Lexus dealer in Saylor case reaches confidential settlement

"Owner Bob Baker said investigators failed to fully examine possible manufacturing defects."

Amidst news of a major auto dealer in Maryland blowing the whistle on manufacturers for directing dealers to conceal dangerous defects, Bob Baker, the Lexus dealer associated with the Saylor case, which focused national attention on Toyota's problems with unintended acceleration, has reached a last-minute, confidential settlement with the parents of the victims. Interestingly enough, back in 2010, when Toyota settled its case - confidentially, of course - regarding the Saylor crash, Mr. Baker was outspoken in favor of making details of that settlement public.

Since the Saylor tragedy, evidence has emerged revealing electronic defects galore in Toyota's throttle control. Worse yet, cases of runaway vehicles - most often Toyotas, but affecting other brands as well - are continuing. Vehicles crashing into buildings has reached epidemic proportions, and the National Carwash Association has started documenting which vehicles are most prone to speed out of control. Note the comments by Bob Schrum in this article updating readers that no charges will be filed regarding a Jeep that unexpectedly sped away at a carwash in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Then there's the ongoing case of Bob Ruginis, a Toyota customer who lucked out and managed to obtain a copy of the EDR readout after his Corolla sped out of control. As I've mentioned in other posts, there are literally too many runaway vehicle cases pointing to electronic defects to keep up with.

Once again, folks: What kind of "government" allows automakers to kick consumers around, conceal dangerous defects, and get away with never-ending parades of blood-spattered scandals?

Toyota, trolls, and the government's assault on free speech

Efforts to block readers from visiting this blog have been on the increase lately, epitomized by a recent skirmish with Houston's ABC-13 over a story they cooked up which criticized cops for refusing to file charges against the driver of a runaway Lexus. Granted, operations such as Houston's ABC-13 are privately owned, and from a legal standpoint, permitted to "moderate" discussions as they see fit. Problem is, with rare exception, we have a corporate-controlled mainstream media, fearful of losing broadcast licenses if they cross ol' Sammy, and fearful of losing advertising dollars if they cross corporate interests. Factor in anonymous comments generated by so-called reputation management companies, and it all boils down to making a mockery of a free press, including a deceitful assault on free speech.

The government is too cowardly to limit free speech outright. So it's done the "American Way," with behind-the-scenes maneuvering designed to maintain the appearance of freedom while cleverly placing shackles on those who dare to speak truth. Especially in this age of the Internet.

The government and its mainstream media stooges have been determined to keep word from spreading about evidence galore pointing to electronic defects in Toyota's throttle control. The "Just Us" Department underscored ol' Sammy's unwritten directive with a high-handed "No comment" when a freelance reporter for trade journal EE Times dared to confront Holder's gang with the facts. David Benjamin's EE Times' article exposing what happened ranks in my book as wunna the all-time masterpieces of investigative journalism.

ABC-13's article is typical of the propaganda bandied about under the guise of journalism. Their "legal analyst" feigns ignorance of the electronics issue associated with vehicles speeding out of control, and there's no report of what the Lexus driver said happened. But perhaps the most glaring omission - as ABC-13 spotlights the driver's age - is a discussion of how extremely difficult it is to stop vehicles when electronic defects get the upper hand. A recent seminar at Carnegie-Mellon took a close look at the issue - see slide number 8 - as part of a presentation on electronically-induced unintended acceleration. Notice that brake pressure is normally in the 15 to 43.6 pounds range, whereas a whopping 175 pounds of force is required when vehicles accelerate on their own. Back in 2010, Consumer Reports ran an article, complete with a video, that corroborates Dr. Koopman's presentation. It's preposterous to believe that Houston's ABC-13 is unaware of the facts.

ABC-13's article smacks of a corporate-controlled ploy intended to mislead the public and have a chilling effect on cops declining to charge drivers when vehicles speed out of control. Absence of charges raises questions that admitted crooks like Toyota doesn't want people askin'.

