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My source is first-hand (real time) experience and knowledge gained from decades of car ownership as well as collecting, showing, racing, and working on cars.
If you do not want to believe me, or anyone else on a message board, then your best source of information should come from easily obtainable reliable sources such as a Toyota or Lexus master mechanic trained by Toyota/Lexus at your local Toyota or Lexus dealership. I've suggested you talk with this source numerous times, but instead of you doing that you would rather argue that you don't believe me or anyone else here. So, if you are for some reason unable to look up the phone number of your local Toyota or Lexus dealership please advise what your zip code is and I will furnish you the phone numbers.
For your information, in the past couple of decades all car maker's automatic transmissions are "electronically controlled" (Toyota & Lexus refers to theirs as "ECT" ("Electronic Controlled Transmission"). "Electronic Controlled" does not imply that there's no mechanical linkage for the gear shift. It means that, when the transmission is in a forward gear the computer decides when to upshift, downshift and when to lock-up the torque converter. ECT has nothing whatsoever to do with the driver's ability to shift the transmission into Neutral - as the gear shift lever is totally mechanical and not electronically controlled.
Please (PLEASE) place a phone call to your local Toyota dealership and gain some believable knowledge for yourself from a reliable source. Let us know what the experts say!
Last edited by highcotton; 03-01-2010 at 08:40 AM..
If you own a Lincoln Town Car your chances of UA are greater than any other vehicle sold (per customer complaints anyway!). Or maybe UA is what the driver blamed their accident on when it was really driver error (mashed on wrong pedal), or lack of responsibility (gas pedal entrapment on floor mat), etc., etc.
Last edited by highcotton; 03-01-2010 at 07:41 AM..
My source is first-hand (real time) experience and knowledge gained from decades of car ownership as well as collecting, showing, racing, and working on cars.
If you do not want to believe me, or anyone else on a message board, then your best source of information should come from easily obtainable reliable sources such as a Toyota or Lexus master mechanic trained by Toyota/Lexus at your local Toyota or Lexus dealership. I've suggested you talk with this source numerous times, but instead of you doing that you would rather argue that you don't believe me or anyone else here. So, if you are for some reason unable to look up the phone number of your local Toyota or Lexus dealership please advise what your zip code is and I will furnish you the phone numbers.
For your information, in the past couple of decades all car maker's automatic transmissions are "electronically controlled" (Toyota & Lexus refers to theirs as "ECT" ("Electronic Controlled Transmission"). "Electronic Controlled" does not imply that there's no mechanical linkage for the gear shift. It means that, when the transmission is in a forward gear the computer decides when to upshift, downshift and when to lock-up the torque converter. ECT has nothing whatsoever to do with the driver's ability to shift the transmission into Neutral - as the gear shift lever is totally mechanical and not electronically controlled.
Please (PLEASE) place a phone call to your local Toyota dealership and gain some believable knowledge for yourself from a reliable source. Let us know what the experts say!
Now, highcotton, I know you're smarter than that. If consumers really want good unbiased advice, is a Toyota employee or dealer really the best source of information? I think it would be better to do research on your own or, better yet, call a NHTSA staff member. Interesting chart by the way, I would love to see it for 2008-10 cars. I think the numbers would be a bit different. Nevertheless, we see here that the chart is filled with Toyotas (for those of you who don't know, Lexus is just a fancy Toyota) with a few exceptions.
trlhiker: do a google search on: Toyota software (not in quotations) and you should find hundreds of articles talking about Toyota's software problems. Which one do you want to read? Take your pick.
deepcynic: Thanks for my laugh of today. Should a Toyota owner really be referring to anyone on here as "mentally challenged"?
If you own a Lincoln Town Car your chances of UA are greater than any other vehicle sold (per customer complaints anyway!).
Town Car and Grand Marquis are the bastion of old-timers. If Buick was still making heaps like the TC and Marq, they would be high on the list. Lexus ES is another one that the oldsters seem to love(in my area, at least). The fact that the Tacoma came in at #6 is a bit puzzling though.
Town Car and Grand Marquis are the bastion of old-timers. If Buick was still making heaps like the TC and Marq, they would be high on the list. Lexus ES is another one that the oldsters seem to love(in my area, at least). The fact that the Tacoma came in at #6 is a bit puzzling though.
