There's been a lot of hype lately about Toyota's cars having "unintended acceleration" (some of it hyped by the government that owns large chunks of two of Toyota's competitors: GM and Chrysler). And it's apparently a real problem and Toyota is addressing it.
But as Investor's Business Daily points out in an unsigned editorial:
Sudden-acceleration events in Toyota and Lexus vehicles have been blamed for at least 19 fatalities and 815 vehicle crashes since 1999. That's fewer than two fatalities a year in a country that makes 1.8 million cars annually.
But no one is screaming about the thousands killed yearly by CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) except me and Investor's Business Daily:
A study done by USA Today, using data from the NHTSA and the Institute for Highway Safety, found that through 1998, weight and size reductions undertaken by automakers to meet fuel efficiency standards had resulted in 46,000 deaths. That's the population of Pocatello, Idaho, wiped out by misguided federal regulations.
Now the deaths due to Toyota's sudden acceleration problem are no less tragic than the deaths of people killed by CAFE rules. But one is unintentional (and fixable) and the other the policy of the government (and just been expanded).
Now we see that GM is having to recall a lot of cars for "steering motor problems" You may not have tumbled to it yet, but electric power steering systems, yet another CAFE-induced feature, are replacing the utterly foolproof hydraulic system we've all had for so many years. The sole purpose is to reduce (slightly) the power draw from the engine. Doesn't reduce first cost, doesn't improve safety, doesn't reduce cost-of-ownership, but hey, it improves gas mileage by 0.02%!
Posted by: Merlin12 | March 11, 2010 at 08:49 PM