U.S. probes Ford Fusion on reports of trapped pedals

Posted 2010/06/01 at 3:31 pm EDT
DETROIT, June 1, 2010 (Reuters) — U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that accelerator pedals could be entrapped by floormats in Ford Motor Co 2010 Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had verified three complaints of accelerator pedals being trapped by unsecured "all-weather" floormats in the current production model year of the Fusion.
The NHTSA warned owners not to place unsecured floormats on top of the standard, carpeted floormat on the driver's side. It opened an investigation on Friday that covers an estimated 249,301 Fusion and Milan sedans.
Ford spokesman Said Deep said instructions imprinted on the automaker's all-weather floormats warn owners not to place them on top of existing floormats, as does the packaging.
"We do not recommend stacking floormats in any vehicle," Deep said. "We will cooperate fully with NHTSA as we always do."
The NHTSA said it had received no complaints involving crashes, injuries or fatalities in the Ford vehicles. Any optional all-weather floormats should be installed only after removing the standard floormats, the agency said.
Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com, described in mid-April an incident of unintended acceleration in a 2010 Fusion hybrid caused when the accelerator pedal became entrapped by a stacked floormat.
Edmunds said the accelerator became stuck for three or four seconds after he passed slower traffic on his commute to work before returning to normal. A second experimental acceleration had a similar result, he said in a web posting.
He reported the incident to the NHTSA.
Similar complaints were raised about Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> vehicles that were later the subject of massive recalls starting last year.
The issue of unintended acceleration has prompted Toyota to recall more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, including 6.5 million in the United States, and pay a record $16.4 million fine to U.S. safety regulators.
Shares of Ford were down 21 cents at $11.52 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre6504m4-us-ford/

 

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those idiots at the NHTSA are going to ruin my stock prices!! and just before I cash out too!

 

****, we suck again!!!

 

NHSTA should sweep this crap under the rug ( or floor mat ) like every other government organization

 

SELL! SELL! SELL!


Put it all in gold and non-hybrid seeds.

 

 

you forgot the foil...

 

So I'm wondering... is Dan Edmunds an idiot? Or working for Toyota?

 

When I saw this earlier today, I wondered how this is Ford's fault?
The all weather mats are clearly marked to not stack them on the stock carpet mats.
I would imagine that if you stacked enough floor mats in any car, you would eventually cause the acelerator pedal to become trapped.

 

This has been common sense my whole life not to stack floormats because they could possibly slip and get stuck. With the set of Genuine Ford all weather mats I got for my Mustang, it clearly says on the mats and instructions not to stack them.

Everything has to be idiot proofed these days! You'd think something like this would be the same as it being illegal to use chemicals or medicine inconsistant with it's labeling.

 

What people are going to hear is" Ford - unintended acceleration - hybrid" and automatically assume there may be something more to it than floormats which was what Toyota initially claimed was their one and only issue I'm pretty sure Ford management will give this as much attention and response as necessary. The good news is that it would be hard to even come close to Toyota's mishandling of their problem.

 

The NTHSA is idiots for putting this out. If someone ignores the label saying not to stack the floormats then they need to "Unintentionally Accelerate" right over a cliff.

 

Just saw a preview for this on ABC

They said, " First Toyota, now Ford? Ford Motor Company having issues with unintended acceleration. Tune in at 11!"

I hate the media. Always preying on the panic stricken mob mentality America has....

 

I have a fusion and my floor mats are stacked. Why? Because that's how they came straight from the dealership.
As long as the pins in the floor come up through the floor mats they are fine. I haven't had any issues, if I ever have an issue I will simply put the car in neutral and then remove the carpeted mats once I am stopped.