Toyota may replace accelerator pedals following US floor mat recall
November 16, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Following Toyota’s largest-ever recall of some 3.8 million vehicles, over the potential for a loose floor mat to force down the accelerator causing unintended acceleration, Toyota may soon fix or replace the accelerator pedals on up to 4 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the US.
US safety body the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had been discussing the need for a solution beyond the replacement of floormats and are in the final stages of agreeing upon a solution.
It is likely that Toyota will voluntarily repair or replace the accelerators as “a preferred solution”, and as Toyota does not believe that the vehicles’ pedals are defective, the situation will not warrant an official recall.
The NHTSA indicated that at this time the decision on what parts will need to be replaced or repaired is still under investigation – suggesting that the accelerator pedal is only one of the possible fixes under consideration at this time.
Hideaki Honma, a Toyota spokesman, said that Toyota and the NHTSA have not reached an agreement on this matter and that talks are on-going.
Vehicles most likely to be targeted by the eventual solution will include the Toyota Prius, Camry, Avalon, Tacoma and Tundra as well as the Lexus IS250, IS350 and ES350 models.
Since 2000 there have been over 2,000 documented cases of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, and as many as 19 deaths from resulting crashes – Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.
A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of victims of unintended acceleration accidents against Toyota is still in early stages at this time.
The floor mat recall does not affect vehicles sold in Australia.
Print it: 
Take your friggin floor matt out if your THAT worried.
My foot has gotten stuck on the gas pedal during city overtaking in our ford ute once (my step-father wired the speakers terribly and a wire caught the pedal… yes, why the hell was i driving it like that…).
I put it straight into neutral and hit the brakes.
…….duh.
C’mon Tom, you should know by now that your average yank would be looking for his gun to shoot out the wheels rather that do something intelligent like switch to neutral & brake or turn the engine off!
I think that this is kind of dodgey of Toyota, they should just do a huge re call and replace all of the pedals. I dont understand how this doesnt affect us in AU – do we have different floor mats?
Yanks drive on the other side of the road. Their accelerator pedal is next to the transmission tunnel, ours is near the kick panel. Capiche?
I guess that’s what the big N symbol is for.
D is for Doughnut’s
N is for Neutral
Toyota’s have accelerators?! Wow, news to me!
Everyone I have driven needs a down hill run to get going. I must admit though I have only driven their current V6 and 4 cyl models, so I can’t comment on the TRD camry/aurion that lasted 2 seconds.
Seriously though, if ya can’t deal with a rubbery surface catching the base of the throttle pedal… walk, it’ll be safer for everyone. And if it catches when your in traffic and you rear end someone, YOU ARE TOO CLOSE!
All it needs is a specially angled set of sidecutters, and CLIP – the bottom of that pesky pedal is gone.
Then you can use the sidecutters to cut off the cable ties securing the floormats to the seat frame, that their brilliant engineers came up with for phase 1 of this botchup.
Oh what a feeling…….
Looks like a design fault.
Accelerator base looks too close to the floor in that picture
http://autocoverup.com/2009/04.....78hww.1dlz
(2009/4/6)
Article posted 6 months before family’s tragedy.
read the countless complaints you will realize that this problem has nothing to do with floor mats. The floor mat issue is something they made up to mask the problem.
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“More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported since 2001 that their vehicles suddenly accelerated on their own, in many cases slamming into trees, parked cars and brick walls, among other obstacles, a Times review of federal records has found.
The crashes resulted in at least 19 deaths and scores of injuries over the last decade, records show. Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.”
“Dr. David. W. Smith, an emergency room physician from San Dimas, has yet to receive a satisfactory answer from Toyota about his Lexus GS 300. Smith said he was driving with his cruise control in Central California on Highway 99 last year, not touching the accelerator, when suddenly the vehicle accelerated to 100 mph. The brakes did not release the cruise control or slow down the vehicle, Smith recalled. Finally, he shifted into neutral and shut off the engine. “I am sure it is the cruise control,” he said. “I haven’t used it since.”"
http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....0294.story
Up to 2,000 Toyota customers claim to have experienced a sudden surge of acceleration, and some reportedly told ABC News that they didn’t even have the recalled floor mats in their vehicles. Even more disturbing are the results of an ABC News investigation that reportedly found “hundreds” of accidents and up to 16 deaths as a result of unintended acceleration.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8982147
it’s not the GOD DAMN FLOOR MATS! Look at this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laYrW–qYFA