Toyota (again).

THe main problem, IMNSHO, is the computerization of vehicles. The cars nowadays have more computer power that the first moon mission had.

Today's cars have anywhere from 20-40 microprocessors monitoring everything from speed to how many times you fart into the seats. And, these microprocessors all "talk" to each other. I've been working in the computer industry for 30+ years, and when microprocessors that are supposed to talk to each other get out of sync, crazy **** happens.

The push button starts, oh yeah, nice feature, but the hard shutdown of the vehicle by turning off the key is removed, and you count on the "3 second" hold working. Again, by holding the button for 3 seconds, you are signaling a microprocessor to go into shutdown mode, and if the processor has gotten into a mode where it ignores the command, you are screwed.

Go back a number of years, the transmissions were controlled by fluid and vacuum and a valve body. The engines, although less efficient, were controlled from the distributor and some adjustments.

Hell, I had an unwanted acceleration problem in the first car I ever owned, a 1966 Corvair my Aunt gave to me. Problem was, it was 6 or 7 miles before I noticed the car was trying to accelerate, that 110 hp car couldn't get out of it's own way, but it laid down one helluva smoke screen, in the process.

Back to computerization, every time they add another "feature", such as parallel parking itself, curing lane drift, braking when it senses you are too close to another vehicle, that is one more "feature" to malfunction, and they WILL malfunction. And when it happens, I wouldn't want to be the car maker with the next fatal foul-up.

FF