Toyota's Massive Global Recall

[CitizenCain]

Mis-guided Green bandwagon profiteering.

Wholly encouraged (and practically mandated) by our political green bandwagon vote-whoring. Three cheers for California, dragging the rest of the world down with them.

[Timbuk2]

Not had the luxury of seeing a Prius up close and personal, however i don't think i'm missing much. Never understood the hype of Hybrid cars anyway, sure they are economical to run in terms of fuel cost/Road Tax but Christ they are fucking ugly. The new CR-Z is probably the most exciting looking Hybrid I've seen to date that is actually heading into production.

Hybrids are a mere stop-gap measure in terms of future automotive technologies anyway, until Hydrogen fuel-cell technology is brought to the mass-market.

And a bandwagon stop-gap at that, dim peope who don't look past the hype buy one for being green and nothing else. They aren't nearly as efficient as the hype, are very, very expensive, are dull and slow to drive, and are not particularly 'green' anyway - the huge batteries use various valuable metals which are in short supply - increasingly lithium - and are not recyclable, so mainly go to landfill.

Anyone who gives a hoot about environmentalism and needs a car need look no further than a small diesel hatchback, which nowadays give invariably better mileage, lower emissions, cost half as much to buy, are far simpler and therefore break down less, and drive far better than any hybrid.

Hybrid. Blah. Bring on the fuel-cell.

[Flixy]

Full hybrid buses are an improvement though

[Timbuk2]

Maybe.

Not as much an improvement as fuel-cell buses though, already in use in Hamburg, London, Barcelona, Stockholm, Porto, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Madrid, Iceland, and Western Australia ... spearheaded by Mercedes.

[Lor]

Hybrids are a mere stop-gap measure in terms of future automotive technologies anyway, until Hydrogen fuel-cell technology is brought to the mass-market.

I remember seeing a Top Gear episode where Captain Slow went to Cali to see a Honda Insight (if i remember correctly) using Fuel Cell tech, very impressive.

Anyone who gives a hoot about environmentalism and needs a car need look no further than a small diesel hatchback.

Like the 2.2 i-CTDi Honda Civic Type S ....

Road Tax is excellent, especially when compared to my Puma and the 55mpg (i know it's not going to be exactly that) is rather attractive. Plus the styling inside is the fucking titties. My inner geek would be happy.

[Flixy]

Maybe.

Not as much an improvement as fuel-cell buses though, already in use in Hamburg, London, Barcelona, Stockholm, Porto, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Madrid, Iceland, and Western Australia ... spearheaded by Mercedes.

I know, but they are a lot cheaper And they can use regular gas stations, which is good too.

[GGT]

Apparently, the insurer State Farm is demanding that all accident/damage claims they paid for Toyotas and acceleration problems be rescinded. They want their money back. Not sure how far back in time they're going, but this could cost them Billions if other insurers follow suit.

Moving forward, assuming this mess doesn't bankrupt Toyota, I wonder if insurers will charge more for owners with Toyotas, or refuse to insure them altogether.



edit to add:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010...-is-unsafe/?hp

Consumer Reports Says Lexus GX 460 Is Unsafe

When it rains, it pours....