Yesterday May 29, 2014, my twenty three year old daughter came over to borrow our 2000 Honda Accord. Twenty minutes later we received a call and she stated that she crashed the car. Once arriving at the scene of the accident, I thought, oh my God, the front end was completely smashed in along with the hood of the car. The air bags deployed, a tree was uprooted and two other cars were hit, because our car slammed into one car that smashed into another. My daughter stated that she was going around the corner and the car accelerated and all she could do is cover her face.

The good thing is that she was not seriously hurt, just a lot of bumps and bruises and a gash in her arm. Our car was totaled and the other two cars had substantial damage.

I was driving on a busy street and suddenly the pedal was flooring itself and the car started to accelerate. I was flooring the brake but it didn't respond. Luckily I was on the right lane, so I made a very sharp turn into a street, which is usually relatively less traffic. I was trying to find something like a tree to hit and stop but couldn't find one. I didn't know what to do. I quickly shifted the gear to parking without thinking of the consequences, at 50 mph speed. The car stopped with a very loud noise. In a few mins the traffic started piling up. Some people tried to help moving the car to the side, but the gear shift got stuck, it won't move. After 15 mins, we tried again, the shift worked. I moved it to Neutral and was able to push the car to the side. Now it looks like the gear box is still alive. The towing guy also tried driving the car a few feet, he was able to. After 2 days I tried it in my parking lot, it seems to work. But I'm not going to take a chance with this car anymore.

I bought this car 6 weeks back from a private party and used it to drive everyday for office commute which is hardly 3 miles away. The car was well maintained and most of the servicing done by Honda. On 12/14/2012, I took the car to Elmhurst which is 20 miles away from my home. After reaching the destination, I was getting ready to park the car in the parking lot in front of a building, but the car accelerated all of sudden and rammed into the building. It all happened in the matter of few seconds and there was no time to react. The front air bags deployed and there was heavy smoke inside the car. Luckily I was alone in the car and didn't get injured in the accident.

I had my leg on the break pedal (not firmly though) as I was pulling into the parking lot at 10 mph. I can definitely say that my leg was not on the gas pedal as I had to make 3 quick turns within 100 feets after getting into the property from route 83. When I was almost ready to pull the hand break and switch off the ignition, the engine revved and jumped over the curb in front and hit the wall which was 6 - 8 feet from the curb. You can see the damage in the car and imagine the speed at the time of collision. After the accident, I checked the internet for the reason behind the unintended/sudden acceleration and surprised to similar cases before with Honda Accord. Few of them are given below:

http://complaintcenter.com/CF-Auto/CF-Auto-1864/217.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~nessim1/SuddenAccelerationNotMyth.htm

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/rec.autos.makers.honda/xx-h1IIbDkQ

http://complaintcenter.com/CF-Auto/CF-Auto-1864/232.htm

http://www.complaints.com/august2002/complaintoftheday.august17.1.htm

I was always thinking Honda and Toyota cars have good resale value because of their safety and features. I am now clueless on which car to buy and honestly afraid of driving cars with auto transmission.