Thursday, February 4, 2010

Shock and Awe! Another pending recall for Toyota - This Time it's a Software Glitch in the Prius' Braking System!


And if you didn't get it, our title is a sarcastic jab at the "Toyota Recall" madness that seems to have prevailed among certain sites and blogs these past couple of weeks. Reporting on a subject is one thing but overdoing it without essentially offering something new to readers either for traffic or even less noble motives is another... But to the story.

The National Highway Traffic Administration said today that it has opened a preliminary evaluation centered on owner complaints of momentary loss of braking in the 2010 Prius.

Toyota responded with a statement saying that it is aware of NHTSA's initiation of the investigation while the company also acknowledged that it performed a production change last month, improving the ABS system's response time, as well as the system's overall sensitivity to tire slippage.

"Some customers have complained of inconsistent brake feel during slow and steady application of brakes on rough or slick road surfaces when the anti-lock brake system (ABS) is activated in an effort to maintain tire traction," Toyota said in a statement.

Now the question we pose is this; if Toyota deemed the problem serious / important enough to introduce a running production change, then why didn't the company issue a recall to make the same fix on the rest of the 2010 Prius hybrids'?