hbiss; That is an interesting observation. Was the brake pedal travel excessive due to low master cylinder fluid level, worn brake pads, or another issue ?
That's a funny story DCA. And I think the automaker of the car you were driving should have recalled that model. The design engineers should have been identified and admonished for failing to anticipate this problem. Obviously the NHTSA was asleep at the wheel in your case.
Nancy Golden; I don't know if this was from the 'Wacky theory of the month club', but someone I work with believes the hot coffee lawsuit was valid because the coffee was too hot. Supposedly coffee should not be hotter than 140F, but McDonalds' coffee was 180F. Has anyone else heard this theory ?
While using 8 floor mats is obviously a problem of the consumer stupidity, wanting to use something other than the factory supplied floor mat seems well within the bounds of reasonable and predictable customer behavior. Consumers can buy a non-factory radio, which is a much more complex task than replacing floor mats. There is no requirement to buy factory windshield wipers, tires, bumper stickers, air filters, or bike racks – so why should having a safe car require buying the factory supplied floor mats?
These are not major components that change the nature of the vehicle like engines. You can't compare someone adding a supercharger to someone buying a floor mat. On the other hand, the consequences are not trivial; a cheap meter dies while a Fluke does not but in the case of the automobile if there is a floor mat problem potentially a person dies.
The attitude of "the driver caused their own problems" is not sufficient in the case where the problem is obviously caused by the driver. An out of control speeding auto is dangerous to more than just the person who caused the problem. That's a pretty compelling reason to "idiot proof" a car for problems with an item as common as a floor mat. Unlike watermellons, floor mats are generally designed to be on the floor of a car.
I think the problem begins at the dlivery room. I think doctors should be required to certify babies to have common sense.
That did not happen to me and I can't really help it now - this late in life.
For my unintended acceleration episode, I had a watermellon that would not fit in the seat next to me so I placed it on the floor. I think the problem with watermellons is their roundness. Farmers should be required to scrap all their round watermellons and only sell ones with really flat sides.
My watermellon rolled over to my side as I rounded a sharp corner, slamming the gas pedal to the floor. I'm certain this would have not happened if I were driving a Ferrari. I would have never put a watermellon on the floor of that car. Ferarri must have really good enginerrs as they anticipated no watermellon transportation.
Do any of you think I should file a complaint with the NHTSA, with Toyota, with the FDA, with the AMA or with whoever invented roundness? Someone should pay for cleaning my pants as the incident scared the #### out of me.
Just think, I could have runover a older lady in a white and pink dress carrying a bag of turnips or a child pushing a lawnmower to their neighbors to mow their grass or even a mother squirrel just out looking for an acorn for their babies. It make me shutter to think of what could have been.
That's right, Chuck. Since they were asked by the NHTSA to conduct the recall, I'm not sure how much choice Toyota had in the matter. Yet how could a design engineer anticipate something like this?
Yeah, you're right, Jenn, especially after the company's acceleration problems. Plus, it's an NHTSA issue. It just seems like overkill to run the expense of a recall in order to accommodate an improper floormat.
Once while accellerating onto the highway my shoelace hooked onto a bolt head under the brake pedal. After merging this prevented me from lifting my foot of the gas or applying the brakes.
I suppose I could have slammed into the car in front and then blamed it on an "engineer" however, I chose to shift into neutral and floor the accellerator so that I could unhook my shoe.
My biggest problem after that is how to use sign language to communicate to the guy in front (who looked like he ate Hell's Angels for breakfast.) why I was riding his bumper and reving my engine.
I had the same problem with my 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8. If you floored it to accelerate and merge into 70mph traffic the car would keep accelerating LONG after you let off the gas. I even video taped the event. The dealership was even able to duplicate the event when they test drove it.
This was at the height of the Toyota accelerating problem. Therefore, I was not taken seriously until I recorded the entire event! My dash has a digital readout that shows things like Foot Pedal position. This readout is directly below the SPEEDOMETER. Therefore, it was very easy to record my car accelerating while the foot pedal was at ZERO percent. They thought I had some trick video editing software. The swore that this was not possible! The engineers at Chrysler assured them of this.
They ended up replacing the pcm/ecm. Later the tcm was also replace (unrelated) and finally they replaced the front side control mudule (also unrelated).
I had this problem happen to me about 50 years ago with a 1953 Ford. The floor mat slipped down and got balled up under the brake pedal and over the accelerator. Not only did the accelerator pedal get pushed in what seemed to be an uncontrolled manner but when I pushed on the brake the engine spead up.
Fortunatly I had 10s of seconds to realize what was going on and was able to yank the floor mat from under the brake pedal.
Now I pay more attention to floor mats! With any luck I might think of this scenerio faster were it to happen again. Upfortunatly telling someone about this probably goes in one ear and out the other. There is nothing like experiencing the terror first hand.
This is one of those silly simple things that can really get you. Education may be a better answer here. It's hard to see how this could be completely avoided unless we just outlawed floor mats entirely.
By the way, floor mats sliding up over bottom hinged accelerator pedals was a common occurrance and was the reason so many brands switched to a suspended pedal.
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