The first response to my comment was an insulting, mindless "reply" from an anonymous source, then came the removal of my comment, while the anonymous blabber - quite likely associated with a troll employed by a reputation management firm - was permitted to remain posted. Here's a copy of my now-deleted comment, and the troll's "reply":

Parris Boyd:
ABC-13 legal analyst Joel Androphy has never heard of electronically-induced unintended acceleration? Especially in Toyotas? Especially in the admitted crook's much-ballyhooed Lexus? Where ya been, Joel? Trying to cover up for the auto industry? ABC should be addressing the epidemic of runaway vehicles crashing into buildings. The Miami Herald dared to discuss the issue. Parking - not age - is the biggest common denominator, and how about telling us what the DRIVER said happened? There's evidence GALORE of electronic defects in Toyota's throttle control, and I've been blogging about it. Search "Beware of Toyota. Their next victim may be YOU..." 

disqus_J5VKk8FJ
Dumb again, Parrisite. Another case of old lady driver error. "The woman, who police said was 70 years old, was not intoxicated according to officers on the scene. Police said she hit the gas instead of the breaks while she was trying to park her Lexus SUV outside the restaurant."

This is not the first time mainstream media in Texas - a state proud to host the new North American headquarters for a murderous, admitted crook like Toyota - has taken exception to my comments and made sure that neither Toyota nor the public read my views. How many other comments get axed in the Lone Star state for being critical of the Coverup King is anyone's guess.

The government's propaganda-censorship game isn't limited to Texas, and this certainly isn't the first time I've written posts about the issue. What's important to realize is that ABC-13's behavior exemplifies the kinda stuff going on all across the country regarding every topic imaginable. Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts targets the issue in his latest article, "The Prospect of Nuclear War." Just out of curiosity - not that I have proof of any - I inquired about the cost to protect this blog from Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Attacks. The bill would come to $3,000 per month. Real hoot, but at least I got a thigh-slappin' laugh out of it. Not to mention a far better appreciation of the costs associated with politically-sensitive websites that make a serious effort at maximizing hits.

Alluding to this sorry state of affairs in his 9/14/2014 call for donations (preface to "Washington's War on Russia"), Dr. Roberts sums things up admirably: "It will not be long before only a masochist will be willing to speak the truth in the United States or in any country of the West."

Unattended Lexus takes off from carwash

A friend of mine sent me a link to an interesting example of the risks admitted-crook Toyota would take if they dared to produce "driverless" cars. As I stated in my immediately preceding post, "Admitted-crook Toyota chickens out on driverless cars," they know better than to dabble around in that world. As the above-referenced article confirms, their unattended vehicles are bad enough.

Thank goodness the National Carwash Association is continuing to document the horrifying risks the public is being exposed to as our corporate-controlled government - Repukes n Demagogues alike - refuses to acknowledge compelling evidence of electronic defects in throttle controls. I'll say again: It's pretty ridiculous when a carwash association is better than NHTSA is at discerning safety defects in vehicles.

Ignore those fancy automaker ads and the propadanda from the government's mainstream media stooges. Read trade journal EDN's article, "Toyota's Killer Firmware: Bad Design and its Consequences." Once again, here's the evidence you're not supposed to know about:

* Toyota's electronic throttle control system (ETCS) source code is of unreasonable quality.

* Toyota's source code is defective and contains bugs, including bugs that can cause unintended acceleration (UA).

* Code-quality metrics predict presence of additional bugs.

* Toyota's fail-safes are defective and inadequate (referring to them as a 'house of cards' safety architecture).

* Misbehaviours of Toyota's ETCS are a cause of UA.

The outcome of the above-referenced Lexus case (Were chages filed? Was the vehicle examined for defects? What did the carwash attendant have to say? What did the Lexus' owner have to say? and so forth) has been hushed up. As with other alarming runaway cases that point to electronic defects in throttle controls, critical details have been concealed, and the entire matter has now disappeared into corporate-controlled media's "black hole," never to be heard from again.

