Official Product Recall Thread

[AnalBumCover]

I figured this would be a good place to post any product recalls (automobiles, child safety products, etc.) as a PSA to the folks here.

I'll kick off the thread with a big one:

Toyota recalls more than 6 million vehicles - Apr. 9, 2014

[Izulde]

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Izulde

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

You can always lie about your computer chip acceleration problems being caused by some bullcrap thing like floor mats, too. But that's so 2009

SI

[Lathum]

Wife drives a 2013 Highlander,thanks for posting this.

[stevew]

That was fight club SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by stevew

That was fight club SI

EDIT: Oh, the quote. Duh.

I always figured they were describing the Ford Pinto case as it's one of those that is taught in practically every engineering ethics class.

Unfortunately, it actually happened.

Originally Posted by article

However, on October 24, 2013, a jury ruled against Toyota and found that unintended acceleration could have been caused due to deficiencies in the Electronic Throttle Control System (ETCS). Michael Barr of the Barr Group testified that NASA had not been able to complete its examination of Toyota's ETCS and that Toyota did not follow best practices for real time life critical software, and that a single bit flip which can be caused by cosmic rays could cause unintended acceleration. As well, the run-time stack of the real-time operating system was not large enough and that it was possible for the stack to grow large enough to overwrite data that could cause unintended acceleration.^[30][31] As a result Toyota has entered into settlement talks with its plaintiffs.^[32]

That one's a bit personal with me as my dad actually experienced it. He's not part of the lawsuits or anything but he had to sit through 5 years of Toyota claiming it was some floor mats or gas pedal bs.

SI

[Kodos]

Let's not forget GM and their gas tanks mounted outside the frame of the truck.

US Auto Injury Law GM C/K Pickup Truck Tank Fire Injury Lawyers Free Case Review

[Matthean]

GM also has the issue with the ignitions screwing up and there's a number of models that are getting recalled. On my Saturn, I recently had it lock up on me to where I couldn't turn off my car even if I took out the key. My cousin came and fixed it. He said the new part was better made, and the previous one wasn't ever greased like the new one is.