probably broke mach 3 to settle.

When they told all the customers to bring in their cars for better gas pedals, they reflashed (software update) all the computers. Toyota has always been a despicable company that lawyers it's way out of problems.

Toyota set the check engine lights on their California cars so they wouldn't come on.
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/10/business/fi-54608

indicating there had been any scientific showing how that claimed sudden acceleration could have happened, or what Toyota had to do to fix the issue.

LA Times is behind a pay wall -- what did Plaintiff claim actually caused the acceleration?

A car's brakes can overwhelm full throttle, and I just remember thinking this was another case like the Audi 5000 sudden acceleration case, in which it turned out people had been standing on the throttle while thinking they were on the brakes.

You had to look hard but it was out there.
Basically, Toyota cut cost by using longer runs on their circuit boards rather than utilizing capacitors. These longer runs created magnetic fields that caused tin spikes to grow from the solder welds of other components on the board. Tin spikes are serious business in the electronics world.
As for brakes overwhelming full throttle. That is just not correct. Once brakes overheat they are useless. An extended period of full throttle would overheat the brakes rapidly.

If a car were to suddenly apply full throttle by itself, applying the brake would stop the car. That's the end of the incident. Power off, and it's over. And, once at a full stop, there would be no overheating the brakes, because the wheels are no longer turning. With full brakes applied at a dead stop, no car will then "take off" because the brakes are overwhelmed.

Maybe if you tried to hold the brakes at full throttle for several minutes, something would give, but who would do that instead of turning off the car?

I know there was one of these cases where a car was going down a steep hill. In that instance, it's much easier to imagine brakes failing, because you've got gravity pulling the car forward. Just traveling normally down a steep grade can overheat brakes. You still wonder why someone wouldn't put the car in N or P and / or turn off the ignition.

And I still have to wonder why, if this horrendous, gigantic public safety threat was extant, why all the stories stopped after the initial reports and Toyota's initial investigation in which it (claimed to have) found no problem. If they found a huge smoking gun, why wouldn't that have been a huge headline?

I'm going to search around and see if I can find the solder spike issue you're describing. If you have a good link handy, would you please post it?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57609256/okla-jury-toyota-liable-in-sudden-acceleration-crash/

I don't know. Toyota paid a billion dollars for the class and recalled millions of vehicles for possibly sticky accelerator pedals, possible interference from floor mats, and changes to anti-lock software, but I don't see an indication there was ever any proof the cars accelerated all by themselves.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–11_Toyota_vehicle_recalls

Toyota must have given them a fair amount more than 1.5million..

on appeal, they might have taken much less. The typical basis for settlement after a case is decided is that the other party is threatening appeal, and the winner doesn't want to face the delay, expense, and risk of the appeal.

Regardless, no loser pays more to settle than the verdict requires. There's no reason to do that.

It had nothing to do with an appeal.