Just remember: The next victim of a runaway vehicle may be YOU.

Update 5/11/2014 - Jeeps speeding out of control at carwashes has prompted this article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"City mechanic" checks Lexus - cops charge driver

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Update 5/31/2014 - Tuesday, a runaway RAV4 smashed into Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, New York. Police have now released security cam video, which caught the entire event. The RAV4 was SLOWLY turning into the parking lot when the vehicle suddenly took off like a rocket. Consistent with the video, the driver says his foot was on the brake pedal when he heard the engine rev up as the RAV4 simultaneously accelerated. This makes AT LEAST THREE CASES during the past two months suggesting electronically-induced unintended acceleration in runaway Toyotas. Common denominators include parking lots, turning corners, slow speeds when the events begin, and driver complaints that the brakes failed to stop the vehicles. NONE OF THE DRIVERS IN THESE CRASHES - WHICH HAVE RESULTED IN INJURIES GALORE AND THE DEATH OF A FOUR-YEAR-OLD - HAVE BEEN ELDERLY. All of the vehicles - various models - crashed into public buildings. A Solara into a daycare, a Lexus into a church, the RAV4 into a library.  

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Be warned. If your vehicle speeds out of control - and the vast majority of complaints involve Toyotas - you may wind up facing criminal charges. You may wind up in prison.

Easter night, a Lexus - raising justifiable concerns of electronically-induced unintended acceleration - crashed into a church. In a previous blog post, I addressed the situation:

Case in point is this week's Easter night crash of a 2006 Lexus into a church full of people, injuries galore. All the earmarks of an unintended acceleration event, and given NHTSA's outright lies regarding the issue, nobody can be blamed for wondering. It's especially noteworthy that the driver says she was applying the brake when the Lexus suddenly accelerated. Embedded systems expert Michael Barr addressed this all-too-frequent situation in court testimony regarding the defects he found in Toyota's electronic throttle control. Mr. Barr pointed out that the driver would actually have to take their foot off the brake pedal and immediately press the pedal again in order to stand a chance of stopping the vehicle. I won't belabor the obvious unlikelihood that anyone would ever do that in such a situation. Note the eerie similarity of the Easter Sunday crash to a complaint filed with NHTSA on 4/14/08 regarding a 2006 Lexus:

LEXUS LS 430 BRAKES FAILED MOVING INTO A PARKING SPACE. PRESSED ON THE BREAKS THE SURGED FORWARD WENT OVER A BUMP, CURB, HANDICAP SIGN AND INTO THE BUILDING. WAS PRESSING ON THE BRAKES AND THE CAR JUST TOOK OFF. *TR

News reports went on to say that the make and model of the Easter night Lexus had been spotlighted in complaints to the federal government of "brake failure or uncontrollable acceleration," and I went on to point out what Michael Barr found (see "Toyota's killer firmware: Bad design and its consequences") when he examined Toyota's throttle control:

>  Toyota’s electronic throttle control system (ETCS) source code is of unreasonable quality.
>  Toyota’s source code is defective and contains bugs, including bugs that can cause unintended acceleration (UA).
>  Code-quality metrics predict presence of additional bugs.
>  Toyota’s fail safes are defective and inadequate (referring to them as a “house of cards” safety architecture).
>  Misbehaviors of Toyota’s ETCS are a cause of UA.

It's a major consideration - referenced by Michael Barr when he testified about brakes - that many of the events suggesting electronically-induced unintended accleration have common denominators. The events are triggered when the drivers are trying to park, and are in the process of shifting gears. And the vast majority of such cases involve transmissions designed so that drivers must push the brake pedal in order to move the shift lever. All of this tends to strongly corroborate statements from the driver in Easter night's Lexus crash that she was pressing the brake pedal when the unintended accleration occured.

