Trading in my 1992 Plymouth Acclaim in 2000 for a new 2000 Camry Solara had a big impact on my retirement dreams. The Acclaim had intermittent problems and moderate but continual and neverending repair bills. It also made me late for work at my new job several times per week, which wasn't any help.
The Solara not only had no repairs necessary at all until some minor repairs last summer, but also ran on almost no gas. I never had to have it towed. My car expenses were unbelievably low for the nine years from summer 2000 to summer 2009. How could I not appreciate that?
I think that with American auto-makers faltering last year on the verge of bankruptcy and having to be assisted by taxpayer money, we need to think about the publicity surrounding this recall with a grain of salt and "follow the money". Toyota did the responsible thing by recalling these cars.
For the record, I had a similar thing happen to me with the accelerator on my ex-husband's Dodge van back in 1980, causing me to careen down a 2-lane 50 mph road in San Diego at 85+ mph while desperately trying to pull the accelerator back with my hands while driving. Couldn't reach it so I careened off into a residential subdivision, figuring an 85 mph crash might be better than an (85+50) mph head on crash with another car. My baby (at the time) was in her car seat in the car with me!!!
Anyway, at that point using superhuman/adrenaline strength while going up a steep hill I finally managed to brake it down to a low speed and then threw it into Park, jolting me to a stop. Didn't think about Neutral.
Anyway, not only was the van not recalled, and not even reported to Dodge ("these things happen" said my ex
), also I got chewed out by him for throwing it into Park instead of Neutral while still moving. Luckily the transmission was not damaged. The problem was something we could never replicate though I was reluctant to ever drive the van again.
