That’s what the article I saw said. The cars had those new pushbutton start systems that need no keys. The respond to a security chip in your pocket. Like the Nissans are all getting. According to the article you need to hold the button down for three seconds to shut the engine down.
Then get the Toyota All-Weather mats or the WeatherTech mats. Both are perfectly safe IF you follow the directions. I had a '99 Corolla, and the mats never slid around, carpet or the All-Weather ones. Newer Toyotas have two hooks, never move. The hooks don’t get in the way, etc. Use them!
The floormats on my wife’s 2006 Sienna have no rubber backing either. The mats are flimsy compared to the OEM mats in her 98 Windstar (which the Sienna replaced). That said, there are two hooks in the floor that hold the the driver’s side floor mat in place. She’s has not had any problems with the floor mat shifting.
Ed B.
Its the mats and Toyota is not the only one. Also, if you buy those nice thick rubber mats to protect the carpet, you can have this problem. I did this on a Subaru and the gas got stuck. I braked, went to neutral and turned off the car immediately. Missed the guy in front of me by couple inches.
People Have Started To Question The Electronics Involved In The Accelerator / Engine System. Some Have Indicated That Cars Accelerated Without Any Mat Problems.
Some Involve The Toyota Prius. We’ve Seen That On This Site.
I hinted at this originally when I asked, "Do you think all of these accelerator issues are caused by floor mats or is there something else at work here? "
And another thing I have personally experienced involved driving a 2002 Ford Escort ZX2 (or some darned thing). Two different times I have driven this vehicle owned by a relative, my shoe pressed the gas and brake pedals simultaneously! The harder I pressed the brake, the harder the car accelerated. I have to really make an effort to avoid this when I drive this car. This situation should not exist.
Some will say or think that I don’t know how to drive, but how come this is the only car I’ve ever driven (over a million miles logged) in which this has occurred?
I just went out on my driveway and looked at my Dodge Caravan and full-size Pontiac Bonneville. There is a lot of distance between brake and gas pedals and between these pedals and the floor (room for mats, wrinkled or flat).
Could it be that some cars have pedals that are too close together and / or too close to the mats? Could it be that smaller cars have less space to work with? You tell me. I don’t have access to most little cars.
Which is it, mats, pedal design, electronics, inept drivers, or a variety of these?
CSA
I have large clumsy feet, which is why I use my left foot on the brakes. I can easily cover both pedals with one foot, even when there is a significant space between them. And, to move them back and forth all the time is a death wish. I have not driven a manual transmission in 36 years, except one old Beetle in rural Mexico for a couple blocks. It isn’t worth it.
And, in 50 years I have had three incidents where my car got dinged. All three of them involved my car properly dead stopped at the time of the incident, and one it was parked in my son’s driveway. Yet, people have tried to tell me right on this forum that I am a bad driver because I do not drive per their preferred driving pattern. I know what I am doing better than anyone can tell me. I am responsible for not hitting anyone, no one else is.
I have to look at my Sienna mats. I have noticed no conflict at all in 164,000 miles, but need to make sure I am not missing anything. This village is installing a sewage system, and the streets are all torn up, so the car is parked some distance away, or I would run out this minute and look at it.
The close proximity between the loud and stop pedal is not an engineering accident. Pushing both pedals with one foot(heel and toe) allows for rev matched downshifts during braking as well as hill starts without rolls.
Chunky, It May Have More To Do With The Pedals Being On The Same “Plane”, Rather Than Close Proximity. Also, Some Of These Little Cars Have A Narrow Footwell,
Requiring One’s Feet To Be In Close Proximity To Each Other.
I have owned / operated manual transmission cars, in fact I still have one (One of my Fieros is Manual). Some manual transmission cars can conveniently be heel & toed and other ones cannot. Some designs lend themselves to it, but not all (because the pedals are on different planes), with the gas pedal being much farther forward.
I’m not extremely tall, but when I drive some small cars my legs have to angle in an uncomfortable position to fit the footwell area. One look at the floor mats’ shape will verify what I’m talking about.
The problem car I was talking about has a narrow footwell, the pedals very close to each other, and on the same plane.
CSA
If we know the rationale behind close pedals placement with their resting positions on the same plane, what’s the problem? It’s just one of those characteristics about a car. Since you know why the pedals are placed so close together, you should be able to avoid pushing both pedals together. Narrow footwell, proximity of pedal’s resting position to driver seat are design flaws, but pedal proximity is not since there’s a reason for it.