Did the acceleration and gas pedal issues with Toyotas draw any notice from regulators in Europe?”
GENEVA (AP) – Long before Toyota’s serious problems with surging accelerators, reports surfaced in Europe of a less catastrophic problem with gas pedals that didn’t ease off when drivers removed their foot. Officials in Europe and the United States are now asking if those early issues – instead of being treated as minor glitches – might have served as a red flag for the bigger problems to come. Yet instead of connecting the dots, Toyota dismissed the sticky gas pedal issue as a quirk of the right-hand drive vehicles used in the UK for months after the reports began in December 2008. Initial response to the European problem appears to have been hindered by Toyota’s culture of secrecy, and by sluggish response by European consumer advocates and regulators. Until, that is, drivers started reporting sticky pedals last October in the United States – where Toyota was already grabbing unwanted headlines for fatal crashes caused by sudden unintended acceleration. The U.S. National Highway Traf
Long before Toyota’s serious problems with surging accelerators, reports surfaced in Europe of a less catastrophic problem with gas pedals that didn’t ease off when drivers removed their foot. Officials in Europe and the United States are now asking if those early issues — instead of being treated as a minor glitches — might have served as a red flag for the bigger problems to come. Yet instead of connecting the dots, Toyota dismissed the sticky gas pedal issue as a quirk of the right-hand drive vehicles used in the UK for months after the reports began in December 2008. Initial response to the European problem appears to have been hindered by Toyota’s culture of secrecy, and by sluggish response by European consumer advocates and regulators. Until, that is, drivers started reporting sticky pedals last October in the United States — where Toyota was already grabbing unwanted headlines for fatal crashes caused by sudden unintended acceleration.
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- Did the acceleration and gas pedal issues with Toyotas draw any notice from regulators in Europe?"
