Toyota's runaway-car worries may not stop at floor mats
By Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger

The 2009 Lexus ES 350 shot through suburban San Diego like a runaway missile, weaving at 120 miles an hour through rush hour freeway traffic as flames flashed from under the car.

At the wheel, veteran California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor desperately tried to control the 272-horsepower engine that was roaring at full throttle as his wife, teenage daughter and brother-in-law were gripped by fear.

"We’re in trouble. . . . There’s no brakes," Saylor's brother-in-law Chris Lastrella told a police dispatcher over a cellphone. Moments later, frantic shrieks filled the car as it slammed into another vehicle and then careened into a dirt embankment, killing all four aboard.

The tragedy Aug. 28 was at least the fifth fatal crash in the U.S. over the last two years involving runaway Toyota and Lexus vehicles made by Toyota Motor Corp. It is also among hundreds of incidents of sudden acceleration involving the company's vehicles that have been reported to Toyota or the federal government, according to an examination of public records by The Times.

Toyota has blamed the incidents -- apart from those caused by driver error -- on its floor mats, asserting that if they are improperly installed they can jam open the accelerator pedal. A month after the Saylor crash, Toyota issued its biggest recall in company history, affecting 3.8 million vehicles in model years as far back as 2004. But auto safety experts believe there may be a bigger problem with Toyota vehicles than simply the floor mats.

The Saylor crash and others like it across the country, they say, point to a troubling possibility: that Toyota's ignition, transmission and braking systems may make it difficult for drivers to combat sudden or unintended accelerations and safely recover, regardless of their cause.

Toyota is not the only car company to be hit with reports of sudden acceleration, but the San Diego fatality, the massive recall that came in its wake and Toyota's position as the world's largest automaker have focused intense scrutiny on the company by federal safety regulators and others.

"This is Toyota's Firestone," said Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, a Rehoboth, Mass., auto safety consulting firm. He was referring to the public relations disaster that hit Bridgestone/Firestone almost 10 years ago over defective tires that caused a series of fatal accidents.

"Right now," Kane said, "when you say sudden acceleration, Toyota is it."

In addition to Saylor and Lastrella, the San Diego crash killed Saylor's wife, Cleofe Lastrella, and their only child, 13-year-old daughter Mahala.

Signaling how seriously the company takes the incident, Toyota President Akio Toyoda made an apology this month while meeting with the Japanese news media.

"Customers bought our cars because they thought they were the safest," he said. "But now we have given them cause for grave concern. I can't begin to express my remorse."

One remedy being considered by Toyota implicitly acknowledges what critics have been saying for almost 10 years: that the company's highly computerized engine control system lacks a fail-safe mechanism that can quickly extinguish sudden acceleration events, whether they are caused by floor mats, driver errors or even unknown defects in the electronic control system, as alleged in some lawsuits.

Reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles has resulted in nine federal inquiries and investigations since 2000, two of which determined that there were improperly positioned floor mats. Another found a loose part in Sienna minivans, and yet another probe remains open. The rest were dismissed with no findings of equipment problems.

In most Toyota vehicles, the floor mats are held in place by two clips, which can come loose. Toyota offers a standard carpeted floor mat and an optional rubber version. Both mats have a cutout around the accelerator pedal. The vehicle driven by Saylor had a rubber floor mat, but Toyota said it was for a different model of Lexus.

Since the San Diego crash, Toyota has urged all its customers to remove their floor mats as an interim fix. But longer term, Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said, the company is examining significant design changes.

One possible remedy is to redesign the accelerator pedal to make it harder to get caught by a floor mat, he said. Another potential fix, he said, involves reprogramming the engine's computer to automatically cut power when a driver brakes while the gas pedal is depressed.

Such fail-safes are needed, auto experts say, because sudden acceleration can cause drivers to panic, diminishing their ability to take swift action -- such as shutting off the engine or shifting into neutral.

By Margaret Cronin Fisk and Alan Ohnsman

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. has failed to correct a problem with the throttle control system on some of its vehicles, causing them to suddenly accelerate, lawyers for consumers said in a lawsuit.

