Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopper
Again, not true on all cars. Many cars have undersized brakes that the torque of the engine at WOT easily overcomes. This, combined with momentum of the vehicle, can make the brakes useless.
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As Class1E pointed out though:
"Normally, you are 100% correct. In fact, Car and Driver did a test in their March 2010 issue to determine the braking distance of a V6 Camry at closed throttle and WOT. Their results:
70 mph, closed throttle: 174 ft
70 mph, WOT: 190 ft
100 mph, closed throttle: 347 ft
100 mph, WOT: 435 ft"
The surprise factor is definitely part of this, but something isn't quite right. I think we have a real event that is being compounded by opportunism.
There were 7689 traffic deaths in 2009 and somewhere between 19-39 deaths that may possibly be attributed to this Toyota issue over the last 8 years (so 2.5 to 5 per year?).
Toyota really f'ed up their PR and damage control and gave up their credibility. Right now no one is really sure how big or small the issue is- it's just an assumption that all Toyota's will run you off the cliff despite statistics that say otherwise because Toyota wasn't proactive.