The Detroit Free Press reports, "Some 431 customers from around the country have reported unintended or sudden acceleration in their Toyota Tacoma pickups, resulting in 51 crashes and 12 injuries, but the automaker said there are no flaws in the trucks and that many reports were 'inspired by publicity.'"
When we last reported on this issue in February, government investigators had received only about 30 complaints.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating claims of sudden accelerating in 2004 - 2008 model year Tacomas since February, and is "still weighing whether to upgrade the investigation" to a more formal status. The Free Press notes that "no pickup model other than the Tacoma has garnered more than a few complaints of unexpected acceleration to the NHTSA during the same period."
Toyota has some factual argument for denying the reports. Motor Trend explains, "The trucks use a drive-by-wire system designed to report an error if the accelerator pedal and throttle aren't matched up." According to Autoblog, "The trucks that have been inspected have not shown the error codes Toyota would expect if the throttle and accelerator pedal were out of whack."
Toyota isn't the first automaker to face claims of sudden acceleration -- a 60 Minutes report alleging a similar problem in the Audi 5000 sedan nearly bankrupted that automaker in the 1980s. But no investigation has ever concluded that any vehicle actually had a problem with sudden acceleration. Most often, cases of unintended acceleration come down to bunched up floor mats, objects trapped under pedals or simple driver error. But the dangers of a car that accelerates when you don't want it to are obvious. So let's hope the NHTSA takes its time investigating the claims.
Toyota, we should note, was recognized by Consumer Reports this year for having the second-highest level of quality in the industry. The Tacoma has hardly been its most reliable product, however. In fact, Toyota has begun buying back many Tacoma models that suffered premature rust damage, paying customers 150 percent of what the trucks could fetch on the open market just to get them off of the road before the rust issue generates any more bad publicity.
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