Recently, Lexus and Toyota ordered a recall on 55,000 floor mats. Seems that if the owner of the vehicle does not properly hook up the supplied door mats or, adds another floor mat to the driver’s side, there is a possibility they will slide forward and lodge under the accelerator, thus causing the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably.
Now, two points here are important. One is that Toyota is doing this recall at no cost to the public, and the problem was not caused by Toyota but by owners who either took the mats off the provided safety hooks or, added a second mat which was not properly hooked.
And we should note the following from Consumer’s Report:
“Although this recall affected Toyota and Lexus vehicles, improper mat usage can pose risks in any vehicle. When installing factory or aftermarket mats, follow the directions. If your vehicle has them, utilize the mat anchors; they provide a real safety benefit of keeping the mats secure and out of the way of the pedals. And do not stack a new mat on the old one. The combined height of the two mats or a loose upper mat may interfere with pedal operation.”
Yes folks, Toyota realises there is a POTENTIAL problem caused by the owners and is making alterations to minimize this owner initiated problem. A problem that can occur in any vehicle.
Now Ford, on the other hand, builds F150 trucks with a leaky front window that can fry the electronics and potentially cause a vehicle to go out of control. Do they say anything? No, they keep repairing the electronics and don’t even notify the owners of this problem, let alone have a recall.
ETHICS!!!
Toyota takes the high road and minimizes the risk to the owner while Ford hides the problem and doesn’t even come clean with the owners and repair the damage – window, electronics, nada.
But then, what do you expect from a company that not only built machinery for the Allies but also helped out the Nazis in Germany with Ford plants and then sued the American government for bomb damage to their Nazi plants.
And we still support Ford by buying a product that could be built wrong but Ford won’t do anything about it. Maybe if there was a death or two that results in law suits. Seems their ethic level only responds to lawyers. Both at the same low level.
