Toyota's Woes: "Sudden Acceleration" And More

Ever since Toyota began recalling over 3.8 million cars last September, the largest recall in the automaker’s history, they have been under constant scrutiny from drivers, safety agencies, and the media. Many drivers are now concerned about the safety and reliability of their cars, especially with Toyota’s trademark hybrid car, the Prius. At first, Toyota began recalling cars back in September due to what they suspected were the floor mats that were causing sudden acceleration in many models ranging from the Avalon to the Prius. Toyota then issued another recall of 2.3 million vehicles in January, this time, due to isolated reports of sticking acceleration pedals, totaling up to over 8.3 million cars being recalled worldwide. The carmaker issued more recalls in February for braking problems in 437,000 Prius cars and defects in the front-drive shafts in over 8,000 Tacoma trucks.

However, Toyota has been working hard to cope with the ongoing crisis and restore its damaged reputation. On February 16, Toyota announced that it would shut down two of its US plants in Kentucky and Texas in order to keep inventory from piling up, but still providing pay to all of the workers. The car manufacturer recently held a press conference to disprove misleading information that the media was receiving from an earlier experiment Professor David Gilbert of Southern Illinois University conducted regarding the electronics system of Toyota vehicles. He concluded that a simple short-circuit in the system could indeed cause sudden acceleration of the cars; however, Toyota claims that the scenarios produced by Gilbert are completely unrealistic and could never happen in the real world without certain modifications of the electronic system. Toyota hired a consulting firm, Exponent Inc., to check Gilbert’s findings on several other models from different car manufacturers, coming to the same conclusion with each car tested.

But all the chaos aside, many long-time Toyota owners are still sticking with their cars, saying they believe that the carmaker will come through on this issue. Toyota declares their cars are still safe to drive, and recommends concerned owners check Toyota’s special website setup specifically for information on the recall and the models that are affected. Toyota’s recall website can be found at toyota.com/recall.