A settlement was agreed upon between Toyota and the family and relatives of a high way patrolman which was killed in a car accident among three other passengers. This accident which happened in 2009 was said to have been caused by the floor mat of the car they were riding on, as it was lodged against the pedal for acceleration. The name of the victim was Mark Saylor, and the three other passengers were his wife, brother-in-law and daughter.

Although the settlement agreed upon was not disclosed, the important thing is that this was sort of a breather for the company, which has been scrutinized after the accident, because somehow, it proved what other people have been saying about the flaws of its cars. Specifically, people complain that sometimes, the cars accelerated on their own.

The Saylor accident received wide spread attention not only for the Toyota car complaints, but also because of the 911 call that the brother-in-law of Mr. Saylor, Chris Frantella, made as the car was racing to speeds of around 100 miles per hour before it finally crashed into an embankment, killing everyone inside as it burst into flames. The victims were driving a Lexus ES 350 that time.

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Post tags: acceleration, brother, car accident, floor mat, mark saylor, relatives, toyota

Toyota plans to recall a set of cars yet again, as they discovered problems in their Avalon and Lexus LX 470s models. Specifically, the problems involve the steering lock bar. With the current design, a crack could develop, which can grow over time, and will ultimately break the bar.

The breaking of this bar will make unlocking the steering wheel very difficult, especially when the car is stationary. Furthermore, this is also very dangerous when the driver turns to the right very quickly. When this happens with a broken lock bar, this can alter the steering maneuver and lock the steering wheel.

In other news, BMW reported that their 5 Series sedan has been awarded by the IIHS or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety as being in the top list of safe cars. Several tests were done by the IIHS, including roof crush, side impact and front impact. For all of these tests, the BMW cars received a rating of good.

Aside from these models, other BMW models are in the list, including the 3 Series and the X5 and X4. This validates the claim made by Jim O’Donnell, who is the president of the North American chapter of BMW, who stated that the top priority of BMW is Safety.

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Post tags: Avalon, Lexus LX 470, toyota

Honda Motor Corporation will join the race of the world’s biggest car manufacturing companies which are planning to create strong hybrid cars. These hybrid cars will serve as alternatives to cars which use a depleting fuel source and are contributory to global warming and therefore its harmful effects. Honda has already planned to develop a strong hybrid car which will be released in the market by 2012, much like it’s competitors.

This hybrid car is a plug-in hybrid and battery electric model car which is a stronger version of its mild hybrid car. The former mild hybrid cars which were developed a decade ago, are gasoline-electric cars which were not successful in the market at all.

In fact, other companies such as Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Corp are aiming at these old Honda models and showing that their cars are more efficient and are stronger as hybrid cars. According to Takanobu Ito, the chief executive of Honda, the company plans to sell battery-powered electric model cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2012.

These cars will be initially sold in the United States and Japan. On the other hand, Honda’s rival, Toyota, will release a plug-in hybrid car next year. This shows that the technology level of Toyota is way better than Honda.

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Post tags: Honda, hybrid cars, success, toyota, united states

There are 71 Jeep Compass models and 25,263 Dodge Calibers model 2007 recalled by Chrysler to repair the sticking gas pedals. Although this problem is not a safety concern, according to Chrysler, they still volunteer to fix the problem and recall the cars. The reason it’s not a safety concern is because the involved car models have brake-override software which will deal with the unwanted situation perfectly.

The problem is said to have rooted from a factory defect by CTS, the manufacturing company who also had the same problem before with Toyota, which involved that company’s recall of 2 million vehicles. The defect is that the bearing house is too large. As a result, cars would suddenly accelerate. These, along with floor mats that are unsecured, are the only main problems from complaints. The congressional panels, on the other hand, are still investigating whether there are also electronic defects in Toyota’s cars.

Aside from the cars recalled in the United States, Chrysler also recalled their vehicles in Canada, a total of 5, 572. They also recalled cars in Mexico, for a total of 2,260, while 1,536 are recalled in other parts of the world.

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Post tags: automobiles, Chrysler, congressional panels, dodge calibers, gas pedals, jeep compass, manufacturing company, toyota