Fast forward to this week's news announcing that the "investigation" of Easter night's crash has been completed. And we're told that the cops - in an effort to conserve tax dollars - hired a "city mechanic" to examine the Lexus. And the "city mechanic" found nothing wrong with the brakes. And the Lexus driver was therefore charged with careless driving. And because the crash involved serious injuries, the Lexus driver must appear in court...

Nuthin' like gettin' a good deal for the taxpayin' public. Who needs embedded systems experts, electrical engineers, and other pricey professionals when the cops can get an opinion - dirt cheap - from a city mechanic?

Well, as  a matter of fact...

Not that the sweet land of liberty and justice for all would ever railroad anyone in the name of corporate interests, but it was false testimony from a "city mechanic" - about brakes - that figured prominently in sending Toyota driver Koua Fong Lee to prison for four years. And Lee was lucky. Ironically, his "trial" was so egregiously wrongful that Texas attorney Bob Hilliard stepped in pro-bono (Lee's initial attorney had been a public pretender), got the penniless immigrant released, charges dropped, and is now in the process of suing Toyota.

Turned out the "city mechanic" - hired by the prosecution for the "trial" that sent Lee to prison - falsely testified under oath that Lee's Camry did not have anti-lock brakes. Given the absence of skid marks, this later-determined-to-be-false testimony weighed heavily in discrediting Lee's claims that he had been desperately trying to stop his Camry as it sped out of control and crashed, killing three people, injuring others.

Really, folks. Amidst well-publicized evidence that "city mechanics" may not even be able to tell whether or not a vehicle has anti-lock brakes, by what standard of fairness - or common sense - do cops decide to charge someone with careless driving based on a city mechanic's "investigation" of an event that raises questions of electronically-induced unintended accleration?

Here's the deal. The only lawsuit based on claims of electronic defects in Toyota's electronics was won - hands down - by the plaintiffs. The jury - after hearing testimony from bonafide software experts - went even further, finding Toyota guilty of "reckless disregard" for public safety in the way it designed its throttle control. The Oklahoma case put the Recall King in settlement mode, and put the U.S. Department of Justice in "No comment" mode.

Acknowledged crook Toyota - admittedly guilty of misleading the public about safety defects - is now being allowed to ignore the evidence presented to the jury in Oklahoma. The only media organizations that dare to discuss the evidence are trade journals, bloggers, and one or two small publications. And the taxpaying public is left holding the bag. Short of expensive, time-consuming lawsuits that present testimony from bonafide experts, consumers - especially those with limited resources - have no recourse if their vehicle speeds out of control. Indeed, such cases may be determined by a "city mechanic."

Let's face it. Consumers have become pawns in a deadly game of corporate cover-up.  

Mysterious Lexus crash. '02-'06 Camrys still not recalled.

Update 5/28/2014 - The Lexus driver has now been charged with careless driving after a "city mechanic" was used - to "save tax-payers' money" - to examine the vehicle.

We now know that NHTSA is a bald-faced government lie. Not only regarding a crook like Toyota, but also GM. It's outrageous that NHTSA would dare to use NASA as a pawn, then broadcast a big lie about the space agency's conclusions concerning electronics in Toyota's throttle control. Equally outrageous when the auto industry "regulator" is caught red-handed allowing a murderous thug like GM to avoid recalling vehicles the corporate-kissin' slobs knew were unsafe to drive. The very idea of NHTSA ignoring bloodcurdling complaints, accidents, and at least 13 deaths.

NHTSA has been exposed as a taxpayer-financed propaganda machine for big business. And that gives consumers good reason to be uneasy about most anything imaginable when it comes to the safety of motor vehicles.

