Scotty wrote:

Narrator: A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Business woman on plane: Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?

Narrator: You wouldn't believe.

Business woman on plane: Which car company do you work for?

Narrator: A major one.

Fight Club, good movie.

square wrote:

The cop could have simply pushed the shift lever into neutral - perfect Darwin Award candidate.

Can you afford the train?

Better yet... just turn off the damned key and hit the brakes.

kim wrote:

Well, I know the reason so no need to go there

http://autos.aol.com/article/runaway-toyotas

Now, I drive a VW new beetle. Not by choice either.

I owned 5 original flavor VW bugs and they each had the same chronic issues. Top of the list was its sticky accelerator cable but vapor lock was 10x more annoying. I'd trade any new vehicle for an old VW in a heartbeat. For everyone's sake, ignorance should remain fatal.

square wrote:

whosasailorthen wrote:

Better yet... just turn off the damned key and hit the brakes.

No key - the car was a fancy Lexus with pushbutton ignition.  It was a loaner that the driver wasn't familiar with.  Apparently, you need to hold in the button for three seconds to turn it off.

Who at this point doesn't intuitively know how to operate such a device. We all have this motor memory ingrained from having to dump Windows™ on a PC.

GooberMcNutly wrote:

There isn't a car made that can override it's own brakes with the engine, even going down hill. Unless your brakes are at the terminal point of failure already, pushing on the brake pedal WILL stop the car.

Well my friend, it's your vast automotive knowledge versus eyewitness accounts, the brakes were on fire and the car was still accelerating; and from what I know about brake fires it's not something you'll ever confuse with anything else.

He should have put it in neutral, the motor (and it's a good one) did overpower the brakes on that steep hill (and it's very steep) and they did die. 

The 911 tapes (his brother-in-law called in a panic) are rather disturbing, you get to hear the little girl screaming right before impact.

This reminds me of the so-called problem some people were experiencing with runaway acceleration a few years ago.  They claimed their cars just took off right after they started them even though they were pushing hard on the brakes.  The auto companies claimed the people actually had their feet on the accelerators and not on the brakes, but these people and especially their lawyers continued to argue to the contrary.  So now most cars have those annoying devices that require we have our feet on the brake in order to start the car.  Amazingly, the problem went away.  As the man says, "you can't cure stupid".

And, never turn off the key in order to stop a runaway engine while the car is moving.  This will lock the steering wheel and you'll really be fucked.  Like Em says, just slide it into neutral and hit the brakes.  Let the engine explode if it wants to.

kim wrote:

Before my VW I had a GMC jimmy which was great. I had taken it in to the local 76 station to get the front brakes put on. A few days later I was driving to hollywood and the wheel felt weird to me so I pulled off the freeway to check and everything looked fine? Then a few days after that I am driving down the freeway and my front left WHEEL flies off and I am trying to control my car. The wheel went over the divider and into oncoming traffic and luckily I was able to get to the side of the road.

I had it towed to the 76 station and those assholes call me up to discuss payment for  the work they had to do. Don't ask me why I DIDN'T sue them.

Did you fuck 'em?

Emmeran wrote:

GooberMcNutly wrote:

There isn't a car made that can override it's own brakes with the engine, even going down hill. Unless your brakes are at the terminal point of failure already, pushing on the brake pedal WILL stop the car.

Well my friend, it's your vast automotive knowledge versus eyewitness accounts, the brakes were on fire and the car was still accelerating; and from what I know about brake fires it's not something you'll ever confuse with anything else.

He should have put it in neutral, the motor (and it's a good one) did overpower the brakes on that steep hill (and it's very steep) and they did die. 

The 911 tapes (his brother-in-law called in a panic) are rather disturbing, you get to hear the little girl screaming right before impact.

OK, granted. Maybe it's because I don't drive hyper powerful muscle cars full of people flying down a hill, but my assumption holds if it's stopped when applying the brakes. Of course any car already traveling a high speed will overheat the brakes if you keep your foot on the accelerator (or the car decides to do so for you). And of course I don't mean home built muscle cars. Yada yada.

And any car manufacturer that builds a car to decide to shut off the brakes instead of the accelerator when your foots on both pedals deserves to be sued back to the stone age.

The real question is: What will Obama do to prevent this in the future?

Goober - Livin' in 4 cylinder land - McNutly

(F'in misplaced modifiers...)

Last edited by GooberMcNutly (2009-11-05 17:16:11)