****ing knew it.

Wow, that wasent obvious at all now was it.

Before NMOFGM butts in, ill say something intelligent.

Ya think Toyota is trying to cover their asses as long as possible? Lets say that there was a problem but it hasnt been found yet. Either they are delaying what they know or really trying to straighten it out without losing loyal customers. I think toyota defiantly dropped the ball on something as stupid as this. My mom’s 98 GS 300 kinda has this problem. The mat can push up and block the brake if it isnt “hooked” in with the cheap black hooks on the floor.

now some of the truth comes out. this will be getting interesting.

I hate all these computer controlled car parts. i don’t mind the ability to alter things a little and apply some breaking but there should be a direct connection that i can over power or attempt to. instead of actually having no connection what so ever. (don’t like the viper having electronic throttle control).

I see a top comment getter here. I wish I could buy stock on this article in internet dollars.

Toyoter has got a mess on it’s hands with this. This is a public relations nightmare from which is going to be hard to recover from. Ford knows what I’m talking about.

but they’re sooooo reliable………………….reliably kill you!

^ I see half of those comments coming from a NMOF person or fordsucks guy talking about a totally irrelevant-to-this-post Ford.

WOW!! A big corpotate company hidding important info from the general public. Who would have thunk it? A japanese company at that. I thought they love America and care about are people and want to save us from all that is wrong with domestic car companies.
I knew when I first heared this story that a floor mat was a dumb cause to the problem.
I will say this again…toyota you better find the problem and fix it before anyone else get hurt and stop with the BS so you can try to save face. You got a problem on your hands now fix it.

Until this gets sorted out, I won’t be buying a toyota! What a PERFECT excuse!!

@0-60 ur da man!

although virtually no large corporation (or even small companies for that matter) are innocent and 100% truthful, from what i have seen and one of my profs told me (who worked in Japan for 10 years in the auto-sector, and his brother still does) and he’s said a number of times that the Japanese try to cover anything up that is a sign of weakness or embarrassing, and i also read on another car site ( and ithink someone else brought this up in the other LLN article about the floor mats), that this isnt the first time Toyota has done something like this (cant recall off hand what the other instances were).
This mass perception the general public has of Toyota is frustratingly-laughable and when i try to explain how things really are to people they assume im just hating on the company, but with such a high profile recall and the NHTSA opening investigations for this and past events, Toyota’s name is going to be tarnished for some time to come.

WORST FLOOR MATS EVER!

I doubt a floor mat issue, as much as it was on a large scale, will really effect the sales of Toyota (long term)

i wish, but people will still think of toyota as a reliable and quality car brand until something bigger than this happens. The public as a whole has a short memory and is very stupid. They don’t care about something until it affects them directly.

The arrogance of this company is astounding.

@andy
I remember reading about toyota(not that long ago) destroying evidence in roll over cases where victims died due to faulty roof construction of their toyota vehicles.

Don’t know if that is what you were talking about I just remember about reading that not to long ago.

@jsi
Thanks.

@andy
“he’s said a number of times that the Japanese try to cover anything up that is a sign of weakness or embarrassing”
——————————————
>>Similar case.

Toyota execs knew of SUV control defect for years: cops
July 13, 2006

KUMAMOTO (Kyodo) A vice president and managing director at Toyota Motor Corp. both knew about a serious steering defect in the Hilux Surf sport utility vehicle in 1996, eight years before it was recalled due to an accident in Kumamoto Prefecture, police sources said Wednesday.
they were professionally negligent for not recalling the model for the eight years until the accident injured five people. Toyota officials said they felt it was not necessary to recall the model in 1996 because the defect was not frequent enough.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060713a1.html

@ JakeK66

I don’t see it as a public relations nightmare, because this site is the only one that has mentioned it. I have gone elsewhere, and haven’t seen it really upfront where people see it. Kinda sad the media doesn’t jump on this. But if it were GM, Chrysler, or Ford we’d never hear the end of it.

@rpmfan
It was on http://www.autonews.com 2 days ago it stayed on the top of the page all day with almost 100 comments.