Case in point is this week's Easter night crash of a 2006 Lexus into a church full of people, injuries galore. All the earmarks of an unintended acceleration event, and given NHTSA's outright lies regarding the issue, nobody can be blamed for wondering. It's especially noteworthy that the driver says she was applying the brake when the Lexus suddenly accelerated. Embedded systems expert Michael Barr addressed this all-too-frequent situation in court testimony regarding the defects he found in Toyota's electronic throttle control. Mr. Barr pointed out that the driver would actually have to take their foot off the brake pedal and immediately press the pedal again in order to stand a chance of stopping the vehicle. I won't belabor the obvious unlikelihood that anyone would ever do that in such a situation. Note the eerie similarity of the Easter Sunday crash to a complaint filed with NHTSA on 4/14/08 regarding a 2006 Lexus:

LEXUS LS 430 BRAKES FAILED MOVING INTO A PARKING SPACE. PRESSED ON THE BREAKS THE SURGED FORWARD WENT OVER A BUMP, CURB, HANDICAP SIGN AND INTO THE BUILDING. WAS PRESSING ON THE BRAKES AND THE CAR JUST TOOK OFF. *TR

Easter night's mysterious Lexus crash hasn't exactly made national headlines. One reason, "Lexus" is a buzzword. It's the same make that Mark Saylor was driving when he make the 911 call that brought national attention to the problem of unintended acceleration. Amidst government efforts to hush things up about uninintended acceleration, Easter night's crash sounds the alarm bell that such events are continuing. In the wake of recent , compelling evidence of electronic defects, it's imperative that a bonafide investigation be conducted into where Toyota now stands regarding the things Michael Barr found in the automaker's electronic throttle control. A government with the best interests of the motoring public at heart would have no problem with that. Sadly, this sold-out excuse for a government and its presstitute mainstream media stooges are instead intent on keeping things as quiet as possible when motor vehicles - especially a Lexus - mysteriously speed out of control.

Which brings up the ongoing '02-'06 Camry scam. It's one of the grandest performances NHTSA and its good friend and corporate crook Toyota have ever come up with. Evidence relevant to the Camry scam has been around for years. But while consumers are ripped off by settlements the "Toyota Way," and placed at risk for injury, death, and financial ruin, one brave NASA physicist has apparently had enough of the Recall King's shenanigans. Dr. Henning Leidecker is speaking out - much to the chagrin of those less honest - about evidence of tin whiskers posing an increased risk of unintended acceleration in '02-'06 Camrys.

It makes no sense - outside the context of greed - for a lying slob like Toyota to ignore - with the blessings of government - the tin whiskers issue in '02-'06 Camrys. Isn't it a cryin' shame when a country is ruled by two-bit punks? Deceitful, self-absorbed thugs whose only yardstick for morality is the almighty (for the moment, at least) dollar? How much would it cost Toyota - with an ill-gotten cash stash of $60 billion - to update the pedal sensors in '02-'06 Camrys?

Here's the problem.

Toyota and its good friends at NHTSA know that NASA's Dr. Leidecker is beyond reproach. And a cowardly smear campaign - like the one Toyota contemplated against Southern Illinois University's Professor David Gilbert - isn't to be dared against a NASA physicist. In fact, that would spread the truth even more about NHTSA's big lie regarding NASA's conclusion about the electronics issue. Worse yet, if the Recall King recalled '02-'06 Camrys, the electronics issue associated with unintended acceleration would break loose in worldwide, eye-catching headlines. Then the Recall King would have to address whether or not its electronic throttle control is still as defective as embedded systems expert Michael Barr found it to be.

As instances of unintended acceleration continue, the public has a right to know of Dr. Leidecker's concerns about '02-'06 Camrys, and whether or not Toyota has corrected the defects Mr. Barr found during his exhaustive, 18 month investigation of Toyota's much ballyhooed source code. Defects which produced a resounding guilty verdict in the landmark unintended acceleration case in Oklahoma last October. Take another look at what Mr. Barr found - prompting a jury to say Toyota exhibited "reckless disregard" for public safety - and ponder the government's highanded response. Trade journal EDN's article, "Toyota's killer firmware: Bad design and its consequences," gives an apt summary of the evidence:

• Toyota’s electronic throttle control system (ETCS) source code is of unreasonable quality.
• Toyota’s source code is defective and contains bugs, including bugs that can cause unintended acceleration (UA).
• Code-quality metrics predict presence of additional bugs.
• Toyota’s fail safes are defective and inadequate (referring to them as a “house of cards” safety architecture).
• Misbehaviors of Toyota’s ETCS are a cause of UA.

