Toyota floor mats can kill....
 

Unsafe At Any Speed......

The Associated Press

Published: September 29, 2009

Toyota Motor Corp. said today 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.

Toyota and the government issued separate warnings to owners of Toyota and Lexus vehicles about the safety problems tied to the floor mats.

"This is an urgent matter," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "For everyone's sake, we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration."

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.

Toyota's previously largest U.S. recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue. The company declined to say how many complaints it had received about the accelerator issue.

NHTSA said it had received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on the Toyota vehicles involved.

The Japanese automaker warned owners that if they think their vehicle is accelerating out of control, they should check to see whether their floor mat is under the pedal. If a driver can't remove the floor mat, Toyota advises drivers to step on the brake pedal with both feet until the vehicle slows and then try to put it into neutral and switch the ignition to accessory power.

For vehicles with engine start/stop buttons, Toyota said the engine can be shut off by holding the button down for three seconds.

The safety concern was prompted by a fiery crash in California that killed four family members in August near San Diego. The crash killed California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, and three others on State Route 125 in Santee.

The runaway car was traveling at more than 120 mph when it hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.

In mid-September, Toyota ordered 1,400 Toyota and Lexus dealers nationwide to ensure that each new, used and loaner vehicles had the proper floor mats and that the mats were properly secured.

In September 2007, Toyota recalled an accessory all-weather floor mat sold for use in some 2007 and 2008 model year Lexus ES 350 and Toyota Camry vehicles because of similar problems.

For more information, consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's hotline at (888) 327-4236, Toyota at (800) 331-4331 or Lexus at (800) 255-3987.




I

BS. Toyota is speed limited at 111.

I guess the concept of turning off the ignition is well above the skill level of most drivers.

+1

It is.

The mats in question have a hook that keeps it from getting up under the pedals.

I unhooked mine to see where it would go. It was a PITA, and if I had been dealing with a mat like that, it would have been recycled long ago. When it is 'hooked', no problem. It is operator error.

I guess no one thought about taking it out of gear, jamming the e-brake or a few other things. This lawsuit and others like it add a lot to the price of every car.

So if there's currently a hook, what will they do now? Rivet the floormat to the floor?

The heavy rubber all season mats will not hook in when placed over the carpet mats, is my understanding.

Aka, the heavy rubber mats will not properly hook in place when incorrectly installed.

Cool, mine has a grease stain that I can't get out. New mat, nice for me.

My late Grandfather drove an early 80's (I think) Camry in the mid-1990's that had a creeping floor mat that would get up under the gas pedal every so often and catch the bottom of it making the car run as if on automatic, floor-board-based cruise control. This was caused by the driver's foot pushing it forward to the point where it would do this.
He was in his mid-70's at the time and when this would happen he had the presence of mind to shove it back with his foot or pull it back with his hand, as did I when driving his ride.
At no time when this happened did we ever speed out of control at 120mph. We stopped the pedal pinching!
This recall seems like it should have been done 15-years ago! Maybe I can join in a class action suit on his behalf, huh? :-(

+1

No kidding.

My father had an 1989 Ford SHO Tarus. The thing went like stink. One night I had to drive the car to up into the 'thumb' area of Michigan, vast flat farmland for miles. I had it cranked up to about 85mph and set the cruise. A few minutes later, I see tail lights, and I find myself coming up on a milk tanker lumbering along in the dark. I tap the brake.....nothing. A bit confused, I hammer the brake, the car slows, then when I take my foot off the brake, it lunges forward. Yeah, dad had neglected to tell me that the brake switch to kill the cruise had went south. I killled the cruise by hand.

"Unintended acceleration" accidents are ridiculous, whether its with an Audi 5000, a Toyota with killer floor mats, or anything else. Stomping the brakes will stop the car even if the throttle is riveted to full on. A driver who doesn't know enough to stomp the brakes is incompetent.

Seriously how many of us haven't driven a car at some time or another that this or something like it didn't happen? My 924S's floor mat will cause the accelerator to press down a bit (not floor it however) if it gets slid up. That will happen on any car with a floor-mounted gas pedal. The people who designed it assumed that you're smart enough to keep the floor mats in their correct spot, and, if this does happen, figure it out and stop the car, not be dumb and just hang on for deal life without doing anything.



This reminds me of this video:
YouTube - The Worst Woman Driver EVER

Owned one too (New) , I loved that sleeper, until I had to buy parts out of warranty. An A/C compressor on a regular Taurus was like $300, but for that Yamaha built engine it was like $800. For a four door sedan, it ran like an IROC. I'd tell people they had to check out the motor, and they'd say "yeah right" until I opened the hood and they'd say "WTF". Four overhead cams. Great car, lousy aftermarket support.

Hmmm, Mustang mats are hooked on the driver's side...(edit) One scary thing in the 911S once...passenger fell asleep, shoved the sissal mat on his side over into the pedal cluster...I was able to jerk it all free...
Also, be careful turning off a key..you don't want to engage the steering wheel lock. It was a bit of a panic time for me...I doubt Ben ever woke up enough to know why I was hollering..

The floor mats in the 525 will slide up over time and put some pressure on the pedal. The first time I noticed it was after an extended run at 80+mph on the highway when I finally had to slow down because of an accident. The car seemed to take forever to slow down, then was idling way to high. I started worrying about what could possibly be wrong with the car now, until I looked at the floor mat, moved it back and made everything good.

In the 924, the throttle cable slid out of place once. That too was a weird feeling, taking your foot off of the pedal and not seeing any decrease in speed. I hit the brakes, put it in neutral, pulled over and turned off the ignition. Then got out of the car and fixed it.

Do they not teach this kind of stuff in driver's ed anymore?

Turn the ignition off. Put the car in neutral.

Geezus.

The thought that people are so incompetent and/or brain dead as to not be able to figure this out is downright frightening. I don't want these people on the roads with me. I really don't.

This just happened to me 2 weeks ago in our Tacoma 4x4, I had pushed the pedal down pretty far as I was accelerating in 2nd gear up a bridge. I went to lift and shift and the truck bounced off the rev limiter. I was not 100% sure what was going on for a split second. I grabbed the next gear popped the clutch and it lurched forward.

I went to turn the ignition off and my passenger said, "the floor mat" loudly. I dug in my heals pulled back hard with my feet and the throttle popped loose.

We have aftermarket mats in the Taco so its no fault of Toyotas.


Anyone that has time to make a phone call to 911 to tell them they are accelerating out of control is an idiot. We should not award stupid people for their stupidity, we should only hope they did not reproduce before they take themselves out. We should also hope they harm no one else when they do so.

Its a shame they will get a large payoff from this even though they had many other options besides crashing.