got "deals" ;-) ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Jim Thompson

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...floormat (for) a hard drive...

Reply to
Robert Baer

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Didn't think of it. Taking it out of drive into 2 or 1 should have been enough. I doubt many cars can do 120mph in a low gear. Or switch the engine off - loses power steering and servo assist brakes but since they apparently weren't working. Too bad if it wrecks the engine.

A parking brake might slow a car racing at 120mph but any half decent engine could easily overcome it. I'd expect the brake surfaces to get red hot in under a minute and lose what little efficiency they had. My car will pull away quite happily with the parking brake on. There is a beep to warn you. Loose shoes stuck under brake pedals are a common cause of these sorts of incident.

You can probably get it to crank and then bring the clutch up.

Funniest one I ever had was in a Saab for a weekend test drive. Couldn't get the keys out of the ignition. Turns out you have to put it into reverse before it will let you remove them. I found this out only after parallel parking at our destination after taking it for a long test run.

Regards, Martin Brown

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Martin Brown

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It also locks the steering in many cars. Then you are really shit out of luck.

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The movie \'Deliverance\' isn\'t a documentary!
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

I don't think that's so funny. These days, cars have lots of strange dependencies between formerly independent subsystems. My new Audi surprised me several times with funny behaviour of the parking brakes, even though it makes some twisted sense when you read about it in the manual. I would hate to be surprised in an emergency though.

These gadgets may be intended to simplify safe car use, but in practice, they are only arbitrary complications.

Jeroen Belleman

Reply to
Jeroen Belleman

On a sunny day (Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:13:27 -0400) it happened Boris Mohar wrote in :

Weird software, pressing brake should always cut engine power. Not programmed by drivers?

No Toyota for me :-)

No 'immediate' off button...

Emergency stop button?

I have read about other cars doing strange things when passing by cellphone towers and other Rf radiation sources too. Joerg could be right, by an old non-electronic diesel :-) Even a nuke EMP will not affect it.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

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Hehe, I did this once soon after I got my license. Decided it would be a good idea to let the car "coast" the last 100m home so put it in neutral and and switched the engine off. The steering wheel promptly locked, frantic fumbling with ignition as car moved in uncontrollable straight line at 30mph etc! :)

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John Devereux
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John Devereux

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