Japanese try to cover anything up that is a sign of weakness or embarrassing.
——————————————
Ex-Toyota Lawyer Accuses Automaker of Destroying Rollover Evidence

According to CBS News, an ex-lawyer for Toyota of North America has filed a racketeering suit against his former employer. ToMoCo’s former managing counsel Dimitrios P. Biller accused the automaker of illegally withholding evidence in hundreds of rollover death and injury cases, in a “ruthless conspiracy” to suborn evidence of its vehicles “structural shortcomings.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/29/cbsnews_investigates/main5273636.shtml

Another black eye for Toyota

Well thats Toyota quality for ya. They should change their slogan to this:
Toyota, a smart way to commit suicide.

That totally not suprise me.

One of my friend had TC and got in to a car accident because of the defect brake. However, the Toyota dealer has ignore the problem, and told the insurance was driver mistake.

Few years ago there was an accident in Lexus ES and LS, that was also cost by defect acceleration but Toyota has done nothing.

Back in the 90’s when NHTSA test the Toyota mini-van, it actually turn over during 90 degree turn and all Toyota did is stop making the vehicle.

I don’t understand is that Toyota keep saying they have the best quility product, what happen now? Did Toyota quility slip now?

You know what my 2001 Toyata MR2 Spyder does the same thing. The mat will creap up and get behind the gas and break peddle. the little hook broke off years ago. I just thought I SOL. I havent seen any recall for my type of car. Hmmmmmmm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs7WI2s-CVw

Toyota has a long history of trying to hide problems with their cars, such as the toyota sludge.

@ 0-60

That may be, but what aboiut CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, AOL, and other mainstream media outlets?

That’s where the vast majority of people get their news. So that’s what I was referring to.

I don’t think it is a floormat isssue. I think it is an interferance issue with the fly by wire system I had a Honda that when I sat my cell phone near the passenger seat, the airbag light would come on. The dealer told me to put it on the center console and not on the seat or near the seat. It didn’t even have to be ON the seat . I later received a recall letter for a new seat sensor. RF was the problem. A freind of mine had a Ford Powerstroke pickup with a 2 way radio that had a wire installed too close to the accelerator petal assy. It would accelerate and die whenever the radio was being used in a two way conversation…pretty weird stuff indeed. These modern vehicles have lots of “wireless comunications” that are being affected by our cell phones, two way radios, and ipods. Thats why they want you to turn off your phone while your flying in a commercial aircraft. “Cellphones interfere with planes electronics” is what you hear on every flight. Toyota better be looking at “interferance” more than floormats or they are going to see it again, and again.

@rpmfan
Your right you don’t hear about this through those mainstream media outlets. It make me wonder if someone is padding the pockets of these people.

oh boy! this is surprising wow! better hope toyota doesn’t cover up anything else

not only R they murderers, but they R liars, 2.

ktulu, repeat after me: “are” “too”

This sounds like something GM would do !!

GM. An American Embarrassment !!

rpmfan…do a google news search right this minute for “toyota”…this is the number two link:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-recall7-2009nov07,0,1218869.story

headline: “Toyota is sued over concerns of sudden acceleration”

the entry right below that on goggle news is: “Toyota Denied Sudden Acceleration Problem For More Than 5 Years” – with 282 similar stories grouped underneath…

so 2/3rds of the top news links for “toyota” at google news include nearly 300 stories related to this issue, and some of them just came out (what is now) yesterday…you will see this picked up by network tv, probably not long after it’s picked up by the associated press…

Floormats and Computers plotting the end of the human race?

Hmm… maybe I should be scared.

-cereal

ktulu u fu*cking deuche bag. Get your grammar right… ok on to the actual story here, I own a 2000 Corolla and when u hit the accelerator right to the floor and you release the stupid pedal quickly the rpm stays high and guys i am telling i will even show you pictures that dont even have floor mats in my car. And floor mats are not the problem it has to do with the acceleration cable…

Life Free. Drive FAST.

Toyota is a piece of crap company. They thought a zip tie would help them save millions if not billions of dollars in recalls and lawsuits. Its like the audi 5000 from the 80’s. Atleast Audi could admit as a responsible company that there was an issue. Toyota sales are down 24% from last year, I hope they fall to subaru levels.

not only do they lie to save money. toyota just makes crap to save money. the head liners look like painted cardboard for headliners. the last corolla models had an option of side airbags. this was just so they could advertise that you could get side air bags. i was told from more then one dealer that toyota only imported 50 corolla’s a year with side airbags. toyota does not and never did care about safety.

Lunaticrider. would not it be. live free. not life free?

