car mat issue - danger!

ChrisEdu · Post by **ChrisEdu** » 17 Nov 2009, 10:30

I've just taken delivery of a new V50 SE Lux stop/start. Driving home last night I suddenly found the car acceleratingon its own - straight out at a junction. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to hit the brake and get into neutral. I turned out that the floor mat on the driver's side had worked itself over the accelerator pedal, causing the pedal to become depressed.

Anyone else heard of or had this happening?

Post by **billofdurham** » 17 Nov 2009, 12:08

Welcome to Matthew's Volvo Site.

Over the years this has been the cause of a number of accidents in all makes/models of car. In some cases it was the fault of the owner who had fitted wrong size mats and in others it was correct mats that hadn't been put in properly. I would suspect the latter in your case with a new car. Who put the mats in? If the dealer did this have a word with the service manager as someone was lax.

I would suggest that you put anti-slip grippers on the mat to stop this happening again.

Bill.

ChrisEdu · Post by **ChrisEdu** » 17 Nov 2009, 17:19

The mats were presumably fitted by the dealer, as they are the standard ones that came with the car. They are ones that clip on to a couple of black mounting posts on the floor. During driving, the mat comes free from the mounts and then starts moving about.

Post by **meine39** » 17 Nov 2009, 18:16

There was a high profile new story here in the States recently that ended up in multiple fatalities - the wrong floor mats had been fitted. Sounds like Toyota has some explaining to do:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... SugwyQ.rGk

Thank goodness you had the presence of mind to brake and get the car into neutral - I think panic turns a lot of these cases into tragedies. Audi had a run of "unintended acceleration" incidents years ago that nearly put them out of business in the US - I believe ultimately the blame was put on the placement of the gas and brake pedals. Audi's rather clinical dismissal of the situation is now a classic business case study of how NOT to handle bad news in the corporate world - they lost the trust and business of almost an entire generation of generally affluent American buyers (of course a sensationalistic press and trial lawyers kept it going far longer than needed as well).