Toyota’s reputation has been tarnished by a series of quality problems that prompted the car maker to recall an unprecedented number of cars to fix a defect that causes random acceleration.
In November 2009, after a succession of “runaway car” incidents that resulted in fatalities, Toyota initiated a recall of 3.8 million vehicles.
The recall was known as “Floor Mat Entrapment” and Toyota blamed the unintended acceleration on the incursion of an incorrect or out-of-place front driver’s side floor mat into the foot pedal well, which can cause pedal entrapment.
Motorists began removing the floor mats yet problems persisted. Tragically four people died in Southlake, Texas late last year when a runaway Toyota sped through a fence and landed upside down in a pond. The car’s floor mats were found in the trunk of the car, where owners had been advised to put them as part of the recall.
This urged a second recall in January 2010 of over 4 million vehicles worldwide, known as “Sticking Accelerator Pedal”, that was based on mechanical sticking of the accelerator pedal that caused unintended acceleration. There is a view that the first recall was simply a cover-up by Toyota.
Further magnifying Toyota’s woes, in February 2010 Toyota announced the “Anti-lock Brake Software” recall of its current generation Prius vehicles with reports of braking problems. The recall entails a software fix for the ABS system, to improve brake response.
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