One of the great hoaxes of our time. There has never been a scientifically proven case of 'sudden acceleration'. Other than a couple cases of double floor mats causing the gas pedal to stick, and a couple mechanical failures, there has never been a proven case. The federal agency NHTSA and many scientists and auto experts did extensive investigations and could never find a real case. Automotive groups rigged cars to accelerate fully, and every time it was proven the brakes could stop the car easily. The NHTSA results were that the cause was 'pedal misapplication', meaning the driver hit the gas instead of the brakes. This is the same phenomenon we hear about regularly, where elderly people drive their cars into convenience stores. They always swear they 'hit the brakes', when it is later shown they hit the gas. So-called 'sudden acceleration' is a hoax and a creation of trial lawyers, as these recent settlements, WITH NO PROOF of defects, show.

"...six separate incidents, accelerated on its own and nearly caused several dangerous rear-end collisions." Yet you are still driving this car? BTW, the only people that will win in this lawsuit are the lawyers! They will make millions and millions and the owners of these cars will get diddley-squat.

@minn12......I used to believe just like you and i think in the vast amount of cases that most of your assertions are correct BUT you are dead wrong about brakes stopping cars every time. In a situation where a car did accelerate on its own and the driver were to stand on the brakes then yes the car will stop BUT and here is the crux of the matter IF someone PUMPED the brakes they are toast. Under hard acceleration there is no vacuum in the engine. Engine vacuum is inversely proportional to acceleration that is precisely why there is a vacuum reservoir on the brake system master cylinder. It works very well unless there is a situation where the reservoir has lagged behind the engines ability to refill it so to speak, and this is the perfect storm. The case that turned the tide on Toyota was brought by a highway patrol or police officer I cannot remember which but he did not crash but had the sudden acceleration occur. Whether or not this was the issue with some of these incidents or not it remains a proven fact that vehicles from many manufactures of this age automobile will exhibit this same scenario that if you hold the throttle wide open under heavy acceleration and begin pumping the brakes the car WILL NOT STOP, you are not physically able to engage the brakes without the assist from the vacuum you are basically trying to stop several tons of inertia by holding your shoe leather against the pavement, NO ENGINE VACUUM< NO VACUUM ASSIST = No ability to stop the car PERIOD. Because of this scenario even though it is extremely rare, many manufactures cars now have a built in electrical vacuum assist pump ALONG with the primary engine vacuum to maintain a continuous level of vacuum in the booster on the master cylinder regardless of pumping on the brakes or other catastrophic failure which might cause loss of vacuum for the booster. Why would mfg do that? Things that make you go hmmmmmm

As you would expect Toyota officials have said that the settlement is not an admission of a defect or fault.

Everyone knows that the only ones who win in class lawsuits are the attorney's

@johnmcfadden: Sorry, but I seriously doubt anyone is going to try to 'pump the brakes' in such an alleged situation. Your comments seem reasonable, but in reality would be an extremely unlikely situation. And as far as 'believing like me', my post is based on facts and research. Regarding the highway patrolman crash, the DOT investigation proved the cause to be a faulty, large floor mat that trapped the gas pedal. So once again, it was NOT the alleged 'sudden acceleration' syndrome. That is a hoax that has been disproven by the DOT, NTHSA, and various other investigative agencies. No proof has ever been found. Meanwhile, the trial lawyers are having a field day on a problem that doesn't exist. It's ridiculous.

With a huge number of incidents reported, and compared to vastly lower number of 'sudden acceleration' incidents with other brands, there appears to be a problem beyond using the wrong pedal. I have wondered about the cruise control being the issue triggered by electronic hick-ups. It will be interesting to read the reader's digest version from the trial. Settlement = Big ding to legendary quality (from a former long-time Toyota owner.)

We had a Mercury that had a sticking accelarator pedal, but never could get the dealer to fix. It was never a big problem - quite controllable. Recently, we bought a slightly used Corolla of the type that was eventually fixed at a nice discount due to the panic over the gas pedal. The dealer applied the standard fix to it as soon as we bought it in for an oil change. We never experienced a problem before or afte the dealer fix.

johnmcfadden - You can talk about pumping brakes and vacuum, but the man said that he even put the car in neutral, so your argument is moot. You can stop a car without power assist in the brakes if it's in neutral - I know, I've done it. I'm sure the man didn't really put it into neutral, but just like the old lady the trial lawyers had on television who swore she put the car into neutral, reverse, 1st and 2nd gears but it just magically didn't shift (hers was also found to be driver error) he's been groomed so many times as to say the story so that he did everything he absolutely could have done and so therefore it must be the car's fault. In not one single case has it ever been proven to be anything beyond a stuck pedal or driver error. NASA even investigated. Just admit it's the driver's fault and there doesn't need to be a billion dollar payout. I've been in a few cars where the accelerator's gotten stuck on the floor mat. If it's got a rev-limiter, toss it in neutral, stick your toe under the pedal, pop it out and you're good to go. For some reason I don't feel that the car manufacturer should pay me for using some common sense when operating a vehicle. My motto is "Can't drive, take a bus." These people's motto is "Can't drive, sue someone over it."

Prove this beyond reasonable doubt. Imagine this time line. When most U.S. auto makers are taking government hand outs and near bankrupt. Suddenly Toyota has has to prove their cars are safe when there is no real proof the problem exists. I smell lots of stink and corruption with auto industry and government money.