Why is this a huge story, claiming it is the downfall of Toyota as a car manufacturer? The problem is only that the floor mat catches the gas pedal and holds the pedals down.
Here is your solution:
Step #1: Remove the goddamned mat.
Step #2: Cut a piece of the mat off.
Step #3: Put the mat back in.
Step #4: ???
Step #5: Profit!!
Good lord.
—Common Sense Is Lacking
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2010.
The problem with the whole thing is that the inverse can be true and relying on the general public is like licking a cyanide-laced salt lick.
the first try might not get ya, but eventually things will go bad.
there have already been accidents involving the thing and they DO NOT end well… usually in a family impacting fiery blaze.
How many studies have they put out that say you should wear your seat belt?
How many tickets to the cops issue yearly for not complying?
doi
This same thing happened with Audi’s back in the mid 1980’s. They had a hard time recovering from that one as well.
The average car buyer doesn’t care about the reasons why this happens and won’t take the time to research that is was simply a problem with a floor mat.
They get uncomfortable with the brand and stay away.
Sometimes it’s hard to get the dime out from deep in my pants pocket. Should I ask for a recall on the dime or the jeans?
Actually i believe they’ve found out that it’s not due to the floor mats because during at least one investigation, the floor mats were found in the trunk. I believe that before that, Toyota put the blame on floor mats and by extension, the driver.
I do think it’s interesting how some people believe you can’t do anything to stop your car if the gas pedal sticks and that you’re destined to keep going until you run out of gas or hit something. Just off-hand i’m going to say that if your pedal sticks then putting your car in neutral should do it. I guess you just have to hope that you can do it fast enough before it causes you do get into an accident.
Don’t forget about the underpants OP!
It’s been blown into a shitstorm because it’s one of those rare occurences where Toyota make a mistake, unlike NA automakers who routinely make errors – mostly just by turning up for work and churning out inferior products.
Yes, I own a Toyota – I’ve owned 5 and love them.
Wow, what an idiot bitch.
The problem is that the mat becomes detached from the faulty anchors and wedges itself over the pedal. So a manufacturing fault means that I should carve up a mat to make a fucking hillbily-mobile.
And let’s forget about the actual design problem with the gas pedal…
I also love the moronic “Steps to Profit” format that stopped being funny about 5 years ago.
WHERE”S THE BEEF!HAMMERTIME!SIT ON IT!
Hey OP! Uncross your legs, take your hand from your chin, and stop cruising /b/.
actually,it is more of a linkage thing with the pedals,sort odf kinks up between floorboards and throttle body on carb.,it takes about 10 minutes to fix,and never fucks up again.dodge gad the same problem with their fuel injection system about 6 or 7 years back,but not advertized.
Everybody who has posted so far is wrong, including the OP.
It was originally attributed to the floormats and in fact there was some issue with certain models in that regard. However, the latest issue has nothing to do with floormats. These cars use an electronic throttle control (i.e. drive by wire) and that mechanism has been shown to go haywire, causing the unintended acceleration. More troubling is evidence that Toyota knew about the problem for years and did nothing until forced to by the US government. They still do not have a fix for the problem but are blaming the supplier of the part despite it being made to Toyota’s specifications.
The attitude expressed by Mr. Fawlty is typical of many Toyota customers but one that is very badly misplaced given the track record of the company over the past several years, as they have experienced one quality problem after another. They have quite clearly lost their way and no longer deserve the loyalty of consumers.
How am I wrong?
When I received my first recall it was for the anchors for the mats.
The second recall for the gas pedal with a slow return.
Bo Gus – yes they’ve clearly lost their way – that’s why they have customer loyalty – what NA shitbox do you have in your driveway?
Yes, the first one was because the mat got in the way of the gas pedal, or at least they wanted to attribute it to that.
The second recall is because of a slow return (and no return in the worst cases). From what I heard, this seems to be caused by rust forming on what I’ll call the axle part of the pedal (where the pedal pivot is). The rust flakes off and when there is a good collection then it can cause a sticky pedal.