I thought the exact same thing about old-timers driving many of the vehicles on the UA list! Also, let's not forget that many of them are driven by women, which may not be quite as car savy or in-tune with what to do in an emergency as men probably are.
Town Car and Grand Marquis are the bastion of old-timers. If Buick was still making heaps like the TC and Marq, they would be high on the list. Lexus ES is another one that the oldsters seem to love(in my area, at least).
What do you mean "heaps?" They are very nice cars which provide a good amount of comfort, ride and reliability.
trlhiker: do a google search on: Toyota software (not in quotations) and you should find hundreds of articles talking about Toyota's software problems. Which one do you want to read? Take your pick.
Not one of those is from the manufacturer. They are from people who think that the ECU is the problem. None of them have been proven. All of the software problems are for the Prius brake problem none for the suposedly ECU problem. A quick look shows that they are mostly blogs. Is that where you get your facts from blogs?
No one writing about a car's "software" is an expert. Cars don't have software (outside of some entertainment systems and, I believe, some Prius sub-systems). They have firmware which is flashed or hard-coded in.
No credible outside "expert" has actually reproduced the UI problem, either - they've artificially created conditions under which they can make the system act outside of parameters, which is not at all the same as finding the putative problem.
Last edited by PNW-type-gal; 03-01-2010 at 05:32 PM..
Reason: fixed typo and added term
For your information, in the past couple of decades all car maker's automatic transmissions are "electronically controlled" (Toyota & Lexus refers to theirs as "ECT" ("Electronic Controlled Transmission"). "Electronic Controlled" does not imply that there's no mechanical linkage for the gear shift. It means that, when the transmission is in a forward gear the computer decides when to upshift, downshift and when to lock-up the torque converter. ECT has nothing whatsoever to do with the driver's ability to shift the transmission into Neutral - as the gear shift lever is totally mechanical and not electronically controlled.
Finally a comment, with detail, about the issue I wanted info about. See that wasn't so hard was it? I don't know whether you're right or not, but this explanation is a possibility. Thank you.
I also have decades of experience with cars, fixing cars, and working in Automotive Engineering (though not with transmissions) so it's not necessary to keep talking to me like I'm a child. I have reasons for asking these questions and have reasoned comments. I'm not on the "I hate Japanese cars!" bandwagon. I'm also not in agreement with the "the trooper was stupid for not shifting into neutral" bandwagon either. I am of the opinion that he must have tried, but couldn't, but as I said previously (many posts ago) that no one yet knows for certain. This is why I am looking into this possibility. I'm aware it could be a dead end, but I want to go through every possibility. I think the American vs Japanese cars arguments over the years seem to make it impossible to have a civil discussion, but we need to try.
Finally a comment, with detail, about the issue I wanted info about. See that wasn't so hard was it? I don't know whether you're right or not, but this explanation is a possibility. Thank you.
I also have decades of experience with cars, fixing cars, and working in Automotive Engineering (though not with transmissions) so it's not necessary to keep talking to me like I'm a child. I have reasons for asking these questions and have reasoned comments. I'm not on the "I hate Japanese cars!" bandwagon. I'm also not in agreement with the "the trooper was stupid for not shifting into neutral" bandwagon either. I am of the opinion that he must have tried, but couldn't, but as I said previously (many posts ago) that no one yet knows for certain. This is why I am looking into this possibility. I'm aware it could be a dead end, but I want to go through every possibility. I think the American vs Japanese cars arguments over the years seem to make it impossible to have a civil discussion, but we need to try.
With your strange logic, along with the way you communicate, it's like you are a child. You ask a lot of questions, but never have an answer yourself as though you have no knowledge or experience, but when you get an answer to your questions you almost always want to deny the answer is correct based on nothing more than being difficult to get along with. That's why I tried to get down to your level of acting like a difficult and inexperienced child. Now that we know you have decades of automotive experience, including an automotive engineering background, maybe people here can have a good two-way discussion with you...instead of you acting like a combination of a little child with an attitude and a 90 year old woman that doesn't know which way to turn a screw to tighten it.
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