Does Sudden Stopping Trump Sudden Acceleration ?

It’s been about five weeks since Fuji the Toyota underwent its accelerator implant. Fuji has recovered nicely, thank you. By the way, we received the official recall letter last week . I would guess it arrived about six weeks after all the fuss about sudden acceleration problems. As they say, better late than never.

I talk to Fuji frequently trying to keep its spirits up considering all the bad mouthing going on about Toyota's. Fuji especially enjoyed the conversation we had about “ sudden stopping”.

I once owned a Chevy Corsica in the early ‘90s which had a little problem. The engine would decide to take a breather at the most inopportune times, like when tooling down an interstate at 70mph. If that were happening today, they would call it a sudden stopping problem. There was no recall. The media ignored the problem. The dealer refused to admit there was a problem. The Corsica knew there was a problem.

I’m not sure which is worse, sudden stopping or sudden acceleration. Of course Fuji feels its sudden stopping. To make a long story short, I solved the sudden stopping problem by getting rid of the Corsica in favor of a Volvo. Thus started my streak of buying foreign brands like Honda's, Nissan's and Toyota's. Somewhere in the streak I reverted back to a domestic brand, a Saturn. The Saturn behaved very much like a Japanese car and I liked it a lot. I guess that's why GM dropped the brand.

I know this recall headache will continue for awhile. As I told Fuji, keep up the aspirin regimen - this too shall pass. More importantly, I reminded Fuji that " we have nothing to fear but fear itself".