Posted on 02/24/2011 7:32:04 AM PST by Perdogg
Responding to a request from regulators, Toyota Motor Corp. said it would recall a total of 2.17 million U.S. vehicles dating back to the 2003 model year to address various flaws that could lead to a floor mat interfering with the accelerator pedal.
Thursday's recall expands on already-known floor mat issues by adding new models and new causes to pedal interference.
A California state trooper and three of his passengers were killed in August 2009 in an accident in which a slipping floormat is believed to have entrapped the accelerator pedal and sent Lexus speeding out of control.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Everyone is missing the simplest fix......
PUT THE BLOODY CAR MAT IN THE TRUNK!!!!!
My son shifted and automatic from drive to reverse while we were going 40 mph, he was about two. It not only killed the engine, it almost stopped us. This was in the days before seat belts and child restraints. He was standing beside me on the front seat.
Still don’t know why it didn’t drop the transmission all of the road.
Heck, just let the dog steer and you can do all that and take a nap to boot:)
I had a floor mat curl up on me. I knew it was curling, I didn’t know it was messing with the gas pedal until it actually grabbed it and wouldn’t let it up. Luckily it happened as I was pulling into home and had already dropped into neutral, it was a big WTF as the engine was running higher than it should when my foot is on the brake. Figured out what it was and threw out the floor mat.
Some of the newer vehicles I’ve seen have these stud kind of things that go through grommets and hold the floor mat in place, can’t curl then. Probably an invention somebody should have come up with for the 1st or 2nd generation of floor mats.
Responding to a request from regulators, Toyota Motor Corp. said it would recall a total of 2.17 million U.S. vehicles dating back to the 2003 model year to address various flaws that could lead to a floor mat interfering with the accelerator pedal.
Wouldn’t it be faster and cheaper to just send every Toyota owner a roll of double-sided tape?
Next they will go after Ford... will never buy General Motors again...and will vote to remove BHussein O. in 2012
So what is toyota going to do about those out of control vehicles that didn’t have mats?
What kind of person drives a car, and is unaware that a floor mat is hitting his accelerator pedal?
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I borrowed a friend’s car once. The front end was so badly misaligned, it took a large effort to drive in a straight line. She insisted that everything was fine, couldn’t imagine that she ought to take it in for an alignment. So, that kind of person.
And, one more.. There’s a video somewhere of a bunch of cops busting a drunk driver at a road block. He was driving a standard, and none of the cops there knew how to drive a manual transmission. Pitiful.
I think that most of us take things like driving to be a natural part of life. For others, I suspect, it’s like walking a tightrope across the Grand Canyon.
He’s a smart kid. He’ll figure out something that you never expected, and then do that. Trust me.
Could be worse. You could have the struts providing no support and when you have the hatch open it could come crashing down on your head while unloading/loading.
Had that happen many times when I loaded cars at a local hardware store. It got old quick.
What kind of person drives a car, and is unaware that a floor mat is hitting his accelerator pedal?
A retard
No, the Lexus was a loaner from a Toyauto dealer.
“it’s most likely a save-face recall forced by the government.”
I am absolutely convinced this is a Gov’t driven scheme to hurt the reputation of Toyota in the wake of them most recently “Nationalizing” Gov’t Motors.
They want to sell more GM cars and take Toyota’s share away. It’s as simple as that.
Loaner? Probably to replace the Prius the Trooper usually drove in his pursuit of highway scofflaws. ;)
(Toyauto...I like it!)
A California state trooper and three of his passengers were killed in August 2009 in an accident in which a slipping floormat is believed to have entrapped the accelerator pedal and sent Lexus speeding out of control.
You might want to watch this video to understand why there might have been a brake problem too.
I used to have problems with beer cans lodging under the brake or clutch pedal in my Toyota truck.
Yep the drive by wire problem won’t be answered they even had NASA look into it and they had found no problem.
Remember when Audi had the same problem and no answer was found.
The say if we can’t reproduce the problem it doesn’t exist.
Want to buy a bridge.
As for ‘uncontrollable’ acceleration, there are several ways to get around that. In a manual, push in the clutch pedal. Although if all of the issue cars were automatics, then you can either turn the car off, shift into neutral, and just about every car (if not all of em) have more powerful brakes than the engine, especially if you include the e-brake. This whole issue is the stuff that comes out of the back end of a cow.
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Brakes will stop a car from highway speeds even with a stuck accelerator, in almost all cases. HOWEVER, that assumes that the driver just brings the car to a rapid stop. If driver tries to maintain speed against the engine, the brakes will overheat and become useless in a very short time. Also, it’s hard to predict what a person will do in a panic situation.
“What didnt make sense is that patrolman not switching his car into low gear or neutral, applying the brake or emergency brake.”
But someone in the car had the presense of mind to call 911 to describe what was occurring??????!!!!!
That never passed the smell test, in my opinion.
EODGUY
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