Toyota and Lexus floor mat recall is official

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has declared that Toyota will recall the 3.8 million vehicles affected under the prior notice. Previously, Toyota had presented its floor mat entrapment announcement as a “safety advisory.”
 
Toyota will notify owners, advising them to remove the mats and not replace them, pending development of model-specific replacements.
 
The NHTSA recall notice does not include the 2010 Avalon and Tacoma, yet these models are on Toyota’s list. It is recommended these owners err on the side of caution and remove their mats.
 
Depending on how quickly Toyota can produce and distribute replacement mats, the wait may be inconvenient for some consumers living in snow-belt regions where foul winter weather is just a few short weeks away. Owners should resist the temptation to replace the mats, as aftermarket mats could have greater risks if they are not secured with the factory mat anchors.
 
The impacted vehicles:

2005 - 2010 Toyota Avalon
2007 - 2010 Toyota Camry
2004 - 2009 Toyota Prius
2005 - 2010 Toyota Tacoma
2007 - 2010 Toyota Tundra
2007 - 2010 Lexus ES350
2006 - 2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350

 
For customer service questions, contact:

Toyota – 800-331-4331
Lexus – 800-255-3987

 
For more information and advice, read: “Toyota advises 3.8 million Lexus and Toyota owners to remove floor mats.”

Learn about safety techologies in our car safety section.

—Jeff Bartlett

Comments

[Ted Brucker]

The Los Angeles Times has now published three articles about the Saylor / Lastrella runaway Lexus ES 350 tragedy. What is so compelling about these articles is the fact that you have an experienced, cool headed CHIP officer who was unable to prevent the tragedy. In addition his brother-in-law was in the passenger seat and made the cellphone call while Officer Saylor gave his full attention to trying to avert the tragedy.

More specifically, the articles make the following points:
1. Officer Saylor was not only a CHIP, but a vehicle safety inspector. He was trained in all the defensive driving tactics. CHIP Officer John Concepcion notes that Saylor obviously kept his cool because he tried to forestall an accident by staying away from certain freeways and offramps. And he provided information to his brother-in-law during the 911 call.
2. The Lexus was a new model from the Toyota dealership. It was loaned to the Officer while his Lexus was being serviced.
3. The just released NHTSA report reveals that there was heavy damage to the brakes (which is not a surprise). The lower edge of the accelerator pedal was bonded to the rubber floor mat. (Toyota indicated that the mats were incorrectly installed by the dealership.) The NHTSA also noted that the design of the pedal could increase the risk of obstruction.
4. The Los Angeles Times says that a review of NHTSA documents on previous investigations of Lexus vehicles showed that the "Lexus ES braking system loses power-assist when the throttle is fully opened, increasing braking distance fivefold."

A number of experts contacted by the Los Angeles Times suggested that a kill switch be installed to shut off the engine in such an emergency. The NHTSA noted that there was no information label beside the START button indicating that it must be depressed for over three seconds.

Everyone agreed that the problem, whatever its cause, must be incredibly difficult to control if an experienced CHIP Officer cannot control a new Lexus in good mechanical condition to prevent a tragic crash.

The three articles are available here:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-recall18-2009oct18,0,739395.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fi-toyota-death18-2009oct18,0,1101556.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-toyota-crash25-2009oct25,0,2288195.story

In addition the 911 cellphone call is available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHGSWs4uJzY

[Laura]

So the 2010 Prius owners do not have to remove mats?

[Elle Courtney]

This floor matt in my Lexus has jammed twice and each time it was breath takingly scary. The first incident I was stuck on ice in front of my house. Can you imagine the damage that could have occurred if the wheels were on something other then ice.... We shut the car down as it was just completely out of control when we noticed the rubber floor matt was interfering with the gas pedal.
The second incident i was driving on a windy back road in CT when I accelerated and the car was stuck in the accelerated position. I had remembered the earlier incident on ice and pulled the floor matt free. I was seconds away from driving off the road and an embankment. In the meantime I had applied my breaks and put the car in nuetral. The burning rubber was tremendous. I called my dealer from the car that night and they said they knew about the problem and confirmed it was the floor matt. Yes I needed a brake job that was untimely.
Yesterday I received a recall notice in the mail. The notice is that lexus advises you remove the floor matt and they have NO fix.
I have paid hard earned money for a car that I thought was expertly designed. It is unacceptable that Lexus does not know what to do to fix the problem and that there they created such an unsafe problem.