Instructional video on how to stop a runaway Toyota...

I've been watching the status of all this about the accelerator pedal with a lot of interest. The high level of interest is because my accelerator has hung up on the floor mat 5 or 6 times. I've learned not to gun it. That's how I have solved the problem. So today I called my local dealer who does all my work. My car is a 2005 Prius. They looked up my car and told me it was made in Japan and is not involved in the recall, but that I can bring it in at my own expense. Despite the fact that the accelerator will stick. I would think this would be disturbing news to Toyota. Not disturbing enough I guess. My problem is that I can never get the floor may lock device thingy that is furthest from the gas pedal and closest to me to actually lock. It just can't be forced down into the hole it's supposed to go into. But they will be nice enough to fix it at my expense. Great.

Don't wait for the dealer to fix it. I'd just replace the mats and forget about it. If you think this is a danger to the public then contact someone that'll listen to you. My guess is that you'd have a lot of leverage in this matter due to the public hysteria. If this happened to me one time, I'd think it was a fluke, two times and I'd be alarmed. It wouldn't happen a third time let alone 5 or 6 times.

hold on a second - our friend alleges that after hearing about stuck accelerators:

"my accelerator has hung up on the floor mat 5 or 6 times."

do believe that to be true? you don't think our friend might not be one of the weak-minded that's susceptible to the power of suggestion?

our friend goes on to say:

"I've learned not to gun it. That's how I have solved the problem."

he "solved" the problem by not pressing the gas??? that's like "fixing" a broken seat belt by not crashing!

You're right that our friend's story is a little fishy. Guess I'm a gullible guy. :-)

You're right, it's not a fix. This all happened within the first few years I owned it. Before there was any talk of this happening and my "weak mind" had no information to be susceptible to. I learned not to stomp all the way down on the accelerator. That worked. Anyway the point here is that I contacted my dealer with this and they had nothing to offer. Even if this was a made up story here, I can't see a reputable Toyota dealer dismissing it out of hand, even if you do, which is fine by me. As the dealer represents Toyota, I see an ongoing problem with Toyota. By the way, I just reproduced the situation. The damn floor mat wants to move in towards the console, which pushes the top part of it up towards the gas pedal. The little plastic part that keeps the floor mat from moving doesn't want to sink into the hole it's supposed to fit in. That makes the whole mat sort of "spin" to the right. I'm aware of it and know how not to have an issue with it. How many others with my year Prius are being ignored by Toyota, that's my only question. I think I'll take it in and show them as it is to this day reproducable(sp.), and see what they have to say

You wouldn't be the service manager I talked to today by chance, would you?

In article , snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com says...

You were clear in your initial post. He's a Toyota fanboy. You're a Toyota customer. Big difference. But since it sounds as if you have a good dealership, the simple approach is to drive there and ask them to attach your floor mat. They may have a routine for phone calls to slow down all the fixes they are doing, or you may have been misunderstood about it being the floor mat causing your problem. I bet they jump right to attaching your floor mat, even if a tab is distorted or the hole is the issue. Let us know what happened. Even if it hasn't been said, since those are now a safety issue, I suspect the connectors at least are now lifetime guaranteed. Just don't abuse that guarantee by breaking a tab when the mat gets dirty so you can get a new mat. I wonder what came first - locking floor mats or bad pedal design. Whichever, it shows that violating the KISS principle is dangerous. When I first heard of floor mats causing accidents I was a bit shocked. Floor mats. The worst issue I've had with floor mats in many car and many years of driving is adjusting aftermarket mats once in a great while. Designing floor pans, gas pedals or floormats to where the mats and floor need a number of connectors seems to violate KISS. And the worst drivability issue I've had with the pedals of any car is a couple times dropping something that is just the right size to wedge behind the brake pedal. User error, and easliy rectified.

We didn't get to be 'fanboys' by not being 'customers' first. When your head comes out, does it do it with a loud !!!