Next thing ya know, someone is gonna claim that Amerika is an oligarchy. A place where corporate thugs like Toyota and GM dog it over brainwashed citizens too tail-tucked to protest, even if they could somehow be made aware of tyranny's onslaught.

***Updates 4/25/2014 -
>  News coverage is now associating Easter Sunday's Lexus crash with consumer complaints - to the federal government - of "brake failure or uncontrollable acceleration" for the Lexus LS 430. Coverage also states that Toyota never issued a recall.  
>  Unrelated to the Easter Sunday Lexus crash, this 4/24/2014 article confirms that accident investigators are taking the electronics issue seriously. Also noteworthy is the attorney's statement that Toyota's $1.2 billion federal criminal settlement was for "misleading motorists about a faulty electronic-throttle system." This is the second attorney to make such a statement in recent weeks. The other attorney is Bob Hilliard, who represents unjustly imprisoned Toyota driver Koua Fong Lee. Mr. Hilliard addressed the issue in a CBS radio interview (segment 20:00-20:53) with John Williams.
>  This 4/25/2014 article states that "Toyota was fined by the Department of Justice for misleading motorists about a 'faulty electronic-throttle system' in their cars after settling a lawsuit in July that claims the same make, model and year of the Toyota Solara involved in the day care crash lost resale value after sudden acceleration complanints."
>  My 3/30/2014 post questioned what Toyota had admitted to as part of the federal criminal settlement. Has the Justice Department been lying to the public?

Update 4/24/2014 - When writing this post, I focused on news coverage in the Fort Meyers area. National coverage of Easter Sunday's Lexus crash - while not approaching the same level as the Saylor event - was better than I realized. Stay tuned. 

Jailed Toyota driver deserves punitive damages

If anyone ever deserved a punitive damage award, it's Koua Fong Lee, the financially-challenged immigrant who was falsely imprisoned for two years after his Toyota Camry sped out of control, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries. Amidst publicity regarding Toyota's problems with sudden unintended acceleration, charges were finally dropped, and Lee was released. That's all well and good.

However...

As Lee weighed his legal options, something very strange took place. Rather than pursue a separate lawsuit against Toyota, Lee joined the lawsuit launched by other victims of the accident in exchange for forfeiting his right to claim punitive damages. I was puzzled at the time, and remain even more puzzled now that the Recall King - prompted by a jury's guilty verdict in an Oklahoma sudden unintended acceleration case - is rushing to reach a "global settlement" involving all sudden unintended acceleration cases.

Toyota has one whopper of an interest in not allowing juries to determine punitive damages. This was demonstrated in the Oklahoma case when Toyota immediately settled the matter after the guilty verdict was returned. It boils down to millions of dollars worth of "settlement" versus the risk of billions of dollars worth of punitive. The jury in Oklahoma - impressed with expert testimony (not to mention 150 feet of skid marks from the plaintiff's tires) - was fed up with Toyota's shenanigans, stating that Toyota acted with reckless disregard. Not surprising that the Recall King didn't want those folks assessing punitive damages in a death case.

So if the jury in Oklahoma was fed up, wonder what a jury's response would likely be regarding multiple deaths and injuries, and a Toyota driver who wound up in prison for two years before finally being cleared of all charges. A lawsuit from Lee - including the prospect of punitive damages - would have indeed been risky business for the Recall King.

Lee's case had already made headlines due to the horrific nature of the accident. And as Toyota's problems with sudden unintended acceleration continued to draw public attention, an imprisoned Toyota driver claiming that his Camry suddenly sped out of control was an ever-increasing liability for the Recall King. Lee has never wavered on that crucial point. Prison isn't pretty - Lee has recurring nightmares - and the specter of a jury one day assessing punitive damages was a ghost to be reckoned with. Lee's case weighed heavily in a D.A.'s decision to drop charges against a Lexus driver.

