I wanna go back to an article I posted a few weeks ago about Toyota and their seemingly poor safety practices. Here’s a clip from that article.
Although the sudden acceleration issue erupted publicly only in recent months, it has been festering for nearly a decade. A computerized search of NHTSA records by The Times has found Toyota issued eight previous recalls related to unintended acceleration since 2000, more than any other automaker.
That article appeared in the LA Times on 12/23.
Immediately following the posting of that article, a representative from Toyota commented here, offering a link where Toyota would give “a more complete and accurate picture of the issues raised.” Brilliant, I thought.
Here’s a very interesting segment of that very news release (which can be found here).
Q2: Toyota has conducted numerous recalls related to sudden acceleration over the past decade in the U.S. and Canada, including two previous floor mat recalls. But the problem has continued. Does this mean that the previous recalls were not successful in eliminating the problems and if so, why not? In particular, why wasn’t the 2007 recall of Lexus ES and Camry floor mats effective in preventing catastrophic accidents such as the Saylor case?
Toyota has conducted two all-weather floor mat (AWFM) recalls after receiving reports that if the floor mat (either by itself, or if it is placed on top of an existing carpeted floor mat) is not secured by the retaining hooks, the mat can move forward and interfere with the accelerator pedal returning to the idle position. If the mat is properly secured, it will not interfere with the accelerator pedal.
As reported in the law enforcement investigation, the floor mat in the Saylor accident was not only improperly secured, it was incompatible and incorrect for the vehicle. The recall recently announced addresses the fact that incompatible floor mats, or multiple floor mats could be installed and that the remedy must address that possibility.
Notice how they continued to comment on the floormats, but didn’t address the possibility that there was more going on than that. This is how Toyota “set the record straight.”
Well, it’s now the last day of January, roughly 5 weeks after this story broke, and here we are with Toyota issuing one of the largest car recalls in US history for… You guessed it… A faulty design of the gas pedals on the car. This wouldn’t be so bad if:
a: It wasn’t the second recall, the first of which applied to the floor mats and a limited subset of models.
b: People hadn’t been telling them all along that it wasn’t just the floormats and that there were other issues that needed to be addressed.
This is the point where I point out something that should be obvious to anyone paying attention:
This story would be interesting if it wasn’t so aggravating. For years, American companies have been dinged on their car quality while Honda and Toyota were held up and revered as the model by which all car companies should be functioning.
Well, if they were, we’d have even bigger problems.
We sure would. And if this was GM it would be beaten into the ground as the biggest news story ever. Instead? One and done.