Massive Toyota Recall
Gas Pedal Stuck on Pre-Recalled Floor Mat
Yesterday, Toyota instructed owners of over 3.8 million Toyota vehicles to remove their floormats on the driver’s side due to the risk of sudden acceleration. According to Yahoo news:
Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States, the company’s largest-ever U.S. recall, to address problems with a removable floor mat that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash. The recall will involve popular models such as the Toyota Camry, the top-selling passenger car in America, and the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid.
Toyota said it was still working with officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to find a remedy to fix the problem and said owners could be notified about the recall as early as next week. Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said until the company finds a fix, owners should take out the removable floor mat on the driver’s side and not replace it.
“A stuck open accelerator pedal may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop a vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death,” Miller said.
The recall will affect 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.
BusinessWeek wrote that this would be a positive for Toyota’s business. BusinessWeek opined:
The last thing the company needed to do in this sales-challenged economy was deny any responsibility. And easy for them, all they have to do is tell the owners to take the factory-issued mats out of the vehicles. My belief is that while it is the single biggest “directive” of its kind, the act of dealing with it straight-up will be a plus for Toyota. Even better would be if they came up with a fix to the problem: anchored mats. Then, they could give everybody nice clean, new mats that don’t bunch up.
Our firm has handled sudden acceleration cases in the past. Sudden acceleration is a dangerous and potentially fatal defect. While many people lampoon this recall over “floor mats” it is a very serious concern.
