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.
NHTSA said it had received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on the Toyota vehicles involved. It was unclear how many led to crashes but the inquiry was prompted by a highspeed crash in August in California of a Lexus barreling out of control. As the vehicle hit speeds exceeding 120 mph, family members made a frantic 911 call and said the accelerator was stuck and they couldn't stop the vehicle.
"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.
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.
via Toyota to recall 3.8M vehicles over floor mats - Yahoo! News.
Floor mats eh? See my previous post Your Prius may try to kill you, accelerates by itself, Toyota denies it.
6 comments:
Ha! I knew it! I had heard the rumors of them accelerating by themselves. They're true! I actually hate Priuses.
I hate the shape of them, but they drive well, accelerate well, break well, save me *tons* of money on gas, and the built-in GPS with turn by turn guidance is now something I consider essential. I use it constantly and it works. Gets me where I'm going quickly, even in cities I've never seen ... although the voice activated system needs a serious upgrade. Like how about being able to set a default state instead of have to say you are in California every time you enter an address? Mine hasn't accelerated by itself yet.
I'd buy an American car if there was something comparable. Perhaps a Volt will be my next car since the 2010 Prius won't get 100 MPG after all.
If you want a conspiracy theory about the Prius, it listens to your voice commands, so it could also record everything you ever say. Could be broadcasting too. Or perhaps during the recall they will download the memory of everything you've said while in your car. Voice to text data mining. It's a gold mine.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f8b_1254173935
Yo still love the site and got those drums for ya!!!
The shape is sort of bizarre. Especially the weird flat part in the back. Yes, the cars themselves are okay, I just don't support the reason why people buy them. So wait, do you own a Prius? Then the recall affects you too?
[...] has issued its largest ever U.S. recall for 3.8 million vehicles that may have floor mats that cause accelerators to [...]
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