Toyota officially announces largest ever recall in history for “sudden acceleration” problem

Posted on Nov 30, 2009

In late September the Toyota Motor Corporation warned that they would be issuing a recall that would affect about 3.8 million vehicles. The issue, according to reports at the time, was that accelerator pedals in certain Toyota models could become entrapped in the floor mats, causing sudden acceleration and potentially leading to serious or deadly accidents.

This month Toyota has officially announced the recall, which is slightly larger than previously expected and which has expanded to Canada. About 4.26 million vehicles may be affected by the recall, which covers 8 Toyota models.

In addition to the problem with unintended acceleration, Toyota has also issued a recall for 110,000 Tundra and Tacoma pickup trucks. The pickups are at risk for frame corrosion that could damage brake lines and dislodge spare tires. The flaw has been investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which also investigated the sudden acceleration issue a number of times.

Toyota announced that it would be issuing the sudden acceleration recall after the highly-publicized death of a California highway patrol officer who was killed, along with three other members of his family, when the Lexus they were in accelerated out of control and ended up crashing.

Owners of recalled vehicles can take them to a Toyota dealer to be fixed. There is a temporary fix for the sudden acceleration issue that can be permanently fixed in April when Toyota will make new accelerator pedals available.