Los Angeles residents Seong Bae Choi and Chris Chan Park, who claim they experienced multiple instances of unintended acceleration, filed the suit as a class action on Nov. 5, seeking to represent all U.S. owners of certain Toyota and Lexus models.

Toyota last month said it would recall as many as 3.8 million vehicles including Lexus ES luxury cars, Camry sedans and Prius hybrids over a potential flaw in which floor mats shifting out of position could jam the accelerator pedal. The mats aren’t the problem, plaintiff’s lawyer David Wright said.

“Neither driver error nor floor mats can explain away many other frightening instances of runaway Toyotas,” Wright said in a statement. “Until the company acknowledges the real problem and fixes it, we worry that other preventable injuries and deaths will occur.”

John Hanson, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said he hadn’t seen the suit and declined immediate comment.

2,000 Complaints

The plaintiffs claim Toyota and Lexus owners have made more than 2,000 complaints of sudden acceleration to the company and government agencies. They also allege that sudden acceleration episodes have resulted in accidents causing 16 deaths and 243 injuries.

Toyota failed to “incorporate important failsafe measures” allowing drivers to control the vehicles, the lawsuit said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Oct. 30 declined a request to investigate Lexus ES models for possible flaws related to vehicle electronics that may also cause unintended acceleration.

The plaintiffs in the California lawsuit claim that unintended acceleration episodes are linked to an electronic throttle control system called ETCS-i in these vehicles.

An initial design called for “an electronic throttle control and a redundant mechanical linkage between the gas pedal and the engine throttle control as a failsafe in the event of a sudden unintended acceleration,” according to the complaint.

This feature would disconnect the electronic throttle control and allow a driver to stop the vehicle, the plaintiffs said. The company began selling vehicles without this feature around 2001, the consumers allege in the lawsuit.

‘Failsafe Measure’

They also claim Toyota failed to include another “failsafe measure” that would “automatically reduce the engine to idle when the brakes are being applied while the throttle is in an open position,” according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs are asking for an injunction, ordering the company to recall all Toyota and Lexus vehicles equipped with ETCS-i.

On Oct. 30, in a statement posted to the Federal Register denying a request for further investigation of Lexus ES models, NHTSA said “the only defect related to vehicle speed control in the subject vehicles involved the potential for accelerator pedals to become trapped near the floor by out-of-position or inappropriate floor mat installations.”

The agency said that after interviewing the Lexus ES owner who sought a federal investigation, examining his vehicle and conducting a range of tests on drive-train and electric systems, it failed to find sufficient evidence of electronic flaws.

The agency said that denying the petition “does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist.”

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, has its U.S. sales headquarters in Torrance, California. The company is based in Toyota City, Japan.

The case is Choi v. Toyota Motor Corp., CV 09-08143, U.S. District Court, Central District of California.

WASHINGTON – Toyota plans to replace the gas pedals on 4 million vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration, a flaw that led to the sixth-largest recall ever in the U.S.

The repairs are a critical step to restoring the reputation of the world's biggest automaker, which suffered a blow when the recall was announced in September after years of making safe, reliable cars and trucks.

In plans outlined Wednesday, dealers will offer to shorten the length of the gas pedals by three-fourths of an inch beginning in January as a stopgap measure while the company develops replacement pedals. New pedals will be installed by dealers on a rolling basis beginning in April, and some vehicles will get a brake override system as a precaution.

The massive recall is the largest in the U.S. for Toyota Motor Corp. The Japanese automaker had earlier told owners to remove the driver's side floor mats to keep the gas pedal from becoming jammed.

Popular vehicles such as the midsize Camry, the top-selling car in America, and the Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid, are among those to be fixed. The recall also includes the luxury Lexus ES350, the vehicle involved a fiery fatal accident in California that focused public attention on the danger.

Spokesman Irv Miller said Toyota is "very, very confident that we have addressed this issue." Toyota has no reason to believe that there are problems with the cars' electronic control systems, he said. An electronic-control malfunction also could cause unintended acceleration.

Toyota officials said the floor mats are only sold in the U.S., and the recall would be limited to North America.

