NHTSA to Toyota: Stop Lying About Floormatgate | The Truth About Cars
A press release put out by Toyota earlier this week about their recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles inaccurately stated NHTSA had reached a conclusion “that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured.” NHTSA has told Toyota and consumers that removing the recalled floor mats is the most immediate way to address the safety risk and avoid the possibility of the accelerator becoming stuck. But it is simply an interim measure. This remedy does not correct the underlying defect in the vehicles involving the potential for entrapment of the accelerator by floor mats, which is related to accelerator and floor pan design. Safety is the number one priority for NHTSA and this is why officials are working with Toyota to find the right way to fix this very dangerous problem. This matter is not closed until Toyota has effectively addressed the defect by providing a suitable vehicle based solution. • On September 29, 2009, NHTSA issued a Consumer Alert warning owners of Toyota and Lexus vehicles about “conditions that could cause the accelerator to get stuck open.” As an interim measure, NHTSA “strongly encouraged” owners of specific models to take out the removable driver’s side floor mats and not to replace them any other type of mat. NHTSA warned consumers “a stuck accelerator may result in very high vehicle speeds and a crash, which could cause serious injury or death.”
OEM labor cost to replace accelerator pedals in million volumes: $30 per car, at a minimum. Hey, it could be worse, they could have to replace the floorpans on all those cars. :)
Clearly, Toyota is designing their vehicles with a nod towards selling replacement vehicles and reducing overpopulation. Besides, it’s against public policy for people to live too long.
If you’ve ever “experimented” with foot placement on an accelerator, you may have, depending on design, noticed that the closer to the floor you apply pressure to a gas pedal the harder it is to get full acceleration. Most of the cars I’ve driven in the last 20 years have the gas pedal attached to a metal rod coming down from above, at about midway on the pedal, top to bottom, and it usually is not rigid, but pivots at the attachment point. Also, there has certainly been a plethora of variations within this design so that, for example the distance from the floor to the bottom of the pedal has varied considerably from maker to maker, model to model, and even vintage to vintage. The theory that the less than rigid floor mat, which would have to curve upward (further reducing rigidity) could be applying enough pressure to an accelerator to wind out an engine, against the weight of the vehicle and against any available braking pressure and just on Toyota vehicles, just doesn’t add up to me.
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