The American Association for Justice reported on a disagreement between Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) in regards to the acceleration problem in Toyota vehicles. Toyota released a statement stating that the NHSTA had confirmed "that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured." Toyota urged customers to remove the driver’s floor mat to solve the problem. However, the NHSTA responded that they did not agree that the acceleration problem was only due to floor mats, but that further investigation of a defect in the vehicles is under investigation.
NHTSA believes that the problem is related to the accelerator and floor pan design, which would be a design defect.
Toyota has now gone back on their misleading statement and confirms that removing floor mats was only intended to be, and still is, an interim solution. Defects in Toyota vehicles are still under investigation.
What is troubling is the fact that some incidents of sudden acceleration in Toyota/Lexus vehicles have been experienced in cars without all weather floor mats; some operators who have experienced sudden acceleration claim that they never pressed the accelerator, and Toyota has blamed floor mats for sudden acceleration in other vehicles not subject to the recall, while at the same time not issuing a recall for those models. In my opinion, the facts don’t add up, and it is likely that a mechanical or electrical defect will be found.
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