This was never an issue until the manufacturer changed something (what I’ve heard, I would guess to save a few bucks) and now there is this new problem. Hopefully Toyota makes them pay for the repairs if that is the case.
If want to slow down, try the BRAKES.
Class dismissed.
I see dogma hasn’t pushed both the gas and the brakes at the same time….
None of these cars are PULLING on the gas pedal. Don’t floor it, and your brakes will always win.
Anyway, you only need the brakes for the 2 seconds required to realize you should shift into neutral.
Fawlty: read this:
http://www.wheels.ca/newsFeatures/article/…
There are a plethora of similar articles out there. Those in the business have known about this quality decline for years.
Funny,almost the same thing happened to me while driving an 08 focus. The floor mat has a hole in it meant to clip to the ground. And that hole is just wide enough for a heel to get stuck in. Shoe got stuck in mat, couldn’t hit brakes in the split second I needed to, almost rearended somone at an intersection….
Buy Acura !!!!
Google Toyota matrix transmission failure.
They are needing to be completely replaced in some models after less than 10k KM. The cost is about 6 grand with labour. Toyota Canada has seen so many of these failures that they actually have a protocol in place now to deal with it. They pay about 4k of the cost and stick you with a 2K repair bill on a practically brand new car. They did not however issue a recall cause it would have been too expensive and was not a safety issue, just a quality one.
It was cheaper for them to deal with the cost on a transmission by transmission basis as it happened than to do a mass recall. Imagine the cost! ( $6k x number of Toyota matrix sold in that model year range = millions )
Toyota has had to cut production cost to stay competitive in the market like everyone else. Now the consequences are starting to rear its head.
Yep buy Acura !!
Bo Gus, and those in the industry knew about the issue about the Pinto before they started becoming mobile barbecues, and longer before Ford ever did anything about it. I need not explain what it took Ford to recall the affected models. From what I understand the issue is rare in the models affected, and considering the halting of manufacture and recall in this market are a significant risk to Toyota.
It’s more than the goddamn mats. Something with the electronics is fucked and causing major SNAFUs. Shit, it happened to me last month with my Matrix…luckily Morpheus was poppin’ outta the hood to cover my back.
wtf now hondas recalling like 460,000 cars for a bum window motor
Dr. Fever, try to move on past things that happened 40 years ago. I do not recall seeing many Pintos on the road during my recent sojourns around town.
The only reason people buy Toyotas — otherwise bland, vanilla, unremarkable, overpriced vehicles — is because of the perceived reliability/quality edge they had. That is now gone. It’s been gone for a while in reality, but only now has it been blown up publicly. Blown to smithereens, in fact. So is Toyota now the equivalent of 1970s Ford Motor Company in consumers minds? Perhaps it should be.
Absolutely not, much like many products of the automotive industry from the 70’s.
Toyota has indeed based it’s entire reputation around it’s reliability. How many Tercels are out there, still running after all these years in moderately good condition, and how many Focuses are out there, rusting to pieces, with crappy transmissions? This is all regardless of the fact that they’re “bland” vehicles. Newsflash for ya buddy, the average public doesn’t give two shits about the “fun to drive” factor. People today buy on reliability, build quality (something all the Japanese marques have in spades) and fuel consumption. With “questionable” reliability (5 recalls in the past 10 years is bad indeed, but only 2 of them are really a significant issue) consumers still have 2 other things they can have when buying Toyota. They’re still built much better than anything that Ford, GM or Chrysler has built or will build. I think the actual market reaction will be not as bad as the media has made it out to be, or the domestic car maker market wants it to be. If I had a choice, I’d still buy a Toyota or Honda before I buy and overpriced VW or a cheap, plastic GM.
If you have a car in the Maritimes you should always buy rubber floor mats anyways, to avoid rusting out the floor, due to all the salt water on your shoes.
Another one for Dr. Fever:
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-toyotar…
“Meanwhile, the massive recall has spooked potential customers and prompted some loyal Toyota owners to look elsewhere for their next car. Toyota’s Tylenol moment, as some are calling it, is boosting traffic at other car dealers, particularly Nissan and Honda. Auto industry analysts expect the recalls to cost Toyota as much as $900 million and another $155 million a week in lost sales.
