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Toyota to Expand Prius Recall

 

-Daily Finance

03/09/2010 - A day after a highly publicized acceleration incident involving a Prius hybrid sedan in California, Toyota Motor (TM) said Tuesday 2004-09 Prius models will be subject to a future recall to keep floor mats from pinning down accelerator pedals, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The driver of a 2008 Prius hybrid sedan dialed 911 on Monday to say that his car was speeding uncontrollably down a San Diego-area freeway. The driver, James Sikes, said he was accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 when his Prius suddenly took off on its own.

"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny ... it jumped and it just stuck there," said Sikes, 61, at a news conference, according to the Associated Press. "As it was going, I was trying the brakes ... it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding that he was pushing down so hard on the pedal, he could smell the brake pads burning.

A California Highway Patrolman was dispatched to help Sikes to slow the vehicle, which had reached speeds of 94 miles an hour. After pulling alongside the Prius, the officer told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake. After the vehicle's speed dropped to 50 mph, Sikes was able to turn the engine off and coast to a stop. The entire episode lasted about 20 minutes.

Toyota has dispatched a field technician to examine Sikes' car and "offer assistance," according to Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons. Toyota has already recalled some 5 million cars in the U.S. for unintended acceleration related to gas pedals that get hung up on bulky floor mats. The fix involves trimming gas pedals to prevent them from getting snagged on mats. Lyons told the Journal that 2004-09 Prius hybrids will be recalled to address the same problem, which would appear to be an expansion of a previous recall, according to the company's website.

The recall hasn't been issued yet because Toyota "hasn't developed the remedy yet," Lyons said, noting the company had previously announced that 2004-09 Priuses will be subject to a recall. Sikes' Prius is a 2008 model and subject to the recall. Last month, Toyota recalled some 155,000 2010 Prius model in the U.S. to fix problems with the anti-lock braking system.

Monday's incident couldn't have come at a worse time for Toyota, which just a few hours earlier sought to debunk tests performed by a Southern Illinois University professor showing the company's electronic throttle-control system was susceptible to glitches that could lead to sudden and dramatic acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

During a live Webcast Monday, Toyota raised issues with the methodology and credibility of a demonstration by professor David Gilbert and depicted in an ABC News segment late last month that showed the throttle-control system of Toyota Avalon sedan could be easily manipulated into producing sudden uncontrolled acceleration. Gilbert also testified before Congress about his findings last month, alongside Rhonda Smith, a retired Tennessee social worker whose Lexus ES350 suddenly began accelerating uncontrollably.

Sikes' experience was eerily similar to the one recounted by Smith in her testimony. In October 2006, she was accelerating to merge onto Interstate 40 near her home in Sevierville when the accelerator on her Lexus ES 350 sedan jammed and the car sped uncontrollably down the road, reaching 100 mph.

Through tears, Smith told lawmakers she thought she was going to die. After several miles Smith's Lexus slowed of its own accord and she was able to pull into the median and stop the car, which she then had towed away. But she criticized Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for not taking her claim seriously.

Last August, a California Highway Patrolman and three family members were killed after the rented 2009 Lexus ES 350 sedan he was driving accelerated uncontrollably to about 120 mph on a San Diego freeway and crashed. Relatives of the officer, Mark Saylor, and his family are suing Toyota, blaming the world's largest automaker for their deaths.

Estimates suggest Toyota could face tens of millions of dollars in wrongful death and injury lawsuits. That's on top of the $3 billion or more it could cost the company to settle 89 class-action lawsuits that have already been brought by Toyota owners, who claim massive safety recalls have caused the value of their cars and trucks to plummet. The number of owners claiming lost value is estimated at 6 million or more, according to an Associated Press review of cases, legal precedents and interviews with experts.

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