Now Prius Has Accelerator Problem

“What can go wrong, will go wrong”–Murphy’s law

A California Highway Patrol officer had to help the driver of a runaway Prius stop his car after its hit 94 miles per hour. The Prius is supposed to have a brake problem, according to Toyota (TM), but not an accelerator problem. Accelerators are the cause of the recalls of eight million of the Japanese company’s cars that are scheduled to be fixed.

The Prius news may overwhelm Toyota’s attempt to minimize accelerator problems by attacking ABC and academic researchers for claiming the bad electronics are to blame for the defect. Toyota would face a greater backlash by customers and the media than it does now, if it is proved that its analysis of the accelerator recall was wrong and that cars with the problem need to be recalled again.

The issue of whether the accelerator problems are caused by electronic and not mechanical problems is also at the heart of Congressional testimony by Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda and other company officials. All have insisted that the company’s cars have no electronic defects and that the firm’s solutions to the problem will end the trouble once and for all.

Toyota has begun to methodically woo back customers. Its new zero percent financing packages and attacks on its critics are at the center of the effort. But, if the Prius has undisclosed problems, Toyota is back to square one in its attempt to repair its reputation.

Douglas A. McIntyre