THE sky is falling. Climate change will kill us all. We’re all going to get swine flu. Oh, and if you drive a Toyota you’re going to be wiped out in a high-speed inferno.
If you saw the front of either The Daily Mail or The Times chronicling Toyota’s safety recall earlier this week you would think getting behind the wheel is about as safe as gargling wasps or bungee jumping with the wrong rope, but as a paid-up media man I actually feel sorry for Toyota. Hysteria doesn’t cover it.
The coverage of the safety recall has been so disproportionate that you’d think it’d be best not to venture outdoors at all, for fear of a runaway Yaris with its throttle jammed open wiping you out. I can just see The Runaway IQ or Avensisageddon becoming a bad movie later this year.
Toyota’s head office actually told me this morning that the fault, which involves sticky accelerators on the Aygo, IQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, and Avensis, as well as the (Toyota based) Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1, only affects a very small number of vehicles, and that they’ve had to recall so many vehicles to be on the safe side.
Motor makers recall lots of cars every year, but the press seem to cherry-pick a handful and go mad with their keyboards. The last time any car got this much coverage was the Audi TT in its original, slightly slippery state, but there’s been far worse – and far quieter – recalls since.
Even if you are one of the very, very unlucky ones who gets caught out by a dodgy pedal, it’s really not hard to bring it to a halt. Most cars I’ve driven – even the ones with jammed throttles – have a brake and clutch, both of which slow you down. Even automatics can be asked nicely to glide to a stop, by braking and getting the gearbox to slow you down.
There will be a full feature in The Champion designed to allay readers’ fears (and it’ll be on here in the next few days too) but if your Toyota’s accelerator jams, stick the thing into neutral and get it sorted by your friendly local dealer.
And then stop going on about it.
If you saw the front of either The Daily Mail or The Times chronicling Toyota’s safety recall earlier this week you would think getting behind the wheel is about as safe as gargling wasps or bungee jumping with the wrong rope, but as a paid-up media man I actually feel sorry for Toyota. Hysteria doesn’t cover it.
The coverage of the safety recall has been so disproportionate that you’d think it’d be best not to venture outdoors at all, for fear of a runaway Yaris with its throttle jammed open wiping you out. I can just see The Runaway IQ or Avensisageddon becoming a bad movie later this year.
Toyota’s head office actually told me this morning that the fault, which involves sticky accelerators on the Aygo, IQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, and Avensis, as well as the (Toyota based) Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1, only affects a very small number of vehicles, and that they’ve had to recall so many vehicles to be on the safe side.
Motor makers recall lots of cars every year, but the press seem to cherry-pick a handful and go mad with their keyboards. The last time any car got this much coverage was the Audi TT in its original, slightly slippery state, but there’s been far worse – and far quieter – recalls since.
Even if you are one of the very, very unlucky ones who gets caught out by a dodgy pedal, it’s really not hard to bring it to a halt. Most cars I’ve driven – even the ones with jammed throttles – have a brake and clutch, both of which slow you down. Even automatics can be asked nicely to glide to a stop, by braking and getting the gearbox to slow you down.
There will be a full feature in The Champion designed to allay readers’ fears (and it’ll be on here in the next few days too) but if your Toyota’s accelerator jams, stick the thing into neutral and get it sorted by your friendly local dealer.
And then stop going on about it.
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