Kavmerica.com

Much has been made about the accelerator cable problems which have plagued several Toyota models recently but this type of problem has been decades in the making for the automaker.  In 1985 Toyota introduced a ground breaking sports car, the MR2 and it had cable problems of it’s own.  Specifically the emergency brake cable was susceptible to moisture infiltration.  If you lived in a Northern climate this was especially problematic in the winter.  An emergency brake set during a warm day would be frozen solidly in place the next day when the owner tried to move the car.  Conversely the emergency brake would frequently be frozen such that it could not be applied after the owner drove the car around.

Toyota knew about it’s cable problem then also but did nothing to fix it.  It knew that it needed to develop better technology to prevent these types of problems from occurring in it’s vehicles.  Unfortunately, almost 24 years has passed since the MR2 cable issue surfaced.  It still remains unfixed by Toyota.  One can only wonder if Toyota had investigated the problem further back then if the lessons learned could have made a difference with it’s current problems regarding moisture infiltrating mechanical cable systems.  Perhaps lives could have been saved?

Toyota quality & it’s response to those situations simply isn’t what it used to be.  In recent years it’s Tacoma model has suffered from frame rust issues which forced a recall of entire vehicles.  There is good evidence to suggest that it’s Tundra model suffers from a similar problem however nothing has been done on that front.  The cost of recalling entire vehicles is just too high and Toyota has put it’s bottom line ahead of customer safety again.