Ever since the national press devoured the story of a fellow in California whose Lexus accelerated off a roadway, triggering the recall of millions of Toyotas, I have expressed doubt about the risk of stuck accelerators in Toyotas. I see parallels between this recall and the unfounded claims of unintended acceleration by the Audi 5000 in the 1980s.
First, let’s put some information out there that has been overlooked by the national press, who is eager for a doomsday story affecting millions of cars. That Lexus that crashed in California was a dealership loaner car. I did not know this until I did some further reading – the national press has never mentioned this. The driver was likely unfamiliar with the car, and therefore panicked when the car exhibited odd behaviour. Another thing that has gone unmentioned by the national press is that the dealership had the wrong floormats in the car. Incorrectly-sized floormats from a different Lexus model were in place, which increased the risk of the floormat interfering with pedal operation. And lastly, why wouldn’t a highway patrol officer know to shift into neutral to keep the engine from driving the wheels and accelerating? I point to unfamiliarity with the loaner vehicle. Perhaps the driver, in the fog of confusion and panic, could not find or operate the shifter. As for turning off the car, confusion/unfamiliarity may have played a role there as well. The crashed vehicle may have had the push-button start system, but I don’t know for sure. The driver may not have known to hold the button down to turn the engine off.
This crash is what set the ball rolling with this madness, which is why I have taken the time to address it. I think the fault of the crash rests more with the driver and a poor understanding of how to handle the situation than it does with a design problem. So why do I think this recall is pure bunk? Let me explain, from a Prius owner’s perspective.
First, you need to have some really jacked-up floormats for them to trap the accelerator. In my 2007 Prius, there is a ton of room between the bottom of the accelerator and the floor.
I saw a video where a gas pedal was fully depressed and then it became stuck under the floormat. I don’t know how this is possible. I would expect the spring in the accelerator to offer more than enough force for the pedal to push back past the floormat, unless the floormat managed to cover up half the accelerator or the floormat was really heavy. But again, how would this happen? Who would have such heavy floormats, and who would be so sloppy as to allow their floormat to slide forward over the pedal? For years, I have checked the position of the driver’s side floormat before driving. It’s not out of concern about the accelerator, it’s a concern for cleanliness. I want to make sure the floormat is properly positioned so I don’t get the carpet dirty. Additionally, if the factory mats are used with the hooks, you have nothing to worry about. The mats won’t move. If you look at the above photos of my mats, you will notice I am using aftermarket Wal-Mart all-weather floormats that don’t connect to the hooks. If they are out of position, I just give the mats a little tug and move them back. They are never out of position by more than an inch.
I pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor to see if it could get caught on my floormat. My accelerator ended up pushing down onto the floormat. Absolutely positively no way the pedal could get stuck under the mat since it was pushing down on the mat. Could it get wedged against the mat? Maybe, but not likely. Even less likely considering it is rare to floor the throttle.
I took the factory floormat out of my trunk and installed it correctly, using the floor hooks. I was dumbfounded that this recall is even taking place. The floormat came nowhere near the gas pedal, and the floormat was securely anchored. Below are pics of the factory floormat correctly installed, and how the pedal is positioned relative to the floormat when it is fully floored. Apologies for flipping you the bird in one pic.
So to summarize point number one, I think it is really unlikely that your Toyota will get stuck accelerating unless you were silly enough to install the wrong-sized floormat or stacked your floormats.
Point number two – why don’t people know to put their car into neutral when it gets stuck accelerating? It’s just common sense. The [D]rive gear position means motive force is being sent to the wheels. Put it in [N]eutral, and the engine will just rev. The engine computer has a rev limiter and will not allow the engine to rev to the point of blowing up. With the engine still on, you will have full power steering and power braking, essential for getting your car safely to a stop on the side of the road. If you turn the engine off, steering and braking will be more difficult since you no longer have the power assist.
