Toyota replacing accelerator pedals on 4 million vehicles

PLYMOUTH, Minn. -- Toyota Motor Corp. is replacing accelerator pedals on about four million recalled vehicles to address concerns over sudden acceleration.

"I'm happy they've taken the direction they have," says Jeff Pepski of Plymouth.

While many have read about the sudden acceleration problems, Pepski says he lived it last February.  His Lexus ES-350 suddenly accelerated from 60 to 80 miles an hour.  He says he desperately tried to stop by pushing down and pulling up on the accelerator with his foot, but nothing seemed to work.  Eventually, he got the car to stop.

"It was one of the most dangerous situations I've ever been in," he says.

A similar situation near San Diego, Calif., ended tragically for a family of four.  All of them died when their rented Lexus suddenly accelerated, apparently after the gas pedal got stuck under the floor mat.

Other incidents have been reported throughout the country.

Concerns over floor mats prompted Toyota to recall about four million vehicles in September.  At the time, the company asked owners to remove their driver's side mats until a permanent solution could be found.

But Pepski had his doubts.  "The floor mat wasn't the cause of my incident," he said in late October.

Toyota is now taking action and isn't just replacing the floor mats.  The company plans to shorten the gas pedals by three-fourths of an inch on recalled cars starting in January, then install newly designed gas pedals starting in April. 

In some recalled cars, Toyota will also install a brake override system as a precaution.  That system stops the car from acceleration if there's any pressure on the brake.  To Pepski, that move is very important.

"All of the problems that I've experienced with the vehicle involving runway acceleration I think can be solved with having this brake override system," he says.

Pepski does wonder why Toyota isn't installing the brake override system in all of the recalled vehicles.  Toyota says it will be standard in many models by the end of next year.

Toyota says it's "very, very confident" these changes will address the acceleration issue and says it has no reason to believe there are problems with the cars' electronic control system.

Affected owners will be notified starting in late December.  The recall involves 3.8 million vehicles, including the 2007-10 Camry, 2005-10 Avalon, 2004-09 Prius, 2005-10 Tacoma, 2007-10 Tundra, 2007-10 Lexus ES350 and 2006-10 Lexus IS250/350.

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