Blog Blames Unintended Acceleration in Toyotas on Flawed Complaint Analysis
After reviewing analyses of unintended acceleration complaints to NHTSA about Toyota vehicles, TheTruthAboutCars blog has concluded that the data "puts a lot of the controversy … to rest."
The blog noted that about 3,000 of the 11,500 complaints of unintended acceleration (UA) involved Toyota vehicles. But when the data is examined in the context of incidents per 100,000 units, Volvo, which built its reputation on safety, had nearly an identical rate of UA complaints.
In addition, the number of Toyota UA complaints only "start to get out of hand" once publicity about the company’s recalls took off. "Given that the rest of the data fail to provide a pattern of UA problems in Toyota, media frenzy and lawyer frenzy are the only plausible explanations for the recent spike in complaints," the blog said.
TheTruthAboutCars concluded that the data shows "very few patterns that indicate an underlying problem unique to Toyota vehicles."
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/unintended-acceleration-in-toyotas-the-ghost-in-the-data/
