John: Toyota recalls models in accelerator scare

Feb 11 2010 by John Avison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

I suspect Paul and his pals knew about Toyota accelerator pedals long before Toyota itself owned up and got the media all frantic last week.

It is, really, a question of owning up.

Late last year when the present problem reared its head, Bob Daly, senior vice president for Toyota Motor Sales USA, said: “The question of unintended acceleration involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles has been repeatedly and thoroughly investigated by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) without any finding of defect other than the risk from an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat.”

Floor mat? How wrong can you be?

In this instance, we’re looking at some much more serious than battery-death which was the problem with my car.

Battery-death is a malady that usually occurs overnight and is discovered when you try to start the thing up the next morning.

The Toyota ruckus is potentially disastrous.

The accelerator pedal mechanism sticks while you’re in motion, sometimes throwing your vehicle forward and out of control.

And it’s not one model that’s affected.

Toyota has admitted that this ‘rare’ defect has been detected in seven models, including the popular Yaris, Avensis and Corolla and models bought between 2008 – and last month might be at risk.

Websites abound with stories of this fault causing fatalities, but nothing has yet come to court – so the jury’s not only not out, it is not even in. Blame-layers are advised to exercise caution!

I’ve noted before that market forces are extraordinarily fierce in vehicle manufacture.

When you drive a vehicle off the forecourt these days, you are driving away a small miracle of precision engineering.

In many ways it’s odd that these incredibly complicated machines don’t have more faults.

This will not satisfy Toyota owners, I suspect, who will continue to bay for blood and could well change the company’s international fortunes.