It annoys me when the Ralph Naders of the world say “GM vehicles are unsafe, while Toyotas are safe.” Apparently most of the critics of American-made cars have not have the pleasure of driving a foreign-made car like the Toyota Tacoma loaner truck I currently have.

Two Toyota features strike me as incredibly dangerous, poor design decisions:

1) Headlight dimmer. Few things are as important as headlights that can be dimmed when an approaching car appears on a rural road. Unfortunately, on Toyotas its next to impossible to the dim the headlights. While Toyotas use the typical pull towards you turn-signal stalk, the stalk is tucked in behind the steering wheel, where it’s nearly impossible to reach. The reach is such, you can’t easily just reach back to feel if the switch in the high beam or low beam position.

Moreover, you have no idea if your high beams or low-beams are on, you can’t just look at the dash board, as the high-beam indicator is placed in such a location, that it is hidden by the steering wheel. Clearly the engineers, who laid out the dash, didn’t think about the steering wheel blocking the driver’s view of critical indicators like high-beam indicators.

2) Cruise Control. It’s important to know if your cruise control is engaged in your car. There should be a clear indicator when cruise control is causing the car to be fixed at a speed on the highway. Unfortunately, with Toyotas they decided not to include a light to tell you the cruise control is engaged. There is a light bulb on the dashboard that says “Cruise Control”, however that light bulb stays on whenever the cruise control system is on, even when it is not engaged. You can apply the brakes or hit the cancel button, and the “Cruise Control” light stays on until you turn off the entire cruise control system.

On GM vehicles, the Cruise Control light is only on when the system is engaged and keeping the vehicle at a set speed. The light goes off as soon as cruise control is disengaged, such as tapping the brake or hitting the cancel button. There is a small light on the steering wheel to show the system is “on”, however this is separate from the big light on the dashboard that shows when cruise control is actually engaged and setting the vehicle at a specific speed.

Moreover, the cruise control system on GM vehicles is easily accessible from buttons on the steering wheel — allowing the driver to adjust the speed, engage or disengage it with ease. On Toyotas, you have to use a hidden stalk that is way behind the steering wheel — one that is hard to hit cancel on in an emergency. If your brake light switch fails on a Toyota, you have to reach around, and pull the stalk forward to disengage — much more difficult then on GM vehicles with a big button right in front of the driver.

Talk about the risk of unattended acceleration!