- Toyota will reveal its preliminary findings today on James Sikes' 2008 Prius.
- Toyota and NHTSA have been investigating the case to see if the problem was faked.
- Sikes' Prius reportedly accelerated out of control for 20 minutes earlier this month.
SAN DIEGO — Toyota said it will reveal its preliminary findings on Monday into the company's technical investigation of a high-profile case of sudden acceleration. A San Diego man claimed his 2008 Toyota Prius surged out of control for 20 minutes while police dispatched a patrol car to help him stop earlier this month.
James Sikes has become the face of Toyota's alleged runaway acceleration problem. The highly publicized incident in his Prius threatened to overshadow a push by the automaker to win back consumers after it briefly shut down sales of popular models in late January.
Sikes' story has prompted naysayers to ask whether his runaway Prius incident could have been faked.
Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating that case, which came just hours after Toyota held a news conference to show why it was convinced there was no evidence of a flaw with the electronic systems used to control acceleration in its vehicles.
Monday's demonstration follows a legal blow to the automaker in which a Southern California prosecutor late last week filed the first consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed a civil lawsuit in California on Friday, seeking damages from Toyota for violations of the state's unfair business practices act. The suit claims Toyota "knowingly" sold hundreds of thousands of vehicles at risk for unintended acceleration.
"Toyota has not received the complaint and is not in a position to comment on pending litigation," Toyota said on Friday in a statement.
The lawsuit joins a growing list of legal claims against the automaker.
Inside Line says: Should be fascinating to watch Toyota take on Jim Sikes later today. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
excelsior88 says:
05:21 PM, 03/15/2010
This Sikes guy is a fraud, plain and simple. Time for the media to move on to other things.
The other cases...the NHTSA already found that Ms. Smith stacked mats in her car, causing her 'scary ride' and she sold her 'deadly' car to another family which put on 30,000 problem-free miles on it--without those mats. The Avalon in lake case is unsolved, but the driver was taking medication for epilepsy--a seizure may have been the cause. That leaves the revving Avalon case.
But this Prius guy is the Balloon Boy 2.0.
jason330i says:
02:12 PM, 03/15/2010
i don't get it. if the prius has a brake override feature then how can you "cook your brakes"? pressing both gas and brake pedals will cut the engine power and you will stop.
g35xfun says:
01:54 PM, 03/15/2010
It's a piece of cake to cook your brakes. He said he used both feet, and he did on both pedals! Roasting his brakes was done intentionally, and the CHP officer got scammed because he saw the smoke from roasted brakes.
kingisback350 says:
01:31 PM, 03/15/2010
As much as I dislike Toyotas... The guy lied. It's kind of funny that 1 week after the recalls happened, his car flies all over the place...
bswopes says:
12:33 PM, 03/15/2010
What happened to the report of CHP officer saying he could smell the brakes when he pulled up alongside? Was that something that one of the news agencies made up?
aston_dbs says:
12:02 PM, 03/15/2010
While I'd say that Toyota is not completely innocent,
I think this Jim guy is just looking for his 15 minutes of fame...
What a pity...
creeper says:
11:36 AM, 03/15/2010
the man's a fraud, plain and simple. his prius lease was part of his 2008 bankruptcy and he was simply trying to get out of the debt. how can a man afraid to hold his phone to his ear, afraid to shift the car into neutral for fear that it will flip, reach down and grab the accelerator pedal at 94mph without incident? checkout the forbes site for the prius hoax story.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota-autos-hoax-media-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento_3.html
tourian says:
11:22 AM, 03/15/2010
Well, great. They are all gung ho and ready to jump all over a guy who is most likely a fraud. But what is taking so long to figure out what happened to Ms. Smith (the lady that testified before Congress), the other guy that was able to drive his Avalon to the dealer with it banging off the rev limiter, the people who died when their Avalon flipped and landed in a lake? Looks like Toyota is picking the low hanging fruit in an attempt to sway public opinion quickly instead actually solving any real mysteries.
wideturnone says:
10:46 AM, 03/15/2010
In 2008, NHTSA had 166 reports of unintended acceleration for Toyota vehicles. The same year, Toyota sold 1.95 million vehicles. That's 0.0085% of cars sold had reported problems for acceleration. Not that the number is insignificant if people were injured or died, but...
This whole thing just makes me think of the Audi debacle. Whether it is maliciousness on the part of consumers trying to make a buck or whether it's just people who when presented with an unusual thing happening in their car (like accidentally pushing the resume button for the cruise control - which was set for 70mph, when they're puttering around town at 25), I have to think that as far as numbers go, it really is much less of a problem than the media is making it out to be.
jeremy_c says:
10:21 AM, 03/15/2010
Having this ordeal move into the courtroom may not be a bad thing for Toyota because there will be proper procedures to be followed for accusers. They need to present credible evidence, be cross examined and subject to impartial judges. The onus is on the accusers to prove that Toyota is guilty, and for Toyota to prove that they are innocent. One should recall that none of the "runaway Audi" cases against Audi succeeded despite the media frenzy.