Toyota Recall Could Soon Encompass 9 Million Vehicles Worldwide

As of today, Toyota announced that its recent recall could encompass a total of 9 million vehicles worldwide that are affected by problems with floor mats or gas pedals. To give you perspective on the impact the recall could have on Toyota, 9 million is the same number of vehicles the company sold last year.

Toyota’s first recall started when some of its vehicles were found to have a design flaw that caused the accelerator pedal to get caught underneath of the floor mat. Toyota announced the additional recall after discovering that there was another problem with accelerator pedals in some of its vehicles, which caused the gas pedal to prematurely wear down, become difficult to depress, slow to spring back from a pressed position, or stuck in a partially pressed position. Overall, Toyota has stopped selling eight vehicles involved in the two recalls including the 2009-2010 RAV4, the 2009-2010 Corolla, the 2009-2010 Matrix, the 2005-2010 Avalon, the 2007-2010 Camry, the 2010 Highlander, the 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2008-2010 Sequoia. Furthermore, Toyota said the company would stop producing vehicles at plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and Canada. However, production will continue of all other unaffected vehicles.

Toyota executives claim that they have zoned in on a solution to the accelerator problems and planned to update their employees soon. However, the House Energy and Commerce Committee sought e-mails and other documents from Toyota executives and have now set a February 25 hearing date to address how quickly and effectively Toyota did or did not respond to consumer complaints about the safety of recalled vehicles.