Toyota Recalls 3.8 Million Vehicles - Accelerator / Gas Pedal Defect

12/01/2009 - Law Firm Blog - Link to This Entry

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that Toyota is recalling 3.8 million gas pedals because they can get stuck in the floor mat and cause sudden acceleration. This is the largest recall in the U.S. for an automaker and the product defect is also the sixth-largest recall in the U.S.

Does the recall go far enough?

Independent Safety experts believe there may be a malfunction in the electronic engine control systems which Japanese Automaker Toyota dispute.

"I suspect the real problem is that there is something wrong with the electronics in the engine," said Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA chief and a consumer activist.

Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the consumer group the Center for Auto Safety, believes that the acceleration problems extend beyond the vehicles that Toyota recalled and that the brake override system should be applied to all Toyotas.

"There have been six defect petitions and investigations into floor mats on vehicles not covered by this recall," said Ditlow, who estimated Toyota's cost for this recall at more than $250 million.

In September, I blogged about Toyota ordering all dealers to inspect cars for mismatched floor mats as the result of a deadly crash were the floor mat is suspected of causing the gas pedal of a runaway Lexus to get stuck. Click here for video.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Sudden acceleration incidents involving Toyota-made cars and trucks have claimed 19 lives since the 2002 model year and federal officials say it is more than all other manufacturers combined.

A review of consumer complaints to the NHTSA shows at least 1,000 incidents of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles in the last eight years, along with scores of accidents and injuries as well as untold property damage.

Dealers will offer to shorten the length of the gas pedal by three-fourths of an inch starting in January 2010 while the company develops a replacement pedal expected in April 2010. Toyota also said most of its cars would be modified the vehicle software (often called smart pedal) so that the brake overrides the accelerator if both pedals are pressed at the same time. The software is already in use by many other vehicle manufacturers but was never used before in Toyota vehicles.

The recall specifically involves the 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2004-10 Prius, 2005-10 Tacoma, 2007-10 Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS250/350.

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