If one were to be driving a car with the brakes fully applied against the force of the engine, the brakes would overheat. This overheating would cause the brake pads to fracture, and the rotors or “discs” as they are more commonly known, to warp from the extreme temperatures. Apparently, none of these things happened to Mr. Sikes Prius.

A federal investigation of the Toyota Prius involved in a dramatic incident on a California highway last week found a pattern of wear on the car’s brakes that raises questions about the driver’s account of the event, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition on Sunday.

The driver, James Sikes, called 911 and told the operator his Prius had sped up to more than 90 miles per hour on its own, on Interstate 8 near San Diego. During and after the incident, 61-year-old Sikes told authorities he had used heavy pressure on his brake pedal at high speeds, the WSJ site said.

“But the investigation of the vehicle, carried out jointly by safety officials … didn’t find signs the brake had been applied at full force at high speeds over a sustained period of time,” the Journal said, citing three people familiar with the investigation.

Tags: James Sikes, Prius, SAN DIEGO, Toyota, Wall Street Journal

MALIBU, Calif. — Authorities say a man tried to sexually assault a Southern California

jogger who escaped by jumping off a cliff and sliding about 100 feet down a steep hillside.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Derek Sabatini says the woman was taken to a hospital Friday with cuts and bruises from the fall in Malibu.

She told deputies she had finished a run at about noon at Point Dume State Beach and was standing at the edge of a cliff when she was grabbed from behind. She says she and the man struggled for several minutes before she was able to break away. That’s when the woman ran and jumped off the cliff.

Authorities have released a composite sketch of a man who savagely attacked the woman who was jogging in Zuma Canyon and stole her vehicle.

Deputies say the suspect then escaped in the woman’s Toyota Land Cruiser.

Officials say the stolen Land Cruiser has California “Yosemite” plates, with license plate number 6CHF554.

Tags: attacker, California, composite sketch, jogger attacked in Malibu, Land Cruiser, los angeles county, malibu, steep hillside, Toyota, Zuma Canyon

We have been saying for years that the American media and the Japanese have been touting the Japanese automobiles as being better made then their American counterparts, when in reality they are just as prone to problems.

Toyota has been hiding their manufacturing issues for years. It only stands to reason that when producing a million of anything a year that there are bound to be a few clunkers. The idea that the American media has been propagating this myth that Japanese cars are somehow superior to American cars is just that, a myth.

I have been buying American cars all my life and I have no horror stories to tell about them. They run good and last as long as any Japanese car or longer. Ed.

Toyota has known about brake problems in its popular Prius cars for some time, going so far as to fix it in new production vehicles, but has kept Prius drivers in the dark about the problem until the Japanese government called for an investigation.

Prius hybrid cars coming off Toyota’s assembly line in Japan have had an improved version of the software used to control the cars’ brakes since January.

That’s little consolation to those driving Priuses made before then which seem to be the source of mounting complaints about brake performance and have been linked to four crashes.

Prior to the revelation on Tuesday that the Japanese government was pushing Toyota to do something about mounting complaints about Prius brakes, Toyota had said nothing publicly about the problems.

In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Thursday that it is launching a formal investigation into the Prius brake problems based on customer complaints here.

As of Wednesday, 124 Prius owners in the United States had lodged formal complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about brake problems with their cars. Prius owners in Japan, where the hybrid car is the nation’s most popular model, have also lodged complaints about the problem.

A total of four crashes, two involving injuries, have been attributed to poor brake performance in 2010 model year Priuses.

Toyota issued an announcement Thursday saying it was cooperating with NHTSA’s investigation. Toyota spokespeople in the U.S. have not yet returned calls and e-mails requesting comment on the issue.

The complaints have been very consistent. As described by NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigations “Consumers allege a momentary loss in braking during brake applications while traveling over an uneven road surface, pothole or bump in the roadway.”

Tags: brake applications, Compact cars, hybrid car, Hybrid electric vehicle, involving injuries, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Prius, Toyota

Check out the video below. It’s Republican Ray LaHood, Obama’s stellar pick as Secretary of Transportation, asking why he can’t tell people not to drive recalled Toyota cars.  It appears that perhaps President Obama only picked LaHood because he is so stupid.  Then an hour later he decided it was a stupid thing to do, probably after a call from the White House.  Obama . . . You gotta love him!

The Transportation Department scrambled on Wednesday to keep up the pressure on Toyota with the agency’s head at one point telling owners of recalled vehicles to stop driving them.

But the department head, Ray LaHood, later tried to clarify what he called “obviously a misstatement,” saying that he only meant to urge Toyota owners concerned about their cars to take them in to dealerships.

In remarks before a House appropriations hearing, Mr. LaHood said his advice to owners of recalled Toyotas was to “stop driving it, take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it.”

Afterward, at a news conference, Mr. LaHood, backing away from his off-the-cuff remarks, said: “What I said in there was obviously a misstatement.”

In a statement issued by the agency, Mr. LaHood said: “I want to encourage owners of any recalled Toyota models to contact their local dealer and get their vehicles fixed as soon as possible.”

Before the hearing, Mr. LaHood told reporters that he planned to call the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, about the recalls involving problems with accelerator pedals that could stick.

“I’m going to take the initiative to have a conversation with Mr. Toyoda very soon, to talk to him about how serious this is, and to make sure that he understands,” Mr. LaHood said. “I think he understands, but I’ve never talked to him. I just feel like I need to have a conversation with him.”

Mr. LaHood’s comments Wednesday were the latest in an aggressive campaign by his department over the Toyota situation. Last week, Mr. LaHood took credit for the company’s decision to stop building and selling eight models involved in a recall over accelerator pedals that could potentially stick, saying Toyota did not take the step until urged to do so by the department.

Tags: department head, Obama, president, Product Issues, Product Recall, Ray LaHood, Toyota, Toyota cars, Transportation Department, United States Secretary of Transportation, vehicles