Consumer Reports Study: Toyota and Ford receives most sudden acceleration complaints

2009-12-09 07:07:28 (GMT) (JusticeNewsFlash.com - Justice News Flash, Product liability)

Wiki Image: Study showed Toyota has most sudden acceleration complaints.

Legal News for product liability attorneys. Toyota receives the most complains of sudden acceleration, while Ford comes in second.

Product liability attorneys alert- A Consumer Reports study showed Toyota and Ford had the most complaints of sudden acceleration.

West Palm Beach, FL—A recent Consumer Reports study revealed the 2008 Toyota models had a higher number of reported complaints of sudden acceleration compared to other automakers. The second highest occurrence of sudden acceleration was Ford, especially in their F-150 models, as reported by The Los Angeles Times.

According to the revealing study, Toyota and Lexus automobiles received 41 percent of consumer complaints; the highest number reported to a federal database tracking sudden runaway acceleration. Toyota and Lexus models ranked above Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, and Nissan combined. Ford models received 28 percent of the complaints, coming in second to Toyota and Lexus. An analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) http://www.nhtsa.gov/ database of sudden acceleration complaints, ranked the rest of the automakers as follows:

3.) Chrysler (2008 models): 9%
4.) General Motors (2008 models): 5%
5.) Honda (2008 models): 4%
6.) Nissan (2008 models): 2%

The Consumer Reports study kept its research of sudden acceleration to only incidents that “could be a real dangerous safety issue,” which excluded low-speed incidents, or situations where the automobile movement was arrested before the situation became serious. Also, Consumer Reports excluded any reports after the fatal San Diego crash that took four lives, which included an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, because the complaints could have been derived from publicity. In addition, the Ford complaints were mostly limited to the F-150 model. Toyota complaints were spread across all of their automobile models, including vehicles that were not under the current recall. The Ford F-150 complaints also appeared to have originated from the distance between the brake and gas petals, in which many consumers stated they would often step on the wrong petal.

Legal News Reporter: Nicole Howley-Legal news for product liability lawyers.