Toyota Leads in NHTSA Unintended Acceleration Complaints, Edmunds.com Analysis Shows

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Of the Big Six automakers selling vehicles in the United States, Toyota – as a manufacturer and as an individual brand – has the most consumer complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for unintended acceleration, according to an Edmunds.com analysis of the government safety agency’s data bases.

Unintended acceleration will be the hot topic of Congressional hearings Tuesday and Wednesday on Toyota’s recalls for sticking accelerator pedals and floormats that can trap the gas pedal. Both situations have the potential to cause unintended acceleration.

Toyota Motor Corporation, consisting of its Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands, had 1,133 consumer complaints of unintended acceleration filed with NHTSA through Feb. 3. The complaints cover model years 2005 to 2010.

Toyota’s number of complaints for unintended acceleration exceeds similar complaints for the other Big Six manufacturers combined.

Rounding out the Big Six are, in order of most complaints to fewest are, Ford Motor Company, consisting of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, with 387 complaints; Chrysler LLC, consisting of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge models, with 171 complaints; General Motors, consisting of Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac, GMC, Saturn, Saab, Buick and Hummer brands, with 152 complaints; Honda, including its Acura division, with 113 complaints; and Nissan, including its Infiniti division, with 62 complaints.

The Toyota brand has the highest number of such complaints of any Big Six brand, with 929. Ford brand follows with 300 complaints. Toyota’s Lexus ranks third with 186 complaints.

Toyota Motor Corporation models – Toyota Camry (290 complaints), Toyota Tacoma (184 complaints) and Lexus ES 350 (100 complaints) – rank 1, 2 and 3, respectively, for most complaints by model, in Edmunds.com’s analysis, which ranks the vehicles on the raw number of complaints, not on a sales- weighted basis.

Nine of the top 12 models with the most complaints of unintended acceleration are made by Toyota. In addition to the Camry, Tacoma and ES 350, the other Toyota models among the top dozen are: Toyota Prius, No. 5 with 85 complaints; Toyota Avalon, No. 6 with 79 complaints; Toyota Tundra, No. 7 with 66 complaints; Toyota Corolla, No. 8 with 55 complaints; Toyota Highlander, No. 11 with 42 complaints; and Toyota RAV4, No. 12 with 41 complaints.

The top 12 list is rounded out by two Fords: Ford F-150 in the No. 4 position with 86 complaints and Ford Mustang, which was No. 9 with 53 complaints. Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Cherokee was No. 10 with 46 complaints.

In an earlier tabulation of NHTSA complaints, Edmunds.com showed that Toyota had fewer filed consumer complaints in total than most automakers. Toyota ranked 17^th of 20 automakers in the number of complaints filed with NHTSA over the past decade per new vehicle sold on the road. That analysis revealed that Toyota had 9.1 percent of the complaints from 2001 through 2010; during this period, the company sold 13.5 percent of all new cars in the United States.

In today’s more detailed analysis, Edmunds.com's data and engineering team sifted through thousands of consumer complaints for just the top six manufacturers, reading specific complaints and properly classifying them in appropriate categories.

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Edmunds.com Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace is an automotive social networking Web site. AutoObserver.com provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds.com Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit. Follow Edmunds.com on Twitter @edmunds and fan Edmunds.com on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/edmunds.