At the test track: Putting the brakes on uncontrolled acceleration

Consumer Reports News: October 14, 2009 05:31 PM

After learning about Toyota's recall of 3.8 million cars with ill-fitting floor mats, the folks at our test track got busy. Not only did our editors and engineers take a look at floor mats, they also took several cars for a spin to see how a driver should respond when a car is subject to uncontrolled acceleration.

As our Cars blog reported earlier, the floor mat recall came in response to a fatal accident in which a family of four was killed in California. A suspected cause of that crash was a floor mat that became lodged under the accelerator of the loaner Lexus the family was driving while its own car was being serviced.

This week the car team turned to our test fleet for insight. Of the 25 current test cars they checked, they discovered three with loose mats that could slide forward under continual pressure. All three of the cars had all-weather rubber floor mats, not the carpeted kind commonly included as original equipment with new cars. Most of the cars they checked came with standard mats affixed to the floor with hooks. Lesson learned: It's a good idea to check your floor mats no matter what kind of car you drive.

Next, the team tried some strategies to stop a speeding car. They took two cars with "smart-throttle" technology—a Mercedes-Benz E350 and Volkswagen Jetta Wagon—out to the track to see if depressing the brake would signal the computer to ignore the throttle as claimed. It did and you can read more about how on the Cars blog.

The engineers had a tougher time bringing vehicles to a halt when they stepped on both the brake and the throttle in cars without the new technology—specifically a Toyota Venza and Chevrolet HHR.

So what should you do if you are put in such a situation? The answer is simple: Put the car in neutral. In each of the cars tested, the engineers were able to easily nudge the gear lever into neutral and stop the car quickly. Read about the results of their tests.

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At the test track: Putting the brakes on uncontrolled acceleration

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