Point number three – people need to be educated about their car. Related to point number one, people should be aware of proper care and placement of floormats. The main jist of point three is that there is some unfamiliarity with the push-start buttons on newer cars. The Prius is the most widespread push-button car, but some Nissan Altimas, Lexuses, and the new Buick LaCrosse also have start buttons. There are probably more cars I am not aware of. I knew that simply hitting the power button on my Prius wouldn’t turn the engine off while driving. I knew I had to hold it down, but I didn’t know for how long. I’ll fess up to that. For the record, in a Prius you hold the button down for three seconds.
I don’t think there is a problem with these cars. It is more of a driver education issue. Make sure your floormats are installed properly, know how to put your car into neutral while it’s in motion, and know how to turn the car off if necessary.
Toyota is addressing the (unlikely, in my opinion) issue of floormats trapping the accelerator by trimming the bottom of the pedal to make it shorter. This will give more clearance between the pedal and the floor, but I think there is already sufficient clearance and this modification is therefore unnecessary.
On some cars, Toyota is reprogramming the computer so the brake supersedes the accelerator. If the brake is applied at the same time as the accelerator, the throttle will be cut off so the brake has maximum effect and doesn’t have to compete with simultaneous acceleration. That makes total sense to me, and the cars should have been programmed this way to begin with. However, the Prius is not among the cars getting this reprogramming. In reading up about this recall, I found this video in a PriusChat forum topic:
Amazing. With a floored accelerator, the Prius’ engine cut back to idle and the brakes brought the car to a stop. With the car at a stop, brake and accelerator pedals depressed, the driver let off the brake and the car lurched forward toward the end of the video. This confirmed the brakes were overriding the accelerator. Is this evidence that the Prius’ computer is already programmed to override the throttle when the brake is depressed? I don’t know, but it certainly looks that way. I would like to try this exercise myself sometime.
It would be nice if Toyota would explain why the Prius is lumped in with all these cars for the recall, but is only getting the shortened (eventually replaced) pedal but not getting the computer update or the modified carpeting. Does this mean the Prius’ engine computer is already smart enough to handle a stuck gas pedal? Do the Prius owners only need to keep an eye on their floormats?
In that case, it is not necessary for a full-blown recall. The drivers only need to be educated about their cars. Properly install and maintain your floormats to eliminate the slim possibility of the accelerator getting trapped. Know how to put your car into neutral while driving. And lastly, know how to turn off your car. In fact, Luscious Garage, the folks who made that earlier video, made two more videos about how to put a Prius into neutral and how to turn it off while driving.
Putting Prius in Neutral
Turning Prius Off
These are all driver education issues. The Camry, Avalon, and Lexus ES/IS models should have their computers reprogrammed under the recall, but the Prius seems to already handle simultaneous gas/brake pedal action correctly. Just have all the Prius owners watch the above videos, and tell us to check our floormats. We’re big boys and girls, we can do this. There is no need to trim or replace our accelerator pedals.
Personally, I will decline to have this recall work done on my Prius. My car works fine. I can maintain it and the floormats fine. I don’t want the pedal feel of my car to be changed. I know what to do in the highly unlikely event the accelerator gets stuck. Of course, I’ll get the work done when it is time to sell the car. If I trade it in, it’s the dealer’s job to make sure it has all recall work done.
In the end, I think Toyota will be vindicated like Audi. In Audi’s case, it was found that the cars did not randomly accelerate on their own. They simply had closely-positioned pedals. Drivers were hitting the gas instead of the brake before shifting, and were basically doing neutral drops when putting the car into drive or reverse. The press went to town digging up reports and interviewing people, and almost put Audi out of business. Fast forward two decades and now we’re hearing stories from people who think their Toyota accelerated by itself. All of these supposed cases of Toyota unintended acceleration are probably the result of driver negligence (improperly placed floormats) or driver ignorance (not knowing about neutral or shutting off the car). I wonder if Toyota is including the Prius in the recall as a CYA kind of thing, to show they are doing something for their halo car.
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