James Sikes and His Toyota Prius Acceleration Problem: Too Much Hollywood Script?

The latest California driver to loose control of his Prius seems just a little too media savvy and attention hungry.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article on BestCashCow that Toyota is entering a death spiral. I continue to think that Toyota's problems are real and are just beginning. Their refusal to address the sudden acceleration issue as an electronics problem - instead opting to satiate customers by moving the pedals around - is doing dramatic damage to the brand from which the company will never recover. To boot, Toyota was, as I predicted, poorly prepared in front of Congress two weeks ago. I drive a Lexus. My next car will be an Infiniti.

Putting the marketing damage aside, I am amazed by the parallels between this case and the Ford Pinto cases in the 1970s which led to the development of product liability tort law in the US. We give large product liability awards in the US in order to stop manufucturers from putting low values on human lives and producing products that may kill people. That gets manufacturers to fix problems rather than than treat them as inconsequential. A couple of large awards will take down Toyota. I am short Toyota stock and long very long-dated Toyota puts.

But this situation two nights ago with James Sikes and his Prius is really bugging me. It seems like the guy is piling on to a news story. He was too prepared to go straight to the media. He called 911 before trying to pull the emergency brake. Sikes, according to published reports, is a 61-year old real estate executive and longtime lottery player who won $55,000 and was selected in 2006 to appear on a California Lottery TV game show. This smells to me like a washed up Californian angling to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit or to be on the Amazing Race 18.

If it happened in Iowa or Kansas maybe I'd believe it, but these days anything coming out of California just seems scripted for Hollywood.

Jason Rodgers
Jason Rodgers: Jason Rodgers was an experienced research analyst for a major bank prior to retiring to run his own investment consultancy in beautiful Lihue, Hawaii. Jason contributed articles to BestCashCow from 2008 to 2014.

Comments

 
  • bob b

    March 15, 2010

    James Sikes belonged to our local Corvette Club here in San Diego. He wasn't well liked and left after a short tenure. Actually he kept hawking members to invest in his schemes.
    It is totally beyond me how a car guy could drive for over 20 minutes with a stuck throttle and not think to move the gear-shift lever!!!!

  • marlene j

    March 15, 2010

    This creep approached me at a realtor convention and made inproper and off color remarks . I complained to the group organizers and he was asked to leave.
    This scam doesn't surprise me at all.

  • Robert Conrad

    March 15, 2010

    How does this guy live with himself????

  • Tuna Butter from Chula Vista

    March 15, 2010

    Lets not jump to conclusions....what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

  • Reality Check

    March 15, 2010

    To the previous blogger...Are you on planet earth????
    He's an experienced driver with many high performance cars.
    He's has the time to reach for his cell phone...call 911 for 26 minutes...but can't move the gear shift lever which is 3 inches from the steering wheel!!!

    I guess you think OJ is innocent Too

  • Gimme break

    March 15, 2010

    To the previous blogger who thinks this guy may be innocent...I bet you believe we can add 30 million people to the healthcare system, save money and get bettrer care. Or that the stimulus plan saved millions of jobs. Or Nancy Pelosi makes any sense!!!

  • Tuna Butter from Chula Vista

    March 15, 2010

    I heard his 23 minute 911 call and it sounds to me like he's a stand up elderly man.

  • Dan Jilliard

    March 16, 2010

    This story absolutely defies any logic. How do you not put the car in neutral or at least a lower gear to slow it down?? The brakes will stop this car at full throttle easily. The fact the brakes were working and "burned" just proves he was riding them lightly and not trying to stop.
    Accidents involving unintended acceleration occur in seconds when the driver simply panics with no time to react...NOT 23 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    The one real case when the family was killed occurrd in about 12 seconds and the driver simply panicked when trying to shut the car off because the shut off button has a 3 second delay. Had he put it in neutral all would have been saved.
    How can anybody believe this moron was on the phone with 911 for over 20 minutes while zoomimg down the hwy??? Then again, they elected Obama.

  • Tuna Butter

    March 16, 2010

    I am starting the official Save Jim Sikes fan club

  • Gimme Break

    March 16, 2010

    Oh yeah he;s a real stand up guy...check his background Einstein!!!!!

Add your Comment

or use your BestCashCow account

or