Toyota recalling 3.8M vehicles over floormats, its largest ever in U.S.

Toyota recalling 3.8M vehicles over floormats, its largest ever in U.S.

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Lexus, Toyota



The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has just issued a safety alert to owners of particular Toyota and Lexus models from 2004-2010 (see list below) that will soon involve a full recall of some 3.8 million vehicles. The issue involves a nagging problem Toyota has had with floor mats in certain models that, in some cases, have caused the accelerator pedal to get stuck in a wide open throttle position (see example above). There are apparently clearance issues with these floor mats and the pedals, as well as issues with the unique steps required to shut off vehicles with keyless ignitions, and Toyota and NHTSA is warning owners to remove the mats immediately and not replace them with mats from Toyota or any other brand.

The models affected are:

• 2007-2010 Camry
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• 2004-2009 Prius
• 2005-2010 Tacoma
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2007-2010 ES 350
• 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS350

Toyota issued a recall in September 2007 for a similar problem with all-weather floor mats in the 2007-08 Lexus ES350 and Toyota Camry. NHTSA, however, has continued to receive complaints of unintended acceleration in these models and more.

Toyota will follow up NHTSA safety alert with its largest ever recall in the U.S. as soon as it has a solution figured out. In the mean time, if you own one of the above vehicles, your government would like you to play it safe and remove the driver-side floor mat. Now we have to wonder, who's going to pay the rather large bill for cleaning the carpet in thousands of vehicles that got their foot wells dirty from having no floor mats?

Follow the jump for press releases from both NHTSA and Toyota, the latter of which includes instructions on what to do if you experience unintended acceleration caused by the floor mats in these models. Thanks to everyone for the tips!

[Source: NHTSA]
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Toyota recalling 3.8M vehicles over floormats, its largest ever in U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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