Toyota Recalls 3.8 Million Vehicles

Even what appear to be the smallest problems can turn out to have huge impacts: just ask Toyota, who has initiated a recall of about 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because of a problem with the driver’s side floor mat. The recall will be the largest safety-related recall for Toyota and the sixth-largest auto recall ever in the United States.

According to several reports, the affected vehicles have had several instances of the accelerators sticking to the floor mats, which then caused sudden, uncontrollable acceleration of the vehicles. This has led to as many as 30 crashes since 2004 that were reported to federal officials and a handful of deaths related to uncontrollable acceleration.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has encouraged owners of these Toyota vehicles to remove the floor mats and any other things that might interfere with the accelerators. The affected models include: 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2004-09 Prius, 2005-10 Tacoma, 2007-10 Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES 350, and 2006-10 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350.

Image: Flickr