Please check your floor mats man!

3.8 million recalled!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33077383/ns/business-autos/

GAH!!!

I hate friggin floor-mats in cars just for that reason. Half my customers have their floor mat screwed up in some kind of way, so that when I get in their cars, I have to adjust the damn thing. I'm paranoid about driving off the front end rack or something...lol.

How ya been doin Rainy? Fine I hope. Nice to see that you're still around, through thick and thin. I'm not on IM much anymore, cause it interferes with my PC gaming. But you can shoot me an email, if you ever need something, and I'll try and get on.

"This is a fun place, but these people will turn on you like a pack of badgers on meth if you're not careful." - big d

The Fox News just showed a burnt wrecked Lexus that got up to 120 mph and could not stop because of the floor mats.

I have a Toyota and I have adjusted my driver's side floor mat many a time. But I can't say there is some sort of flaw with the floor mat or with the design of my car. I wear cluncky shoes or heels which definately changes how I operate my gas, break and clutch pedals.

I just stuffed my floor mat up under my seat and don't use it.

Crazy that an entire car can be engineered and tested (Lexus) and a friggin floor mat is its downfall?

I say NAY!

"Ta Friggin da"

I have a Hello Kitty truck mat in front of the cats litter box that Badger has been peeing on lately. Kind of the same thing.

LOL Ginny! I never thought of using a car floor mat for the kitty litter 'red carpet'.

"Ta Friggin da"

I once had a car that often had the accelerator get hung up on the floor mat resulting in going too fast. I always seemed able to not crash the car though.

I was going to say "are people so stupid that they can't tell when the mat is getting squished up agasint the pedals?" But that is a stupid question, of course they are.


That said, my mom's corolla has nifty hooks that go through the mat to hold it in place so that it can't shift up toward the pedals.

If they figured that out in 2003, why didn't they stick with it?

Aren't you suppose to shift the car into neutral if the accelerator sticks? Hell, maybe turn the key and shut off the car?

Am I missing something here, or does that not make much sense?

I read the story this morning about the state trooper driving a Lexus with his family, and how they crashed at over 120mph. Crazy.

It went on to say Toyota has said this (there's been over 100 incidents) - switch to neutral and turn the key. Or for push button starters, hold it for 3 seconds to kill the engine.

I guess people panic..these folks were on the phone w/ 911 when they crashed.

But it's not the accelerator "sticking" it's being pushed down by the mat, so all you really need to do is pull back the mat.

But that requires a level of common sense that I don't think is tested for in a driver's test.

To tag onto what Sam posted...

important NOT to take the key out, but just turn it to the off (or acc) position. If pulled out, in some vehicles this will cause the brakes to lock up. By lock up, I took it to mean not function.

Actually, won't the steering wheel lock in place if you remove the keys? Mine does.

I would think it would be vehicle dependent.

I have no comment on that... my brain still cannot get past how a FREAKING POLICE OFFICER couldn't think on his feet fast enough to come up with SOMETHING.