Lee's case - still not resolved - raises troubling questions. Not only about Toyota (now being allowed to buy its way out of a federal criminal investigation), but about a legal system that imprisons penniless immigrants on trumped-up charges, is forced to admit the error, and then protects corporate interests by taking away the right to seek punitive damages.

Something is heinously wrong with this picture.

D.A. drops charges - driver of runaway Lexus sues Toyota.

This case - another big embarassment for the Recall King - is shockingly similar to that of wrongfully convicted Toyota driver Koua Fong Lee. In fact, prosecutors weighed the Lee case heavily before dropping the charges against Unmi Suk Chung.  Fortunately - unlike Koua Fong Lee - Chung didn't have to spend four years in prison.

Koua Fong Lee is also suing Toyota, and if his case is any precursor of events, expect Toyota to suddenly claim that Unmi Suk Chung's vehicle was somehow altered. That's the latest Toyota tactic regarding Lee's runaway Camry, and we now await - with bated breath - further elaboration from the Recall King. Maybe this sort of thing is what Toyota means when they threaten to defend themselves "vigorously."

Chung's suit alleges problems with Toyota's electronic throttle control and also highlights the fact - as do similar suits - that while other automakers were installing brake override systems, Toyota neglected to do so. Lack of an override is now a major issue, further emphasized in lawsuits filed last week by seven insurance companies.     

Stay tuned. The air is rife with allegations that Toyota is guilty of cover-up and fraud, and there's sure to be plenty of headline grabbin' revelations as both of these cases - along with the sheer avalanche of class action and individual lawsuits filed against Toyota - work their way through the courts.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/03/business/la-fi-toyota-lawsuit-20101203

Dealer opposed Toyota secrecy

Toyota objected - of course - to the public finding out, but now we know the Recall King paid $10 million to settle the high profile, runaway Lexus tragedy that put the media spotlight on sudden, unintended acceleration. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that one of Toyota's own dealers argued in favor of making things public. Seems to be no love lost between Bob Baker Toyota and the folks in Torrance. Apparently, their relationship soured after the two of 'em became co-defendants in the Saylor suit, which Baker has yet to settle.

Whatever the dealer's motives, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas made a strong case for making the settlement public. Rackauckas - he's already filed racketeering charges against the Recall King - said the Saylor case relates to public safety and the public has a right to know how much Toyota paid to settle. Can't fault the logic, especially with Toyota - just over the past year - agreeing to pay three safety related government fines, which, incidentally, many people think are way too low.

Based on my experience, Toyota's yen for secrecy is no surprise. Which brings to mind that old adage, "If you don't have anything to hide, then don't hide it." Good advice. Especially for a company at odds with one of its own dealers.

Cause of Lexus crash still unknown

Not that I'll ever believe anything Toyota says, but why would anyone wanna deal with a car company that can't even get it right regarding floor mats?

Police investigators say mechanical failure can't be ruled out in the horrific crash that focused national attention on unintended acceleration:
http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/crash-that-led-to-toyota-recall-inconclusive.aspx?googleid=275542

Runaway Lexus kills four. Voices taped by 911.

A horrific crash involving a runaway Lexus was detailed on tape when one of the four occupants made a desperate call to 911. Speeding out of control at 120 miles an hour, the Lexus finally rolled, burst into flames, and all four occupants - including a 13-year-old girl - were killed. The driver was an off duty highway patrolman.

Publicity surrounding this tragedy has focused national attention on the issue of sudden, unintended acceleration. Question is, why wasn't this safety issue addressed by Toyota and/or the NHTSA years ago?
http://consumerist.com/2009/10/toyota-911-call-of-familys-fatal-lexus-crash-due-to-gas-pedal-stuck-on-floormats.html

Here's a FANTASTIC website for registering ANY Toyota problem:
http://www.ToyotaProblems.com/