Toyota would not say how much the repairs would cost, but analysts expected them to be extremely expensive because of the work involved and the manufacturing of new pedals. Toyota also said it would provide newly designed replacement floor mats.

Toyota developed a sterling reliability reputation but faced challenges as it rapidly expanded. While recalls do not always indicate poor reliability, Toyota executives are concerned about large numbers of recalls and have pushed for improved quality controls.

In a separate action, Toyota announced Tuesday the recall of 110,000 Tundra trucks from the 2000-03 model years to address excessive frame rust.

"Their reputation has taken a hit because the actual quality has taken a hit," said Aaron Bragman, an automotive analyst for the consulting firm IHS Global Insight. "That's absolutely critical for Toyota to get that fixed because that's the central pillar that they've built their business on."

Bartender Fitzroy Cunningham of Homestead, Pa., near Pittsburgh, owns a 1999 Lexus that's older than the recalled vehicles. He says he trusts the company and would buy another Lexus.

"It's a reputable car company, and they aim for perfection, so (the recall) was surprising," Cunningham said.

Scott Northcutt, a dealer in Enid, Okla., said he was confident that Toyota would do the recall properly. Only a few shoppers have mentioned the issue, and he does not think it cost him any sales.

The recall involves 3.8 million vehicles, including the 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2004-09 Prius, 2005-10 Tacoma, 2007-10 Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS250/350.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 4.26 million vehicles would be covered, including new cars and trucks sold or manufactured since September.

The nation's largest cumulative recall occurred in several increments during the past two years and involved 14 million Ford vehicles with faulty cruise-control switches that could cause fires.

The largest single recall happened in 1996 involving 7.9 million Ford vehicles that needed new ignition switches.

The Toyota recall came about after a high-speed crash in August involving a 2009 Lexus ES350 that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three of his family members near San Diego. The Lexus accelerated to more than 120 mph, struck a sport utility vehicle, bounced off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.

In a frantic 911 call, a family member said the accelerator was stuck.

Investigators determined that a rubber all-weather floor mat found in the wreckage was slightly longer than the mat that belonged in the vehicle, and it could have snared or covered the gas pedal.

The government has attributed at least five deaths and two injuries to floor mat-related acceleration in the Toyota vehicles. Regulators have received reports of more than 100 other incidents.

A Massachusetts safety consultant who has investigated the Toyota cases has found more than 2,000 incidents with 16 deaths and 243 injuries potentially tied to gas pedals.

Toyota and the government said dealers will shorten the length of the accelerator pedal and in some cases remove foam beneath carpeting to increase space between the pedal and floor. Owners of the ES350, the Camry and the Avalon will get first notification because the vehicles are believed to be at the most risk.

Toyota also plans to install a brake override system on the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES350, IS350 and IS250 models. The system will ensure the vehicle will stop if the gas and brakes are applied simultaneously. Toyota plans to make the system standard on new Toyota and Lexus models by the end of 2010.

The automaker and government regulators have been discussing a potential fix for several weeks. Toyota urged owners in September to remove driver's side floor mats, saying that unhooked mats or replacements stacked atop the originals could lead to stuck accelerators.

John McEleney, a dealer in Clinton, Iowa, said the recall should not damage Toyota's reputation for quality. Toyotas are more reliable and quieter than ever, and that's how most people judge quality, he said.

Recalls, he said, are inevitable when a manufacturer assembles thousands of parts to make a car or truck.

"They're such complicated machines. I think there's always going to be issues that become concerns from a safety standpoint," he said.

Tom Beck, a mechanic from Irwin, Pa., near Pittsburgh, said the recall and the possibility of sudden acceleration would not influence his decision to shop for a new Prius to replace a Honda Civic.

"I'm a mechanic," he said. "If something were to happen, I would just turn the key," Beck said.

For more information, owners can contact Toyota at 800-331-4331 or the NHTSA hot line at 888-327-4236.

Toyota also plans to install a brake override system on the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES350, IS350 and IS250 models. The system will ensure the vehicle will stop if the gas and brakes are applied simultaneously. Toyota plans to make the system standard on new Toyota and Lexus models by the end of 2010.