You know, I hate to say this, but maybe we should have seen this coming way back. Shared platforms may sound wonderful to the car makers, but along with that comes more shared components. Have an issue with one item and suddenly the entire range falls apart.

Add to this the more intricate electronic components in use today and manufacturers constantly hitting suppliers on costs, and we'd better start getting used to this kind of thing.

What worries me though is... Toyota is a large company and can probably come out of this relatively unscathed, but what if this involved a smaller/more vulnerable company? With current Government involvement in the car industry, will we one day see our taxes used to pay out on large lawsuits?

Toyota, to its credit, is doing everything it can to sort this problem out as quickly as possible, as is Honda with its recently-announced power window issue, but are these simply a couple of unfortunate quality control problems, or could this be a sign of things to come?

Personally, I think cars are getting a little too complex for their own good nowadays. Manufacturers are constantly trying to come up with the latest and greatest innovation which will set them apart from the competition. At the same time, we live in a society where we just have to have it all. You know what I mean…Whether it’s the new i-Phone or those side-curtain airbags, we simply can’t live without them. Why? Well, because the marketing guys tell us so, isn’t that true? :-)

Speaking of safety devices, we’re filling cars with so many "Nannying devices" today that in my opinion, drivers are suffering brain fade. Just today I was reading Jim Kenzie's article in The Toronto Star where he explained to readers what to do in the case of a throttle pedal sticking. Now Jim’s a smart man and his advice was, as always, sound…Throw the transmission into neutral, try to avoid a collision, and hit the brakes. He even mentioned not switching off the engine as that could cause loss of power steering etc. However, what concerns me is this… Should somebody be driving a vehicle on Canadian roads without having the faintest idea of what to do in the case of an emergency such as this?

Now I grew up in and around cars, so I quickly learned the basics of how a car operates. Yes, fair enough, vehicles were much simpler back then, but I’d hate to think that I’d ever need someone to explain to me that the brakes could stop a runaway vehicle.

Now I commend Jim for issuing this advice, but it scares the hell out of me that he felt the need to do so.

As you know, I drive brand new vehicles every week and so I get to experience first hand all this new and wonderful technology, but how much of this new fancy equipment do we really need?

Personally, I never saw a problem with pulling to the side of the road to read a map. In fact, since the invention of the internet and the inkjet printer, maps are readily available for everyone to download no matter where you want to travel. However, if I had a dollar for every driver I’ve had to avoid whilst they played with their Satellite Navigation, I’d be writing this from my vacation hotel in the Bahamas.

And what about car stereos? What was wrong with the basic two-knob system where we had one for the volume and one for tuning? Adding a few little buttons to select your favourite CD or radio station helped I guess, but nowadays you can literally watch a feature film on them…Is that really a safe thing to be doing whilst driving, and does it actually make any sense anyway? If a driver  feels the need to watch Avatar, then they should go home and watch it on their big screen TV.  It would be much more enjoyable that way, and they wouldn't rear-end anyone during the best part of the film.

Now we come to my favourite rant, and that’s all this must-have safety innovations. Airbags have been proven to save lives, fair enough, but any safety device is only as good as the components designed to operate it, and we’re witnessing right now how automotive components can, and do fail. Should we be putting all our faith in these new automotive gizmos? As I see it, some drivers feel that they’re invincible on the road today. Could that have something to do with all the safety equipment we keep surrounding them with? I often joke that when Canada finally wises up and makes me Prime Minister, I’m going to do away with all safety devices in cars. I’m going to simply attach a six inch metal spike to everyone’s steering wheel, and then we’ll see just how safe people can drive given the right incentive :-)

Now some of this modern technology may well have a place in society today, but I tend to lean towards a slightly different viewpoint. Let’s remove some of these unnecessary gizmos. Many simply add weight to a vehicle and counteract any improvements in fuel economy currently being made (A 70’s VW Golf weighed half what the current model does, and the same can be said of most vehicles today). They also add considerably to the price of a vehicle (Just wait until the Chinese invade us with simple bare-bones automobiles and see how many people choose the simple alternative).

I think that it’s time we did a little re-think on automotive technology. Newer and more advanced technology may not be our best route after all. Maybe if we retreated back to the technology of say 10 years ago and simply taught people how to drive smarter, we’d all be safer on the roads.

Basically, you could wrap a car entirely in cotton wool, but the weak link in the safety chain would still drive it into another vehicle. Surely better to properly train that weak link!!!

My advice to you therefore is, learn a little more about your vehicle and how to operate it. After all, in the wrong hands, a vehicle really is a lethal weapon. Think about that for a moment now, getting a driving licence in this country is in many ways less taxing than the maths tests we did back when we were 12 years old. Just because you possess a piece of paper saying you can drive, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you should (I passed my maths exam but I didn't go out and become a Bank Manager).

Why not take some advanced driver training (They’re lots of fun and could save your life one day), or take a basic vehicle maintenance course (You’ll learn how to recognize little problems before they become big ones, and you could even save money by doing simple jobs yourself). Basically what I’m saying is, take an interest in your transportation device and your own safety. It’s not only your life at risk, it also involves that of yours truly and all the people I care about (I include my readers in that).

So drive safe guys!

End of rant…