This is my 2005 Toyota Tacoma and it wants to kill me. That’s the message this author and almost four million Toyota and Lexus owners are receiving from Toyota of America in response to a problematic issue with floor mats. Yes, floor mats. That’s the topic of Toyota’s newest flavor-of-the-week in their recent recall-happy history.
John Hanson who spoke to us about the advisory coming in the wake of a fatal San Diego accident. “Preliminary reports are showing that the driver's-side floor mats may have actually interfered with the accelerator pedal,” Hanson told us. And before you shrug this off as another “know nothing” driver making a stupid mistake, the accident claimed the life of a seasoned California Highway Patrolman and his family.
“We wanted to alert everyone. The consumers and owners in particular,” Hanson told us. Well we aren’t surprised; Toyota has effectively told the world through a string of recent recalls that although they are revered amongst the highest reliability of manufacturers, they are only human. And by human we mean an extra worrisome, over-protective mother that wraps her baby in bubble-wrap for a grocery run.
This latest safety advisory affects the following models with similar floor mat retention systems:
- 2007 – 2010 Camry
- 2005 – 2010 Avalon
- 2004 – 2009 Prius
- 2005 – 2010 Tacoma
- 2007 – 2010 Tundra
- 2007 – 2010 ES350
- 2006 – 2010 IS250 and IS350
*The Cuplrit: A Faulty Floor Mat Retention System? *
Without being a full recall and remaining without solution, what do they want owners to do in the meantime? “We want them to remove the driver’s foot-well floor mats,” Hanson told us. Want to rebel and take the risk that your floor mats will commandeer your vehicle? We were given a few common-sense solutions. Make certain that the floor mats are designed for the vehicle, don’t stack floor mats, and one more piece of wisdom from Hanson, “Do not flip the floor mat over for the rubber side.” We tried it in the safety of our driveway and we’re not quite sure how that even makes sense, but someone out there thinks its a good idea.
In recent years we have seen recalls for potential steering problems in both hybrids and their large trucks, missing front child seat anchors and extra-stupid dummy lights that came on for no reason. This slew of recalls we estimate, following a record setting floor-mat debacle for vehicles affected, will push the company over the 14 million recalled vehicle mark in the past five-years with some vehicles being recalled multiple times. We're still trying to define the line between shoddy build quality and an over-zealous legal department but one thing is certain, some Toyota owners are getting annoyed with multiple trips to the dealer.
The solution for this issue has yet to be announced, but Hanson is confident they can develop a remedy. One would hope so. We are talking about the company that can engineer a mind-controlled wheelchair arent we? Either way we’re still trying to figure out if we should ask “what gives?” or give them a pat on the back.
Photos: Dave Eyvazzadeh / Wired.com
