Toyota recalls 2.3M US vehicles to fix gas pedals

[Rich Parsons]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100121/ap_on_bi_ge/us_toyota_recall

NEW YORK – Toyota said Thursday it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. to fix accelerator pedals that can become stuck, the latest in a string of quality problems that have bedeviled the Japanese automaker.

The recall affects the 2009-2010 RAV4, the 2009-2010 Corolla, the 2009-2010 Matrix, the 2005-2010 Avalon, the 2007-2010 Camry, the 2010 Highlander, the 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2008-2010 Sequoia.

The latest move comes just months after Toyota Motor Corp. recalled 4.2 million vehicles over concerns that accelerator pedals could become lodged under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration. That problem was blamed for several crashes, including an accident involving a Lexus that accelerated to more than 120 mph before crashing in San Diego, killing four people.

 

[Omar B]

And yet I'll still drive something from the Toyota family of cars over anything else out there.

 

[Carol]

Screwed my day up. I had a reservation for....something...at Enterprise, turned out to be a Toyota that got recalled so the staff was scrambling to find cars for everyone. Great.

 

[Gordon Nore]

How do mistakes like that get made? I was reading about yet another recall of cribs recently -- same old thing, kids getting stuck or suffocated. At some point, doesn't a manufacturer just say, "Well, this gas pedal we used for twenty years never screwed up, so let's keep using that."?

 

[stickarts]

I have a 2009 corolla. I called the service dept. today and they sound a bit chaotic! basically have to wait for the letter to come from headquarters and then schedule a visit to have it fixed. I haven't had an issue with my car but I'd rather be safe. sheesh, always something! :0)

 

[Omar B]

I'll take a small fix on my Lexus by the manufacturer over a new car from just about anybody. But that's just me, I feel all kindsa weird not driving a "Toyota," they just have a feel that works for me. Besides, my dad has a 1980 Corolla that is still his daily driver and it's never had any sort of significant work done to it while other cars we have owned have worked then died (Mitsubishi, Dodge, Hyundai, Fiat, Infinity [weird huh]).

 

[Gary Crawford]

I used to sell Toyota'a and I love they way they recall products.Unlike other manufacturers they are very quick to recall their products before several people are hurt or killed. 99.99% of their recalled vehicles are ok,but they replace the parts anyway. What I loved was that they bring customers back to the dealerships to walk around and look at other Toyota products.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I used to sell Toyota'a and I love they way they recall products.Unlike other manufacturers they are very quick to recall their products before several people are hurt or killed. 99.99% of their recalled vehicles are ok,but they replace the parts anyway. What I loved was that they bring customers back to the dealerships to walk around and look at other Toyota products.

Gary I disagree with you comment:
"Unlike other manufacturers they are very quick to recall their products before several people are hurt or killed."

This is untrue.

The stuck pedals were first blamed on driver error.
Second they were blamed on driver floor matts.
(* They told dealerships to use zip ties and hand cut wholes in the matts. *)
Third it was not until enough complaints were registered with the federal government that the issues were being tracked just like all such issues are tracked for all manufacturers who sell product in the USA. 1% rate is the rate for Federal tracking. 4% is the rate for a Mandatory Recall. No one wants a Mandatory Recall, so all companies issue a recall between the 1% and 4% mark to avoid the negative press from a mandatory recall.

Yes, Toyota has more recalls in recent years, but this has to do with a few things.

The first being volume. There is a threshold within the industry that seems to just have problem with vehicles. The number of vehicles being built, the number of variations all add into the mix. It is always easier to have one model with one variation and make sure that works in all conditions.

The Second is something the general public does not know about and I am sure I would be at risk from CARB (* California Air Resource Board *) and possible even the company I work for by stating the following:
CARB does a 100% inspection of GM as they were the largest seller in the US. Even though Toyota and Honda have sold more than GM for decades in California, they still use the national numbers. The Number two volume nation wide would on average get about 80% inspection over a two year period. The number three would get 60% over a three years from launch of the vehicle of the model year. CARB decided to staff up for National Volume even though they were concerned about local air quality.

Even with Toyota moving into the Number one World Wide they still do not get the same inspection as GM (* Old US Number 1 *) and Ford (* Old US Number 2 *). They are staffed as I stated for these programs. But they have in the last decade began to step up and put more people on the imports for investigation. This stops the "We have a new model that fixes this problem" and CARB moves on lets it go as they were smaller volume.
The issue they found with the Domestics is not an issue finding something not there, they did find things. And they were fixed. But from the 80's on they gave a pass and light inspection to imports. This gave a peception of near perfection that most people today believe.

So, as I stated this has slowly been changing and with further inspection and testing and investigation into these other higher volume US sold products the imports are seeing more issues being tracked by CARB and also EPA and NHTSA. EPA and NHTSA are even less staffed than CARB and follow a lot of what they report or track first. NHTSA does some safety things independantly, but they get a lot of data from state agencies that track compalints and accidents.


As in most things marketing it is all about perception.

NOTE: I did not say the imports had bad product. Only that they are not perfect, just like the Domestics are not perfect either.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Follow up information I found on the web:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/08/business/fi-toyota-recall8

Runaway Toyota cases ignored

Safety investigators dismissed numerous reports of sudden acceleration, then said data were lacking.


November 08, 2009|Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger
More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported since 2001 that their vehicles suddenly accelerated on their own, in many cases slamming into trees, parked cars and brick walls, among other obstacles, a Times review of federal records has found.

...

http://www.safetyresearch.net/2010/01/21/it’s-complicated-concerned-citizen-drops-a-dime-on-toyota/

Anotehr article that talks about other issues as well

It’s Complicated: Concerned Citizen Drops a Dime on Toyota

...

On November 27, about a month after NHTSA closed its latest Toyota unintended acceleration investigation with another pedal interference conclusion, some Kentuckian’s conscience got the better of him/her. Here is the anonymous note addressed the then-Acting Administrator Ronald Medford:
“There are potentially hundreds of Toyota and Nissan vehicles driving American highways with cracked shaft throttle bodies. Japanese management up to and including company president was aware of the cracked shaft problem and told everyone to be quiet about this problem.
The failure mode on DFMEA for broken throttle shaft is no throttle control and potential wide open acceleration. The Toyota floor mats caused American deaths. Will you sit on this information and possibly cause more American deaths? It bothers me that I did not tell anyone sooner. I have another throttle body in same condition that can be sent to Automotive News.
Concerned Citizen”
...