Tioyota rules. A conspiracy to cost a great company good money. GM has always covered up there defective pos cars
Long live the import.

Lets do away with floor mats and accelerator pedals all together. I am very scared now to drive my car or even leave the house without being wrapped in bubble wrap. Gawd forbid I might actually be held responsible for the safe operation of a motor vehicle.My floor mat is faulty but I am going to continue to drive it this way for years until the recall takes care of it for me. Also, I am converting my accelerator to “shoestring” drive, because unnamed studies in a podunk university have show it to be safer for lab mice.
Let’s also burn Toyota at the stake. They are evil liars who put money over lives because they are Japanese and are a business. American companies would never ever do that. Most companies would not do that. Toyota is an evil singularity who would try to make the greatest of blasphemies, a profit.

On a side note, I am very pleased to learn a new excuse for every car wreck I’m involved in where a Toyota product was anywhere in the vicinity. Also, I may use this in many of my daily activities when I don’t feel like taking responsibility for being a stoopid jacka$$. Like “I was about to make an educated, clever, response on LLN, but I had unintended accelerfication”.

@leftwingagenda

I hope your right with the last line. But yea, I’ve been searching online, and there are news stories. I just wonder how many people are actually paying attention to this stuff besides all of us here.

Toyota has met the criticisms head-on and has actully done something about it (whether it addresses the issue or not) so I predict that when the dust settles, they will emerge unscathed. Unlike in the eighties when Audi in their typical square-head German superiority chose to basically ignore the problem with the attitude that the incidents were proven to be gas and brake pedal confusion and the gold-digging Americans decided to blame the car and come after them for profit – and since the American market was secondary to them it was unnecessary to waste time on anything but minimal PR and damage-control. Then they saw their sales slide to the point they almost pulled out of North America.

The old adage proved true: There is no such thing as wrong or right… just public opinion. In other words, don’t bother with the trivial details of what the REAL issue was, just do SOMETHING that appears to address it so people will forget it and shift their attention to someone else’s scandal.

ketzer, you’re missing the point…there was a notable increase in unintended acceleration when toyota switched to a drive-by-wire system as opposed to a mechanical linkage… other words you can be driving your sarcastic self along in a manner you would believe to be responsible and safe and the car takes off anyway because of a computer glitch…

i’m not burning toyota at the stake, but you are making broad generalizations that are ignorant of the facts…

Oh gawd thats funny! LWA, you crack me up! Let’s sum up some of your generalzations…
So in the 100 years of the auto, there has never been a reported case of mechanical linkage causing a run-away (floormat not withstanding)?
Toyota/Lexus has produced how many vehicles with DBW since 2000? Billions? And of that astronomical number, they THINK slightly over two thousand vehicles may or may not have a problem associated with the DBW? What percentage of failure would that be? Sounds pretty widespread! They should stop making cars right away!
The only FACT is that no one has proven that the DBW was responsible for their inabilty to control the vehicle.

I just don’t completely understand the need for DBW on the average vehicle. On a 747… well, yeah it makes sense. You’re eliminating hundreds of feet of complex cable and pulley systems that not only decrease complexity but save weight. Now on a Toyota you’re accomplishing what… eliminating that nasty 2 or 3 foot cable that runs from the firewall all the way to the intake manifold? A system which worked pretty damned reliably on how many millions of cars for how many years? Oh yeah… and if it ever did break you were left with a floppy skinny pedal and an engine at idle. Inconvenient… yes, dangerous… not really.

I’m thinking the need to eek out every last tenth of a mile per gallon has gone a little overboard.

This has all the earmarks of gov’t meddling with a top, non-gov’t automaker. NHTSA admits that they don’t know what’s causing the problem, but they release statements to damage the reputation of the automaker.
NICE!
Their statement even seems to agree that it is a floormat issue because they say it’s “related to accelerator and floor pan design” Then this whole DBW issue is brought up by ‘crisis whore’ media hacks. There’s nothing in the NHTSA statement that even mentions DBW, nor even suggests than there might be some other issue contributing to the problem, besides the floormats and the underlying floor pan design. It’s nothing but slander against Toyota, when there is no proof that DBW is involved. Consider the following ‘crisis whore’ statement, “Perhaps even more concerning, reports of out-of-control Toyotas spiked after 2002 – the same year the Japanese automaker switched to a computer controlled drive by wire system”. That brings to mind an old statement, “liars figure, and figures lie”. Toyota probably changed a lot of things in 2002, including using a different kind of accelerator pedal with a new DBW system. Floor mats or floor pan design that contribute to holding the accelerator pedal down, really have nothing to do with the DBW aspect of the system. But the specter of a mad computer crash controlling your vehicle is a lot more scary to write about, and can do far more damage to the manufacturer.

