Toyota to Fix Accelerators after Largest US Recall

[FenwickHockey65]

Toyota to fix accelerators after largest US recall ever
Link to article

By Mark Kleis
November 14, 2009

Toyota will soon fix or replace the accelerator pedals on up to 4 million Toyotas and Lexus vehicles in the US. This comes after Toyota Corp’s largest-ever recall of 3.8 million vehicles over potential for a loose floormat to force down the accelerator causing unintended acceleration.

The report coming from the Kyodo news stated that Toyota and 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.

According to the report, it is likely that Toyota will voluntarily repair or replace the accelerators out of approximately 4 million vehicles in the US. The report suggests that Toyota preferred this solution as they do not believe that the vehicles’ pedals are defective – and thus do no warrant an official recall.

The NHTSA indicated today 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.

The report also pointed out that the 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.

[Xanthos]

Are they going to be reprogramming the DBW system?

Sounds like another cop-out fix if you ask me...
- X

[lil_chef]

they still dont believe anything is wrong with the cars? jesus......................

[Zeus]

Has this made the news yet? If it was GM it'd be a cover story on CNN.

[Dave_O]

Originally Posted by Zeus

Has this made the news yet? If it was GM it'd be a cover story on CNN.

[patriotpa]

Toyota quality yet again...duck and cover.

[nasty2ss]

There is nothing wrong with these cars. Just because someone stacks after market matts on top of the factory matts and they jamb under the gas petal how is that toyotas fault?

[Zeus]

Originally Posted by nasty2ss

There is nothing wrong with these cars. Just because someone stacks after market matts on top of the factory matts and they jamb under the gas petal how is that toyotas fault?

Car's are still expiriencing random acceleration without the ''matts''.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that the matt solution was a quick fix attempt for Toyota to make it look like there wasn't a serious problem they are liable for.

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by nasty2ss

There is nothing wrong with these cars. Just because someone stacks after market matts on top of the factory matts and they jamb under the gas petal how is that toyotas fault?

You need to do some more research on this topic...there are more than enough accounts of people who don't even have floormats installed in their toyotas encountering the same problem.

It has nothing to do with floormats or accelerator pedals. Something is wrong with the ECU that controls the throttle, and toyota is just too proud and too stubborn to admit it.

The silver lining in all of this? Toyota wanted to be GM so badly that they're now doing exactly what old GM used to do - ignore their customers...and we all know what that road leads to.

By the way, the damn floormats can barely even move...

[rayhawk]

Something tells me Yahoo won't be doing an article about Toyota trying to cover this one up.

[z28camaro2471]

Originally Posted by nasty2ss

There is nothing wrong with these cars. Just because someone stacks after market matts on top of the factory matts and they jamb under the gas petal how is that toyotas fault?

:bangdesk:

[BackinBlackSS/RS]

Originally Posted by nasty2ss

There is nothing wrong with these cars. Just because someone stacks after market matts on top of the factory matts and they jamb under the gas petal how is that toyotas fault?

Get informed. Wait a minute, were you being a wisenheimer?

[MLL67RSSS]

Originally Posted by lil_chef

they still dont believe anything is wrong with the cars? jesus......................

I believe it's more of a case of not wanting to ADMIT there is a problem and be liable for the deaths, injuries, cost of full blown recall to fix the actual problem, and damaged reputation. I fully believe they know there is a problem and probably what it is. They'd rather just let to bodies stack up to "save face".

[Xanthos]

Originally Posted by MLL67RSSS

I believe it's more of a case of not wanting to ADMIT there is a problem and be liable for the deaths, injuries, cost of full blown recall to fix the actual problem, and damaged reputation. I fully believe they know there is a problem and probably what it is. They'd rather just let to bodies stack up to "save face".

Personally, I think having a slight quirk in the (HIGHLY complex) computer program is less embarrassing than simply designing throttle pedals without enough clearance. Seriously - even if it was the throttle pedal, how do you not catch that?
- X