Toyota floor mats have also caused potentially dangerous situations in Finland

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A couple of years ago Susse Stavenhagen steered her new Toyota RAV4 compact SUV onto a main road in Vantaa’s Kivistö and stepped on the gas in order to match her speed with that of the rest of the traffic.
      While doing so she realised her gas pedal had got stuck to the floor and the car kept accelerating despite the braking attempts. The situation seemed extremely dangerous until the gas pedal finally became free and Stavenhagen managed to stop the car a couple of metres from a traffic island.
      Stavenhagen was unable to connect the problem with her vehicle’s removable floor mat, even though this was her second incident of its kind. Stavenhagen contacted the Toyota Service in Vantaa’s Kaivoksela, where the staff immediately knew what the problem was.
      The removable floor mat on the driver’s side had slid forward and wedged itself under the gas pedal, causing it to get stuck when pressed all the way down. The problem was solved by drilling holes into the matt and pushing them into pins attached to the floor.
      ”Toyota’s Finnish importer’s claim that here the entire problem is unheard of seems very strange”, Stavenhagen says with some wonder. She still drives her Toyota and is happy with the vehicle.
     
The man behind the improvident claim is Kari Skogster, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Finland. On Friday Skogster was forced to redefine his statement.
      In the company’s records there is a mention of two such incidents from 2006 and “there may well be others, too”.
      According to Skogster, since 2007 several solutions have been introduced to secure the floor mats of the vehicles sold in Finland. The floor pins are just one example.
     
For Toyota, the mat problem has become a major issue.
      In August, a driver’s side removable floor mat caused the gas pedal of a Lexus to get stuck to the floor in California.
      One of the three passengers managed to call the emergency number and explain that the speed was nearing two hundred kilometres per hour, before the car crashed, killing a family of four.
      The Toyota headquarters in Japan is now discussing whether millions of cars around the globe should be recalled for the securing of the loose floor mats.
      On Friday, Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor, expressed grief over the fatal crash that claimed four lives. According to news agency AP, “Toyota says it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States to address problems with a removable floor mat that could interfere with the vehicle's accelerator and cause a crash”.
      Toyota Motor Finland is still waiting for similar instructions from Japan.


Links:
  Toyota USA Newsroom

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