Bg357– this is a government conspiracy? or maybe you watch to much glenn beck.

I don’t understand what the big deal is. Its just a floor mat. The most problem I had with it was with my stickshift was sometimes I would stall because the matt would restrict the clutch from being depressed all the way. But it was just a matter of re-adjusting it. If you ask me, the people that were driving and crashed were probably f@#$ing around with something like texting on the cellphone or even typing on the laptop on the highway. I see all sorts of sh*t that New Yorkers here do while driving. It’s really astonishing.

This is typical Toy Ota B.S. They can’t make a car worth a damn. Now they’re trying to exclude themselves out of any wrong doing. How low can these japs go? What a bunch of retarded hypocrites. They should be ashamed of themselves and at least offer financial support to the families of the people they killed.

^^^ 1c3dog you’re funny. Go back to your single wide and pbr.

Don’t worry. The workers responsible have all been asked to commit suicide for bringing shame to the company. To honor their memory, Toyota has and will continue to deny that there are any serious problems.

Come on everyone, it’s Toyota, just look the other ****ing way. Nothing to see here, just some floormats.

@Lawnchair88

Lmao at the “shame” comment. I wouldn’t put it pass Toyota to do that. Surprised Toyoda himself hasn’t killed himself yet, with all the recent negativity towards Toyota.

Johnny +2

@johnnycannuck
Do you want better fuel consumption or not? Drive by wire has the main advantage of getting rid on the driver over the control of air intake. So the computer can precisely control how many air should get in to have a more efficient combustion.

BullS*@T….Watch the ABC News report about this story. It proves that many of the accidents were not caused by a floormat. The people who actually lived thru the accidents stated their cars just increase speed & they couldn’t stop. They also showed that their cars didn’t have the “bad floor mats” that Toyota says is the problem.

It’s about time the real truth about Toyota is beginning to surface. If this were to happen to any of the domestic car makers, people would be all over them for it. I just don’t understand why some people are so anti-american when it comes to cars.

WHERE IS DR.PHIL —
HAS HE FINALLY FIGURING OUT THAT HE IS PHILLED WITH CRAP. WHY CAN’T HE TYPE ON THE REALITY OF TOYOTA AND THE CRAP THAT THEY HAVE BUILT?

Dr.philledwithcrap , zip ties cannot fix everything. They can help keep the toyota’s together. But, zip ties are not the answer to toyota. I know you run toyota. You have the power to help them get through this mess.

ketzer, you’re ascribing positions to me that i didn’t express…let me correct you…i make no assumptions about mechanical linkages, but if there is a statistically significant increase in unintended acceleration events that is coincident with the use of the new drive-by-wire system, then that is suspicious…

for example, if there were 20 incidents in the 10 years before the system was introduced, yet 500 incidents in the 10 years after the system was introduced , then the numbers speak for themselves…

also, if “billions” of cars were made with the drive-by-wire system, and the drive-by-wire system had no effect on the acceleration issue, then there should be no detectable increase in the rate of unintended acceleration incidents after it was employed… on top of that, if the increase in unintended acceleration occurred in multiple models simultaneous to the adoption of drive-by-wire in those models, that adds further weight…

the fact is that nobody has to prove anything to your satisfaction for there to be evidence something funny is going on here…

ketzer- Your last post had no relevance at all to what lwa had written as far as I can tell and your post before that was nothing but ugly sarcasm.

And your statement said there’s no linkage between the regular system and drive by wire, then what’s all the fuss about? Obviously they are having some problems with their drive by wire system, or problems with the way they redesigned their pedals when they made the DBW system. The link that you says doesn’t exist is the amount of vehicles that have been affected by unintended acceleration, which has gone up. If you don’t believe it has, then go find some evidence and come back with more than an opinion next time.

