[greml1n]

I had an automatic 2000 Chevy Cavalier that I drove lightly around my second home when I visited it every few weeks. About 2 years in I came to red light and, in applying the brake, it fought as though I was stomping on the gas pedal. I regularly drive stick so I popped it in neutral as I brought it to the side of the road and the engine kept revving despite neither of my feet being on any pedal.

I turned off the car and re-started it without any problems so I took it to my mechanic down the street and had a friend pick me up. The mechanic gave a full run-through and basically didn't believe me.

I drove the car around for another few months without incident until I was taking a longer drive at night on I-95. The car started unexpectedly accelerating so I removed both feet from the pedals and it kept speeding up.

Long story short, this happened several more times (I have low risk-aversion) despite having the electrical system replaced and having numerous mechanics that I know and trust look at it. Before I just gave up on it (annoyed - I like to know what is wrong) one of my mechanics took it out for a drive just to try it out and had it got away from him as well. We never did figure out what caused it.

[m104]

Right, I want to be clear: I'm not saying cars don't accelerate on their own. In your case, you had an actual mechanical problem and did the right thing which prevented a tragedy. I knew a Ford Taurus owner with that sort of problem, as well. My point was that the big-story cases with Toyota (and Audi of the past) focus on these harrowing "I was pressing the brake as so hard that I hurt my ankle" kind of stories where we're not allowed to second guess the driver's actions.

There was a case in Minneapolis some years back where a police van accelerated, from a stop, and killed at least one person during some festival of lights thing. What they found, eventually, was that the police department wiring modifications from the stock van (to get the cherries and strobes working correctly) could cause the police vans to accelerate on their own. It wasn't a manufacturer issue, but it was still scary stuff.

[greml1n]

That's fair enough. I've driven long enough to see that we all do plenty of stupid-enough things in a fully-functioning car.

[sliverstorm]

Did the car have drive by wire? My pickup ('84 toyota) had a sticky throttle plate. Only just enough to make it idle way too high, not enough for runaway acceleration, (and some wd-40 fixed it), but could happen to other cars too I imagine.