Toyota plans 3.8 million vehicle recal due to driver error

[BLINGMW]

I just want to make sure "deadly floor mats" don't take out any MMers or your families. It would be quite embarrassing. In case of severe floor mat attack where the floor mat cannot be quickly removed by your foot, try these survival techniques in this order:

Use the other pedal beside the gas pedal instead of calling 911. The brakes on any car are much stronger than the engine.

Shift into neutral (I'm assuming deadly floor mats don't usually attack manual transmission drivers).

Turn off the engine. Often this is done by doing the reverse of whatever you did to turn it on.

Use the emergency brake. I know, you may have thought it was called the parking brake, but it may prove useful since parking is your ultimate goal.

Once stopped, use a long sharp stick to dislodge the floormat and pull it on to the ground. Keep a safe distance, call 911 and await a hazmat or wildlife control truck to deal with it. Do not touch or further provoke the floor mat without proper protective equipment and training.

Don't call us (or sue us) if you fail to stop the car. There is NO CHANCE the braking system, shifter mechanism, parking brake, and ignition all failed at the exact same time.


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"In August, an off-duty California state trooper and three members of his family were killed in the San Diego area in a crash of a 2009 Lexus ES350.
Before the crash, a passenger in the car had called 911 and told dispatchers that the accelerator was stuck and the car had reached 120 miles per hour (193 km per hour)."

First, I wish they'd word this correctly. The negligent driver killed his family. I know, it's a terrible thing to say. But if someone dies because of a stuck gas pedal or throttle body, it's safe to say it was really the driver's fault, not the car. News stories about car crashes are always worded this way though. "The car left the roadway and struck a tree, killing all the occupants", instead of "The DRIVER failed to stay on the road and guided their innocent car into a tree. Though dead, he/she is still being charged with 3 counts of manslaughter".

This kind of thing pisses me off. And no points for Toyota rolling over and dying on this one. I would have said, "Hey, take out your damn floor mat if you can't handle it, but our floor mats are no more dangerous than anyone else's and we will accept no hint of liability. GTFO."


*edit* reminds me of one of my least favorite songs: "Jesus Take the Wheel"
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No. IF YOU ARE SLIDING, KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE WHEEL AND KEEP TRYING TO DRIVE. Jesus was a carpenter 2000 years ago. He has no experience driving a car, let alone recovering from a skid.

[ScottyB]

i feel bad, especially for the kids.

i also feel like if you have time to dial and talk on your cell phone to 911 at 120mph in a runaway car you have worse problems than your floor mats. hell they probably could have pulled out the owners manual at that rate. electronic gizmos or not (push button start, nav menus, confusing i-drive controls or whatever) i'm amazed that a "regular" non-enthusiast driver wouldn't choose any of those basic options to stop the car under panic/duress.

neutral - key off - brakes until no booster, then ebrake: problem solved.

oh - and toyota lost their balls long ago. no surprise on the rollover from the beige king.

[ViPER1313]

My thoughts when I read that story.

I also remember a news story in the mid 90s where some Kia had a stuck accelerator. The person did the same thing in that case and called 911 instead of putting the car in neutral (she did apply the brakes as hard as she could press them, which in that case was obviously not hard enough). Neither the driver, the 911 operator nor the State Trooper who wrecked his car using it as a moving wall had enough sense to tell her to PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL.

[JustinG]

my dads accelerator stuck on his older f150 when i was driving once. brake -> Neutral -> pulled gas pedal up with foot, problem solved.

[BLINGMW]

my dads accelerator stuck on his older f150 when i was driving once. brake -> Neutral -> pulled gas pedal up with foot, problem solved.

He did stop, call 911 and then his lawyer to sue Ford... right? Certainly you both at least suffered some emotional distress! :o

[Sijray21]

my thoughts exactly...

i can't believe Toyota issued a recall for the floor mats. ANY floor mat could have caused this and this did happen in my civic, integra, and VW frequently as the car aged. i would simply pull the mat back and make sure it wasn't an issue. when it did become an issue in the VW while i was driving once i yanked the stupid thing with my hand, removed it a couple times and even cut the damn thing...

this just reinforces the fact that people are losing their common sense when they rely on technology to 'think' and 'act' for them.

[fiveoh2go]

The whole stuck accelerator pedal thing is pretty laughable in a vehicle that takes 20 seconds to reach 60mph, but in anything that's modestly quick it's not so funny. Ford put out a recall on all Terminators for this exact thing after a couple incidents like this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgO767eA0Do

[ScottyB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgO767eA0Do

whats up with it sounding like him feathering the throttle right before impact if the pedal is stuck? and whats up with mustang drivers attacking median strips with so much anger? :lol:

in any case, i can't see an ES350 with 5 passengers jumping up to a buck twenty without there being at least some decent amount of time to reach down and tug on the floor mat.

[JustinG]

new ones are 0-100 in 16.1, so i would assume he had probably 22 seconds to realize the accelerator was stuck, assuming he was drag racing off the line. But i would chock this whole experience up to Survival of the Fittest and call it a day.

[HAULN-SS]

maybe it was really the driver calling the 911, and a case of vehicuhomosuicide?

[JustinG]

homosuicide?

HOMO SUICIDE????

[fiveoh2go]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgO767eA0Do

whats up with it sounding like him feathering the throttle right before impact if the pedal is stuck?

To me it sounds like he pushed the clutch in at the last second causing the engine to race.

And whats up with mustang drivers attacking median strips with so much anger? :lol:

We gotta be good at something. :lol:

[ScottyB]

To me it sounds like he pushed the clutch in at the last second causing the engine to race

i thought so too, but you can definitely hear the revs drop off and then rise again right before impact. if the clutch was in and stuck wide open it would have been bouncing off the limiter. at least as far as i can tell.

[Jake]

Courtesy of Jalopnik:

[NTIman]

Not the first time Toyota has had a recall on floormats. We did a bunch of them last year about this time, but they were all-weather mats in only the camry, so it didn't affect many cars.

[BLINGMW]

Not the first time Toyota has had a recall on floormats. We did a bunch of them last year about this time, but they were all-weather mats in only the camry, so it didn't affect many cars.

haha really? Sad. Or, maybe it can be spun as saying their cars are so well built, people can't find anything better to complain about than the floor mats? :lol:

[NTIman]

No, its just cheaper for them to fix something thats not broke than to get sued for tens of millions by 10 people who think it is.

Its a retarded way to look at it, but from the business side I guess it makes sense to save money and to save themselves from future bad publicity. Its pretty ridiculous that we have to dumb down cars so people can drive them, rather than them learning to actually drive. Then, on top of that, people complain when its costs $1500 to fix their skid control. Or their power seat. Or their automatic AC. I mean, do you really expect people to learn to drive when they can't figure out if they are cold or warm and adjust the temperature accordingly?

[ScottyB]

anybody notice any toyotas or lexus's driving real slowly lately?

i have....hold the reigns tight on that camry, she could get spooked and take off at any minute!

[Jeff]

I have not done much research but I have heard around it is actually a situation that has affected many different cars and killed people in several states. So its not based on just this one incedent. I'd like to know what they are saying is actually happening...more reading for me.

[.RJ]

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