Bg357- Another ridiculously ugly, sarcastic post. Who do you think NHTSA is, saying that their just trying to “meddle” with Toyota? They obviously have an ongoing investigation, one of quite a few about this same problem, with the purpose of finding out what is causing this issue. They’ve ruled out that it’s JUST the floor mats causing this, but they don’t know if it’s the floor pedal design, the actual floorboards themselves or something else.
I believe that gives them the right, after Toyota says that it IS the floor mats and the NHTSA has deemed that to be untrue, for them to say that there’s ANOTHER issue at hand, even if they don’t know the exact cause of that issue.

Recent news. Please read this.

“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.
The crashes resulted in at least 19 deaths and scores of injuries over the last decade, records show. Federal regulators say that is far more than any other automaker has experienced.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fi-toyota-recall8-2009nov08,0,6120294.story

Absolutely ridiculous Toyota, it’s not the GOD DAMN FLOOR MATS! IT’S YOUR DRIVE-BY-WIRE SYSTEM! Look at this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laYrW–qYFA

It’s just that Toyota has developed a sense that because it’s the best selling automaker in the world, they think they can get away with anything, they won’t and it’ll hurt them, really badly.
I also have a co-worker who’s 07 Tacoma accelerated to 90mph before he turned the car off. He got rid of it and is never buying a Toyota ever again, and the dealer gave him a hard time. Seriously just admit it’s the DBW system before around 100,000 people get injured within the next 2 years and then you will be hated by everybody and you’ll go bust. Trust me, VW, Hyundai/Kia, or Ford will soon overtake you as the best selling automaker worldwide because you cover-up every single little problem that’ll end up killing thousands of people. And your cars will make me fall asleep behind the wheel if I drive one.

Toyota is going out of business. Victims of the American Revolution

Be American. Buy American. Don’t buy Toyota.

GM. AN American Revolution

Ketzer, I believe you’ve made a mistake… they’ve made/sold Millions of these since DBW was introduced, not Billions… I know it’s hard what with the ‘b’ and the ‘m’ separated only by the ‘n’, but please do to try to be careful next time…. typos can mislead others and lead to ignorance.

on a separate note, apparently GM and Ford have self imposed requirements that the brakes on their cars must be able to stop the vehicle at WOT. Just thought that was worth pointing out since Toyota doesn’t seem to hold themselves to as high of a standard.

Hey NMOFGM!! I think at this point Toyota is more american than GM. Alteast Toyota are assembled in the US as oppose to Mexico and Canada. So yes. Amen to that. Buy American. Buy Toyota. Not the badge engineered outsourced GM sh*t.

Toyota = Epic FAIL.

85Dingo you need to get a clue. You’re jackasss comments come off as the same drivel that gets spewed in pro-import mags like MT, CD, and Consumer Reports. Everyone knows those are lies btw, bought and paid for by the japs to make themselves look superior to domestics like General Motors.

Open your eyes, GM vehcles are the best. Best in quality. Best in reliability, and as Bob Lutz has proven with the CTS-V challenge, BEST IN THE WORLD!!!

You appear to be one of the rare few who don’t get it

Be American. Buy American. Buy GM. It is your patriotic obligation

Need more oil for GM – You might want to listen 85SingoGTR as many GM products are built in Canada. I am not sure which ones are built in Mexico. I know for sure the Equinox, Terrain, Impala, Camero are all built in Canada. There could be others as well.

That being said the I think the majority of Toyota’s are also built in Japan, but I could be wrong on this. A lot are built in Canada as well in Cambridge Ontario. Toyota is also not so innocent with badge engineering, look at most of the Lexus that are Toyota’s re-badged and over priced.

85Zingo and ajm11, you guys might want to ignore NMOFGM. He’s nothing more than a phony troll designed to encourage us to despise GM. Just skip over his worthless tripe, and you’ll find much more interesting banter between the more intelligent posters.

is the reason for birth control. Go back to your single wide and drink some pbr. lol
Buy and import and you’ll never go back.

Sometimes I miss 1115. We should all be reminded aqbout Corvette roof panels flying off right about now…

As for these issues, this is very interesting. I was unaware that there was an issue on vehicles that had no floor mats, or that the pedal was going to the floor without input as opposed to sticking down on the floor mat. Not for nothing, but this seems like a big issue, and an odd one as well. And it all comes down to this fasination with keyless ignition? I remember the good old days when a vehicle with a stuck throttle could be brought under control with the turn of the key…