Toyota Mails Warning Letters on Deadly Floor Mats

Japanese carmaker Toyota, together with its luxury division Lexus, announced today it began issuing and mailing owners of vehicles affected concerning the floor mats problem, stressing that there is no problem with the vehicles themselves, but with the "incompatible driver’s {ad}floor mat" which "interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause it to get stuck in the wide-open position."

“The question of unintended acceleration involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles has been repeatedly and thoroughly investigated by NHTSA, without any finding of defect other than the risk from an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat,” Bob Daly, TMS senior vice president said in a release.

“Toyota takes public safety seriously. We believe our vehicles are among the safest on the road. Our engineers are working hard to develop an effective remedy that can help prevent floor mat interference with the pedal.  As soon as it is ready, we will notify owners of the relevant models to bring their vehicle to a dealer for the necessary modification at no charge,” he added.

Toyota has also released the full list of vehicles affected by the problem:

• 2007 – 2010 Camry
• 2005 – 2010 Avalon
• 2004 – 2009 Prius
• 2005 – 2010 Tacoma
• 2007 – 2010 Tundra
• 2007 – 2010 ES350
• 2006 – 2010 IS250 and IS350

Toyota advises owners of affected owners to remove any removable floor mats on the driver's side and under no circumstance replace them with others. If you are a Toyota or Lexus owner, follow this links for Toyota and Lexus to find out more.