Reports of Toyota's problems with sudden acceleration in some of its cars burst into the headlines late last year, but a class action suit claims the carmaker was aware of the problem at least six years earlier.
Lawyers handling a class action lawsuit against the Japanese carmaker say they have found documents showing Toyota was investigating at least one report of unintended acceleration as early as 2003. In a filing in federal court in California, the attorneys cite a 2003 field report a Toyota technician wrote in response to a driver's complaint of unintended acceleration.
In the filing, the lawyers say the technician urged immediate action on the part of the carmaker, calling the problem "extremely dangerous" and expressing the fear that it could start happening more frequently in the future.
By 2004, more than 20,000 drivers had complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of sudden acceleration incidents. These cases involved a number of different brands, not just Toyota, and began in the late 1980s.
Terrifying experience
In 2007 ConsumerAffairs.com reported a Washington state consumers' detailed description of an uncontrolled acceleration incident involving her new Toyota Prius.
"As I attempted to merge into heavy traffic," Tina told us, "I accelerated up the on ramp and was attempting to place the car between two vehicles going at a rate of approximately 50 miles per hour. The car lunged forward and would not slow down without repeated pumping of the brakes."
Tina said she left the freeway as soon as she could weave her way through heavy traffic, still unable to disengage the Prius throttle. After turning off the power, she made her way to a Toyota dealer, noting on the way a "foul odor" and a malfunctioning computer display. But the Toyota service department diagnosed the problem with the runaway Prius as nothing more than a carpet jamming the accelerator pedal or driver error.
Floor mats
A month later Toyota and NHTSA agreed that faulty floor mats are the cause of runaway acceleration in the Toyota Prius hybrid as well as several other Toyota vehicles. Toyota then recalled 55,000 floor mats which are used in the 2007/2008 Lexus ES 350 as well as the 2007/2008 Camry.
However, the reports continued for another two years. Last November Toyota said it would replace or reshape accelerator pedals on 3.8 million vehicles in an attempt to deal with an unintended acceleration problem that has resulted in at least one fatal accident. The recall was expanded in January.
