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Toyota to fix accelerators after largest US recall ever
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By Mark Kleis
November 14, 2009

Toyota will soon fix or replace the accelerator pedals on up to 4 million Toyotas and Lexus vehicles in the US. This comes after Toyota Corp’s largest-ever recall of 3.8 million vehicles over potential for a loose floormat to force down the accelerator causing unintended acceleration.

The report coming from the Kyodo news stated that Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had been discussing the need for a solution beyond the replacement of floormats and are in the final stages of agreeing upon a solution.

According to the report, it is likely that Toyota will voluntarily repair or replace the accelerators out of approximately 4 million vehicles in the US. The report suggests that Toyota preferred this solution as they do not believe that the vehicles’ pedals are defective – and thus do no warrant an official recall.

The NHTSA indicated today that at this time the decision on what parts will need to be replaced or repaired is still under investigation – suggesting that the accelerator pedal is only one of the possible fixes under consideration at this time.

Hideaki Honma, a Toyota spokesman, said that Toyota and the NHTSA have not reached an agreement on this matter and that talks are on-going.

The report also pointed out that the vehicles most likely to be targeted by the eventual solution will include the Toyota Prius, Camry, Avalon, Tacoma and Tundra as well as the Lexus IS250, IS350 and ES350 models.

Since 2000 there have been over 2,000 documented cases of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, and as many as 19 deaths from resulting crashes – Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.

A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of victims of unintended acceleration accidents against Toyota is still in early stages at this time.