Prius owners: don't stack your floor mats!
Recently, we told you Consumer Affairs wrote the Prius had unintended acceleration problems caused by something mysterious. Consumer Affairs later wrote that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had quietly started an investigation. Today, it looks like we know what caused the unintended acceleration: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is recalling all-weather floor mats for the Camry and Lexus because it may get caught in the acceleration pedal and cause "unintended acceleration." Prius Update: Don't worry about checking the mats in your Avalon hybrid; Avalon hybrids don't exist :D
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Devin Lussier 8:22PM (9/26/2007)
There's no such thing as an Avalon hybrid!
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Brian Dreggors 8:23PM (9/26/2007)
Avalon drivers? Clueless? Say it ain't so...
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tony2x 8:35PM (9/26/2007)
Perhaps Steve Wozniak and Al Gore III. can go back to court and protest their speeding fines were the result of stacked floor mats.
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Chris M 11:13PM (9/26/2007)
There is a special hook on the floor designed to go through a hole in the mat and hold it in place. A loose mat can creep up, press against the cable from the accelerator pedal, causing it to stick. Since the mat hook is designed for just one floor mat, they are right - stacking an extra floor mat is not recommended.
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Brian Dreggors 1:11AM (9/27/2007)
I'm just going to say that the factory mats in my Aurora are 'secured' to the floor with umpteen billion little rubber spikes, or rather would be if half of them hadn't fallen off by now. Occasionally, the mat slides forward a few inches, but never, never, NEVER up and OVER the gas pedal?
Are these people just stupid or does Toyota not know how to design pedals?
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Ryan 2:01AM (9/27/2007)
Yeah, the mats in my old Subaru like to creep up under the pedal, but that usually results in the opposite effect of me not being able to accelerate. I don't see how it could be possible to design a pedal so badly that it could stick DOWN from a mat getting stuck UNDER it.
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paul34 2:07AM (9/27/2007)
I guess not a single one of these genius owners thought to push the shifter into neutral, then step on the brake pedal.
Oh, how much a simple idea can serve to save you from disaster.
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Rodolfo 5:05AM (9/27/2007)
I know it sounds stupid, but the mat is not the first thing you check when you buy a used car.It happened to me once.Gas pedal completely "locked" and brakes not reacting (due to acceleration).I honestly believed there was something wrong with the car!!!I gradually managed to shift gears back to 3rd when I finally understood what the problem was.Scared the shit out of me!
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rgseidl 7:10AM (9/27/2007)
Velcro is your friend.
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Lascelles Linton 9:10AM (9/27/2007)
Devin, thanks! Changed. I repeated an error Reuters made. "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also urged drivers of other Toyota vehicles, including the Prius and *Avalon hybrids*, to check the accessory mats to ensure they are properly installed."
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Tim Russell 11:25AM (9/27/2007)
I was in a car (his girlfriends) with a friend going to get some ice before a party and the gas pedal got stuck by her floormat. He got it under control by standing on the brakes. I hate creeping floor mats.
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Dave 12:52PM (9/27/2007)
I first reported this issue over a year ago when I had a 2005 Prius. After it happened twice in five minutes it seemed obvious what the issue was and I promptly removed the stock floor mat from under the all weather floor mat. Problem solved, but I figured it could happen to other people as well so I specifically went out of my way to report it to both my dealership and Toyota. When I first saw a posting here about out of control Priuses (sp?) I figured that had to be the issue. I just can't believe it took so long for this to get sorted out. I now have a 2007 Prius and from what I can tell it could happen with that model as well.
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Janine Arlidge 1:47AM (10/02/2007)
I did not have any floor mats when my Prius accelerated by itself! I was turning into a mall went over a bump and it totally accelerated so fast that I had to put the breaks on very hard and power off. When I powered on again it was just the same, wanting to shoot forward at a very fast speed. Check consumer affairs comment on this happening to other drivers.
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Harei Edom 6:26PM (11/14/2007)
I thought Prius owners may be interested to know about a new site dedicated to sharing personal experience about products like cars, realizing that this is a good time to spread some Prius owner experience word to the world free of commercial interest.
The site is at: http://www.myexp.org it is free and no registration is required in order to submit your experience story.
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