Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. has added more than 150,000 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h 2010 models to its previous 2009 recall that modified accelerator pedals because of floor mat interference that resulted in unintended acceleration accidents and deaths.
The latest Lexus floor mat recall is the result of ongoing complaints filed by owners on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website or phoneline. It took another NHTSA inquiry to Toyota back in May to prompt Toyota to action. With virtually instant feedback available at the world’s largest auto safety agency, automakers are increasingly under pressure to fix defects and institute recalls within five business days as is required by U.S. safety regulations.
NHTSA confirmed this summary in a statement that said in part, “NHTSA requested that Toyota conduct an immediate recall of model year 2010 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450 H vehicles for a serious safety issue involving potential pedal entrapment by the floor mat.”
So NHTSA asked Toyota once again to conduct a recall. NHTSA is also requesting additional documentation from Toyota and is considering opening another investigation into whether Toyota met its obligation to notify the agency and conduct a recall in a timely manner.
The original cover-up by Toyota of what now continues to be an ongoing safety defect resulted in record fines of almost $50 million from NHTSA. It turned out that North American Toyota executives had neither the authority, nor apparently the inclination to take action about the growing number of complaints about stuck gas pedals. Recalls by Toyota are instituted from Japan in spite of promised reforms at Congressional hearing covering the original coverup.
Between July 2003 and April 2009, NHTSA opened eight separate investigations of Toyota and Lexus models for possible unintended acceleration defects. Consumer complaints caused all of those investigations. In those investigations, NHTSA never determined a cause and closed them without recommending any recalls. Worse, in revolving door Washington, former Toyota employees were part of the NHTSA investigation process that lead nowhere.
The latest recall is caused by the same safety defect that was ignored by Toyota and NHTSA for years. There remains the potential for an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat to interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause it to be stuck in the wide open throttle position. A stuck accelerator pedal can case high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop the vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death, as has been gruesomely demonstrated on U.S. roads.
Lexus in the latest required NHTSA defect filing said this problem does not exist in vehicles where the driver side floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured. However, it was and is a common dealership sales technique to add optional floormats to new vehicles to increase the transaction price and profits, and apparently, not all of them are safe. Owners also install aftermarket floor mats that can potentially interfere with what is a poor accelerator pedal design used by Toyota that allows little clearance between the bottom of the top hinged gas pedal and the carpet.
Lexus is currently preparing technical instructions and materials to perform the pedal modification for this safety defect. It will no doubt include sawing off the bottom of the accelerator pedal – hardly Lexus like quality – or replacing the pedal assembly with a redesigned one – as it did previously.
The initial Toyota report of this expanded recall was missing the mandated chronology of events, including a summary of all warranty claims, field or service reports, and other information, including accidents and fatalities, with their dates of receipt. In an updated and terse NHTSA filing just made public, details on the dates and claims are still lacking.
The Department of Transportation that NHTSA has a huge $79 billion annual budget, but little of the money is actually allocated to auto safety. This is curious since motor vehicles are responsible for 95% of the nation’s transportation deaths, but mysteriously only 1% of what looks to be a bloated Transportation budget. Worse, the enforcement arm of NHTSA has an annual budget of less than $20 million – laughable in the face of auto companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue from vehicle sales and billions in potential legal liabilities.
In spite of promised reforms at the time by Toyota, responsibility for recalls still resides at Toyota in Japan.
See also:
- BMW Follows Toyota by Paying $3 Million Fine for not Reporting Safety Defects within Five Days to NHTSA
- NRC Agrees Toyota Unintended Acceleration Mechanical – but NHTSA Didn’t Address Auto Electronics Safety Concerns
- Ford Recalls More than 1 Million F-Series Trucks for Fuel Tank Fires. Reverses No Risk Stance after NHTSA Digs Deeper
- Toyota Recall Study Finds Adversarial Relationship with NHTSA
- Volvo Fined $1.5 Million for Not Reporting Safety Defects
