May 3, 2011
Well, here we are, 14 months after Toyota began admitting to the world that it could no longer design a simple pedal, a floor mat or a floor pan, by launching Phase I of many phases of a recall to replace all-weather floor mats that may entrap the accelerator. Initially, the recall 90L, the mother of all floor mat recalls, was meant to switch those sneaky little All-Weather Floor Mats out of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. (See Toyota All-Weather Floor Mat Entrapment)
But as time has passed, more models and model years have been added. In total since 2005, when Toyota announced a small campaign to recall some Lexus IS250 vehicles from model year 2006 for “accelerator pedals which could become stuck in the partially depressed position due to inadequate clearance between the accelerator pedal linkage and a plastic pad embedded in the vehicle’s carpet,” Toyota has recalled more than 100 different makes, model and model year vehicles for an unintended acceleration-related safety defect. There have been a total of seven different recalls. Monster recall 90L is in now in Phase 11.
Behold! Our latest Toyota Recall Matrix:
The remedies are a complex welter of fixes:
• New floor mats
• Shorter accelerator pedals – or not
• Yes/electronic brake-override/No electronic brake-override
• Definitely getting a new accelerator pedal, or getting a new accelerator pedal if you ask the dealer for one.
• New Retention clips—not once but twice
• Shaved plastic pads
Employing everything from software to razor blades hasn’t really stopped the SUAs from occurring. We got some interesting real-life recent incidents we’ll be sharing in coming days. Stay tuned.