http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_toyota_floor_mats

 

This story has been all over Fox Business News this morning. This 'fix' sounds too much like the low flow shower head in the Seinfeld episode, and "I don't like the sound of it". When I hear things about the folks at your local Lexus dealer reshaping the pedal, and in some cases reshaping the floor underneath the pedal, to solve a non existent problem, it scares me. We know how hard it is to get the IS accelerator pedals out in the field, yet the goons at the local Lexus dealer are going to do this with no problem? A key statement is that this recall affects only vehicles sold in North America, i.e., it's just an accident in the US that got out of control in the press, and the prospect of a juicy target by our friends in the tort business. Lexus is doing the right thing from a coporate CYA standpoint, but at the cost of inconveniencing the owner and making the product worse from a day to day functional standpoint. A shame all around.

I wonder what type of wimpy, weasely shaped pedal they will come up with so that no moron who stacks mat upon mat, from the wrong vehicle, upside down will ever be able to jam the pedal under any circumstance?

Does an owner have to agree to have a safety recall done when you take your vehicle in for repair? Is Lexus required to make the change under law?

 

There's no way they are cutting my aluminum sports pedal, not even sure the newly designed one will have aluminum version. This will ruin it.

 

i have the carpet mats which look nice and blend in with the carpet of the car. i dont want them to take it and replace it with some ****ty rubber all weather mat.

 

Unless they discontinue the Sport Pedal feature on new vehicles they will have to come up with a replacement for the aluminum version. I'm in the same boat, I have Sport Pedals that came with the car and I would howl long and hard if they would ever try to fob off the generic black rubber pedal as a replacement. An interesting twist will be those owners who replaced the original pedals with the Sport Pedals, will Lexus replace them with a Sport Pedal or will they want to put in a black pedal because that is how it came from the factory? H'mm....

 

Yes I will only accept a matching aluminum sport pedal as the revised replacement, since my car is equipped with OEM sport pkg. I am hoping they come of with that version.

 

Agreed. How Toyota handles the replacement of IS OEM sport pedals is of paramount concern.

 

sorry to derail. i was gonna get the aluminum sport pedals. Do people think i should hold off now due to the uncertainty in this recall regarding the sport pedals? Or should i go ahead and get it anyway and worry about it when the time comes?

 

The software update for the "brake override" also screws anybody who liked to rev the motor up a bit to launch the car since it sounds like it's gonna ignore accelerator input if the brake is being applied.

A completely retarded set of solutions to a problem that isn't even an actual problem.

And yeah, the dealerships can't even wash the car correctly without messing it up, I'm sure not trusting them to "reshape" my gas pedal and not have it look terrible.

Guess I won't be seeing the inside of a dealership at all if this becomes mandatory for any car they service.

 

including Canada?

 

The more I learn of the 'solution' the less I understand it. Sources say the solution is a pedal about 20mm shorter on the bottom end than the stock pedal. I just measured the vertical distance from the bottom of the IS sport pedal to the floor and it measures 70mm (2.75"), so by chopping off 20mm (0.78") the total clearance will be 90mm (3.53"). How does adding 3/4" of additional space achieve anything? You already have 2.75" of clearance, how much more do you need to be safe?? I guess the 'powers that be' have determined it is 3.5". And it would seem this sort of situation occurs with EVERY car with a top hinged pedal. Am I to believe that every other car on the road today has a clearance of at least 3.5"?? I highly doubt it, so why is only Toyota and Lexus in this recall? On older cars the pedal was hinged from the floor and it would seem that this sort of design would be particulary vulnerable to having the pedal pressed accidentally if the floor mats bunched up. Yet I've never heard of any problems like this on older cars.

 

Still waiting to see the final version of the solution(s). Hopefully it does not involve chopping gas pedals but instead gas pedals are replaced with a different acceptable version.

So far I've seen more press releases than anything else.

 

The press release states that the solution is a shorter pedal. However, until a replacement is available the highly skilled manual artisans (technicians) at your Lexus dealer will be trained to physically lop off 20mm off your existing pedal so you can continue to drive safe until they can put a new one one. Proceed at your own risk.

 

Hopefully the techs will not be sawing off these pedals. Certainly won't be doing my car, I'll opt for the replacement pedal.

Fortunately my next oil change is several months from now. I'm confident that Toyota/Lexus will have finalized the solution by then, at which point the endless press releases followed by endless speculation will diminish.

 

My all weather floor mats are hooked on correctly so no recall for me.