“We just took a 2010 Toyota Corolla in trade because of the accelerator problem,” Bruce Levy, general manager of Harte Nissan, said Friday. “We’ve had four or five people in the last 24 hours wanting to trade-in their Toyotas.”
Levy said the dealership is giving its customers the current value of their used Toyotas, but deducting two months from the base, figuring the vehicles won’t be fixed for another two months. Confidence sells cars, he said, “and a used Toyota may be a difficult sale.””
It’s not gonna kill Toyota… That’s all I’m saying. Everyone, along with the media are treating this as the de facto end of Toyota. Yes, it will hurt their sales. You linked a website. Good for you. Want a cookie?
I drive a Toyota because it is the only decent Hybrid out there. Where’s Detroit’s?
Ford’s Fusion hybrid is considered superior to Toyota’s.
Considered superior how?
ML a quick search showed me several of GM’s hybrid trucks and cars . As well as a few others .
Bo gus – you haven’t answered the question as to what NA shitbox is in your driveway? please don’t tell me it’s a SATURN
Dr. Fever, I would be glad to educate you, but that might mean posting a link and I have already had my share of cookies for the week. Try “Car & Driver” for a start.
Fawlty, I have several vehicles in my fleet, none of which have rings on their logo. Their identity is not germane to this topic.
Bo Gus Audi u sleep at night – Nexus is nice
Actually, I read Car and Driver. All they’re concerned about is “fun to drive” like all other vehicular media, regardless of how many “quantifiable” numbers they put into the article. I’ll tell you something. If I owned a Prius, I wouldn’t be taking it to a track day. So why should I be concerned with 0-60 times? There’s also a level of perceived quality that you’re forgetting about: most NA marques have had massive issue with quality (both true and perceived) for the past 20 years, and that has hurt them significantly and pushed some into bankruptcy, despite brand loyalty that could only be described as insane. Again, it’s one of two major recalls in the past ten years, and by this time next year Toyota will still see growing sales because of vehicle quality, while GM/Ford/Chrysler will not have learned their lessons. Ford will still sell the Escape like gangbusters, GM will make money off cheap to manufacture, poorly designed trucks sold and marketed to rednecks. All the while, Chrysler will leech off it’s parent’s company’s parts bin, all the time somehow making the cars worse, and mortgaging it’s future on Minivans and Jeeps.
Tell me, the next thing you’re gonna say is that the GM Volt is going to be better than the Nissan Leaf?
Drive a volvo 🙂
I’ve only ever driven a vulva. It’s boxy, but it’s good.
Dr. Fever: You just aren’t getting it. Toyota quality is a thing of the past. Gone. Vanished. Do a little research. Ford is blowing them out of the water these days. Things change, you know. But for the Toyonda generation, not so much.
BTW, trucks are a bad example to use in making your case. Toyota has had to recall their trucks umpteen times for rusted-out frames, bending tailgates, etc (can you say poor quality?) while Nissan has in fact abandoned the Titan altogether and will be selling a rebadged Dodge pickup made in Mexico as a Nissan next year.
Here’s another link for you:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/too-good-…
No, I get it. You drive a Ford Explorer/Focus/Escort/Taurus (or any other piece of shit they’ve produced in the past 10-20 years), half rusted out, transmission falling off of it, but gosh darn it, I’m loyal to my junky Ford(s).
Again, a minor bump in the road for Toyota. Once the media forgets about “Toyota’s Tylenol Moment” to quote your earlier article, this whole issue will be a thing of the past, and Toyota will be just as strong. You at the very least should understand what is brand loyalty.
Oh, and by the way, before you go off on another Google search, I drive a Saturn. Yes, a GM product.
Drive a LADA 🙂
just drive an older yota ffs.
mine’s over 10 now and going strong.
put under a grand in maintenance in the last 3 years….
I got one from the era they were made uber-good and it’s going to last me another decade I’d bet.
Dr. F.: Have not had a Frod in my driveway in over 3 decades.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many Asian vehicles that are both well-built and good value. They just no longer wear Toyota badges.