Toyota has agreed to replace the accelerator pedal with a shorter one on 3.8 million cars sold in the United States as part of its biggest factory recall in history. Cars receiving the modification will include the Toyota Camry, the Toyota Avalon, the Lexus ES and the Lexus IS.
The U.S. NHTSA safety agency has alerted Lexus and Toyota owners about conditions that could cause the accelerator to get stuck in the pressed position under certain conditions. The agency “strongly recommends” taking out removable floor mats on the driver’s side in certain models and not to replace them with any other mat, either from Toyota or any other brand. After numerous reported “unintended acceleration” incidents, Toyota is now conducting a major recall on 3.8 million affected cars, but only in the United States.
Some have accused us of being behind in news. And they’d be right. We’d prefer to be first in local automotive news, but are constantly left out of the loop by the local offices of car companies because, you know, no one uses the internet to look at cars. Take, for instance, the Lexus IS 300 C. Apparently the convertible version of the IS 300 sedan has been launched in the UAE, while all the local magazines have already test-driven it. And here we are, just hearing about the GCC version for the first time in those very magazines.
While the GCC market gets only one version of the Lexus IS sedan, other markets are already playing with various IS versions and engine choices, including a brand new IS C hard-top convertible version. To make matters even more envious, Lexus offers an F-Sport package for other markets that includes dealer-fitted performance mods.