Toyota Recall

Toyota is recall 3.8 million cars because the drivers floor mat may get stuck under the gas pedal. Intial fix is to remove the mat.

Odd, both my Ford and my Jeep have hooks to prevent this.

And Toyota has this incredible reputation for build quality. And a Ford and a Jeep found a .50 solution that Toyota did not. Hmmmm.

Our Tundra has hooks to Can't all modern cars (since disc brakes) stop the car even when the gas is floored? Or drop the tranny into low gear and turn the damn thing off!! This is a driver stupidity error, pure and simple.

My Ford has those hooks, but they don't hold the matt down and it gets stuck underneath the accelerator pedal. Go figure.

Maybe Ford put the hooks in because they decided it was cheaper than a recall.

That's because the people who blindly buy the Toyota appliance-mobiles don't drive them. They merely ride along inside and make suggestions to the controls.

With that said, having driven a few Toyota's lately, it is hard not to drive that way since they are so vague and distant in feel.

Unfortunately, it is a chicken/egg situation as the driver's wanted this kind of numb and lifeless "comfort" and the manufacturer's served it up. Meanwhile, the driver's are getting more and more clueless with the weakened driving standards being applied across the country and the added distractions being introduced. Wrap all of this ignorance and blase with a litigious society that is all for pinning the responsibility on someone else and you get this sort of nonsense.

my toyota has hooks...

but its ok.. toyota has a reputation for standing up and admitting fault and fixing it... Just like with the tacoma frame deal. Find a situation ever where GM FORD or DCX took back that many vehicles and fixed them so many years out, without a gigantic court case.

Of course, pulling out the driver's floor mat is one of the first things you do when prepping a street car for a track day or autocross. Sure, the brakes will stop the car, but it's easier to simply prevent a stuck throttle in the first place.

I'll have to go check my Tundra to see if it has hooks. It's not going to make me sell the truck and buy something else if it doesn't though.

Our 06 Sienna has the hooks as well. I thought these were pretty much standard equipment on almost every new car,but I have been wrong before.

My Toyota has hooks for the driver mats too, wtf is up with Toyota shooting themselves in the foot with a 3.8 million car recall

After a few years of BMW ownership, I can't figure out why all gas pedals aren't hinged at the bottom like theirs are. This issue seems to crop up every few years on one model or another and you'd think the MFRs would eventually tire of the lawsuits and just copy BMW's pedal design.

how stupid do you have to be? All of my cars have had floor mats, and none of them had "hooks", and I never got my accelerator pedal stuck...

ignorant wrote: my toyota has hooks... but its ok.. toyota has a reputation for standing up and admitting fault and fixing it... Just like with the tacoma frame deal. Find a situation ever where GM FORD or DCX took back that many vehicles and fixed them so many years out, without a gigantic court case.

Uh, might want to check what actually is happening. Toyota isn't doing this without pressure- NHSTA is FORCING them to do this. At least Toyota is admitting that they screwed up.

Seriously, it's killing me sometimes how much credit we give Honda and Toyota in situations like this.... Noting the years that are spanned, if they WERE that "good", this would have been taken care of years ago. That many cars, that many years? No- Toyota isn't being the "good guy".

Thankfully, Ford, GM, and Chrysler hasn't had to take back this many vehicles for a single problem. Amazing the scale that Toyota screwed the pooch. Gotta love it.

E-

In reply to alfadriver:

and how many years did it take toyota to issue a recall for the rusting truck frames? even still, a lot of rusted out trucks were excluded.

Josh wrote: After a few years of BMW ownership, I can't figure out why all gas pedals aren't hinged at the bottom like theirs are. This issue seems to crop up every few years on one model or another and you'd think the MFRs would eventually tire of the lawsuits and just copy BMW's pedal design.

actually, i've never driven a car with the pedals hinged at the bottom, but it makes perfectly practical sense, because there's less chance of something slipping under there to interrupt the pedals.

i dont see how this[floor-hinged acc pedal] would stop a floormat from holding the pedal down, it would just crawl up on top of the pedal, and with the light return springs on the DBW throttle these days, it wouldn't take much for the mat to hold it down.

also, while sad, the accident that spurred this recall could have been avoided by simply shutting the car down (key, or button, which might not listen), shifting to neutral, or as someone referenced in another thread last week sometime "crashing gracefully" hell, spin the damn thing.

this months C&D has an article where they send their mother in laws to autox and track schools. the writer references a conversation with a michelin engineer that did testing on driver behavior said that "most people, when faced with cornering beyond .4 g or hitting a tree, they choose the tree."

Good lord, certain Chryslers eat transmissions, some Subaru's eat head gaskets, certain BMW's eat cooling systems, transmissions, etc..., Porsches (boxters) blow engines, Toyotas rust frames, Mitsubishi's seatbelts don't latch, Honda Oddesy's kill transmissions, VW's break everything, Some Ford Diesels have flaming exhausts, and so on and so on. The joy of the internet is that most of us who buy slightly to mostly used cars can figure out which cars have problems we are willing to deal with or take advantage of for ownership.

The way I see it, it's too damn easy to get a drivers license!

4eyes wrote: The way I see it, it's too damn easy to get a drivers license!

Agreed. I feel that if we had stricter driving standards and better drivers education we would have far fewer "problems" with our cars.

My E30 has a bottom hinge gas pedal. Problem solved!

jpod999 wrote: My E30 has a bottom hinge gas pedal. Problem solved!

I was trying to figure out today how it could have happened. Didn't think that it would have been mounted the other way, lol.

I am not getting the physics of how a top mounted gas pedal is held down by a mat on the floor? If it slid forward the most I can see it doing is preventing the pedal from being pushed down?

I read about the problem on a different forum though, and the family who it happened to were accelerated up to 120 on the freeway. They called 911 from their phone and reported that their car was accelerating out of control. Given enough time to think, assess, and make a phone call....couldn't you move the mat, or even put your foot under the pedal and try to pull it up?

RedS13Coupe wrote: I am not getting the physics of how a top mounted gas pedal is held down by a mat on the floor? If it slid forward the most I can see it doing is preventing the pedal from being pushed down? I read about the problem on a different forum though, and the family who it happened to were accelerated up to 120 on the freeway. They called 911 from their phone and reported that their car was accelerating out of control. Given enough time to think, assess, and make a phone call....couldn't you move the mat, or even put your foot under the pedal and try to pull it up?

Hmmmmm-the WRX has mats that slip, and I have been craving a top speed run.

Just further proof that Toyota's quality has been in the toilet for a long time. Rusted frames. Knuckles that fall off. V6 engines that sludge and self destruct. Camry 4cyl that make Neon head gaskets look durable.

I've been saying for years that toyota has been going the ay ofthe big 3 for a long time. Too bad it takes this crap to get people to wake up from the media induced stupor and finally think for themselves for half a second.

For the love of sweet baby jesus, zeus and all thats holy! My truck has no hooks! I'll surely be killed - what chance do I have!

Oh... wait... it has a rubber floor and no mats. Whew... for a minute there I thought I was a goner.

mtn wrote:

jpod999 wrote: My E30 has a bottom hinge gas pedal. Problem solved!

I was trying to figure out today how it could have happened. Didn't think that it would have been mounted the other way, lol.

The pedal will get wedged between the pivot point and the raised section of the floor mat and cause the pedal to stay static when you lift your foot off. Kicking the floor mat back stops the throttle hold.

Too many people use multiple floor mats and many not cut for the car, this isn't the first time this has happened but it is the first time an OE mat has been considered at fault that I know of.