Throttlegate; could stick throttle issues on Toyota's cars go back to 2004?
It looks as if US investigators have turned up problems with Toyota sticky throttles – and accidents relating to the problem – going back as far as 2004.
The whole Toyota Recall problems continue to rumble on. Although the sticky throttle issue is being addressed by one of the biggest worldwide recalls in car history, there seem to be issues with other Toyotas which will be rearing their head before long.
But by far the biggest problem for Toyota – and not just in terms of the cost and damage to reputation – is ‘Throttlegate’, which looks set to take a nasty turn for Toyota if reports coming out of the States prove to be right.
The US Government are pursuing Toyota hard and trying to get to the bottom of how old the sticking accelerator issue is, and have told Toyota boss Akio Toyoda to get his arse over to the States to testify in front of a Congressional hearing on the problems. And in an effort to get as much background as possible the US Government has been getting insurance company records linked to Toyota accidents going back to 2000.
One insurance company – State Farm – contacted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) earlier this month to say it had accident reports going back to 2007 citing a stuck throttle as the cause of an accident. But it has now revised that – after digging back further – and has turned up accident reports for as early as 2004 where it appears a stuck accelerator was the cause of the accident reported in a Toyota.
All of which is a big concern, as the oldest cars said to be potentially affected by the Toyota sticky throttle were built from 2005. If the accident reports by State Farm turn out to be true then Toyota could have an even bigger problem on their hands. As could the owners of every Toyota made in the last decade.
If things carry on as they are we could see the end of Toyota as one of the world’s biggest car makers. It already seems likely they will be overtaken by VW, but if it turns out that a decade’s worth of production by Toyota has potentially lethal faults Toyota could potentially go under.
We’ll keep you posted when we get more info.
Source: Automotive News US
D Bannerman says
Last week (Nov 2010) the throttle on our 2004 Toyota Corolla (standard) began to accelerate on it’s own while in Cruise Control, It kept acellerating all the way to 140K. Luckily my wife didn’t panic and shut down the engine with the key while on the Cobequid Pass. Then each time she tried to start it again, it revved instantly to full throttle. We had it towed to the Toyota Dealership in Truro where the next day their service department told us it was probably caused by the clutch plate… huh ????? How stupid do they think we are ? How can a faulty clutch cause an engine to instantly race to 10,000 rpm and stay there. Needless to say, no one will touch the car until we get a professional response from Toyota. Oh and as for Oregans Toyota in Dartmouth where we bought the car from… thanks for nothing. They said they can’t help us because we haven’t had the car serviced there… little wonder, we live 100 K away. Thanks O’Regans..for driving the lowest standards. Perhaps we’ll hear some better news from Toyota this week. If not, we have a lawyer who wants the file. All we wants is the car fixed…but if it isn’t, we’ll probably go public in a HUGE way !!
daren langley says
This problem goes much further back than 2004 i was hit in a 3 car pile up by a toyota avensis automatic estate back in 2000 the driver stated under oath that he hit the brake and the car just took over and accelerated at full throttle into the car behind me i was stationary so was the car behind the impact was measured at 55 mph i am considdering contacting my insurers at the time as the poor man who hit us was now it seems not to blame neither were his insurers