Car Accelerates On Its Own problems of the 1999 Toyota Avalon

At about 5:00 p. M. March 18, 2007, as I went to pick up my 96 year old mother at the retirement community, I stopped my 1999 Toyota Avalon underneath the drive-through canopy to wait for her. As I waited there, I noticed that a car had pulled up behind me and was preparing to discharge an elderly passenger so I proceeded around the circular drive to get out of their way. As I slowly circled around the drive back toward the entrance I noted the other car had cleared out. As I coasted toward the entrance I noted a small group of people on the sidewalk walking toward the entrance in front of me. As I continued slowly back toward the entrance, I felt my vehicle accelerate violently toward the group of pedestrians. Engaging the brake pedal with both feet, I gradually brought my vehicle under control and continued to a safe stop where I shut off the ignition. It was a terrifying feeling to feel the surge of power that I was barely able to control and to realize that with the people walking in front of me I could have injured or killed someone. The people were only about 30 feet in front of me. I called my husband to come pick up my mother and me as I was afraid to drive the car. I reported the incident to my Toyota dealer who scheduled an inspection. The service department, after classifying the incident as unintended acceleration, proceeded to clean the throttle body, clean the fuel injectors, and DE-carbon the combustion chambers. The throttle body had previously been serviced at 45,900 miles, (an interval of 43,240 miles). A service interval of 50,000 miles is recommended by the Toyota dealer. Although there was potential for great harm to pedestrians, this was the only incident of unintended acceleration that we experienced with this car during the four years that I owned it. On Feb 13, 2008, I sold the vehicle.

1999 Toyota Avalon. Unintended acceleration causing an accident. The consumer stated she was at a car wash which was nearing the end of the was on the conveyor belt with the vehicle in neutral gear as required. At the end of the wash cycle, the green light came on which was her signal to put the vehicle in drive and ease off the belt onto the lot. At the green light, the consumer put her foot on the brake to change the gear from neutral to drive. Once in drive gear, the vehicle suddenly and instantly accelerated at a tremendously high speed. The consumer stomped on the brakes continuously with no result. The vehicle crossed the east sidewalk and three empty southbound lanes. It then collided into the three northbound-lane cars; crossed the west sidewalk and crashed through a six foot commercial chain link fence; hit a parked pick up truck and crashed into a wall. The wall was the final object that stopped the vehicle which had maintained excessive speed. Prior to the accident, the consumer complained to the dealer about a strong smell of gas.

Suspect sudden acceleration resulting is death.

This car sudden accelerates and when you take your foot off the brake goes 10mph. The body trim by the doors is severly worn and Toyota refuses to replace it and says it cannot duplicate the acceleration problem.

The vehicle intermittently experienced sudden acceleration when the brake pedal was applied. The consumer had to apply excessive force to the brake pedal to stop the acceleration. The consumer almost hit a pedestrian when this occurred.