The Toyota Recall

In January of this year, Toyota initiated a recall of 2.3 million vehicles due to a problem in which the gas pedal can become stuck, causing the vehicle to accelerate out of control. This number doesn’t even include the cars recalled due to a separate issue in which the floor mat can become stuck on the gas pedal itself.

No doubt this has caused many of us to wonder about the true safety of our own cars, even if not affected by the recall. I spoke with Dan Kolasinski, Mercedes Service Manager, about this in regard to the cars we have at Concours.

Many newer cars are made with technology called drive by wire, a feature that many news stories bring up when referring to Toyota’s recall. Drive by wire essentially means that the driver is no longer in direct control of the throttle when depressing the gas pedal because that linkage doesn’t exist. Instead, a sensor sends a signal to the computer and indicates how much gas to give based on the position of the driver’s foot. All of the cars we represent here (Mercedes, Mazda, Porsche, Saab, Volkswagen, and BMW) have available drive by wire technology (please check with your service representative for specific years and models).

Toyota has drive by wire, too, but drive by wire is not the problem. Toyota’s affected vehicles lacked a feature in which the brake will automatically override the accelerator in any situation. You’ll find that the brake does override the accelerator in most German-made cars, and that includes Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, and Volkswagen models.

According to Dan Kolasinski, Mercedes was the leader in providing this feature beginning in 1989. By 1992, every Mercedes model had it. They were also the first to provide safety features such as anti-lock brakes and airbags.

Of course, Mercedes has a plethora of other safety features, as do all of the vehicles at Concours. (Volkswagen, for example, provides many standard safety features comparable to those of premium car brands, as noted by Steve Halverson, Volkswagen Service Manager.) It is always our goal that you feel safe and comfortable in your vehicle. If you have any questions, or simply would like more information on your specific vehicle, please feel free to contact your sales or service representative here at Concours.

For information on how to handle a car that is accelerating out of control, please visit http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8980024.