NEWS:   Toyota Recalls Floor Mats, NHTSA Warns Prius Owners

Not all Priuis owners buy the floor mat theory

ConsumerAffairs.Com -- September 27, 2007  -- The Toyota Motor Corp. and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have agreed that faulty floor mats are the cause of runaway acceleration in the Toyota Prius hybrid as well as several other Toyota vehicles.

Toyota announced it will conduct a recall of 55,000 floor mats which are used in the 2007/2008 Lexus ES 350 as well as the 2007/2008 Camry.  At the same time, NHTSA is strongly urging owners “make sure the driver-side, all weather floor mat is properly secured before driving the vehicles.”

NHTSA and Toyota noted that, if unsecured, the mats being recalled can slip forward and trap the accelerator pedal, causing the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably.  The floor mats in the Prius are not part of the recall but NHTSA urged drivers of Toyota Avalons and Prius hybrids to check the driver-side floor mats to make sure they are properly installed.

“Of course, depending on vehicle design, it is possible for unsecured floor mats to interfere with accelerator or brake pedals in a wide range of vehicles,” NHTSA said in a press release.  “Therefore, NHTSA reminds all drivers of all makes and models to check the driver-side floor mats for secure installation and to follow manufacturer instructions for installing the mats.”

NHTSA has also reported complaints of unintended acceleration in the RAV 4 and Tacoma pickup.

Earlier this month, NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson told ConsumerAffairs.Com that regulators at NHTSA were "aware of" complaints of runaway acceleration in the popular Toyota Prius hybrid and were in a "monitoring mode."

Prius owners skeptical Prius owners who have reported the unintended acceleration problem with their Prius hybrid to ConsumerAffairs.Com remain wary that the problem can simply be traced to floor mats.

“Here is the rub,” one California reader told us. “If it truly were the mat catching the accelerator, why did turning the car off solve the problem? There is nothing with the power button that would do this. And yet each time when I restarted the Prius it was fine. If the accelerator were caught under the mat once the car was turned off the problem did not persist,” she wrote.

NEWS:   Toyota recalls vehicles over faulty engine part

TOKYO (AP) -- July 18, 2006  — Toyota said Tuesday it is recalling about 420,000 vehicles globally, including some Echo and Prius models sold in the USA, over a faulty engine part.

The faulty part is the latest in a string of problems requiring recalls by Toyota, raising doubts over whether the automaker can maintain quality standards amid booming sales.

The recall affects about 150,000 cars sold overseas, mainly in the United States and Canada, Toyota spokeswoman ...said. These autos were manufactured in 2001.

In the United States, 24,490 cars sold under the name Echo and Yaris, as well as 8,476 Prius vehicles are affected by the recall.

NEWS: Toyota announces Prius recall

May 31, 2006 -- Toyota Motor said Tuesday that it planned to begin a global voluntary recall of nearly 320,000 of its hot-selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid sedans to repair a potentially faulty steering system component.

NEWS:   Some Priuses recalled for software glitch

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY Fri Oct 14, 6:26 AM ET

Toyota is voluntarily recalling about 75,000 of its much-touted Prius hybrid sedans to fix a computer software glitch that could cause the car's gasoline engine to shut down.