NHTSA Goes To The Mat With Ford

Everyone loves an underdog story and none are greater than Ford’s. Their stock price went from $1 per share to nearly $12, they’re churning out good cars. their quality & reliability are increasing by the award. Yes, Ford is currently the golden boy of the car world. But what comes after pride?

The NHTSA. Reuters reports that Ford is being probed by the NHTSA for floormat entrapment. NHTSA says there is the possibility that the accelerator pedals could be trapped by floormats on the Ford Fusion and the Mercury Milan. The NHTSA has verified 3 complaints that accelerator pedals were caught by the unsecured floormats in the current production Fusion.

Floormats? Didn’t floormats start the Toyota disaster that veered out of control faster than a … ? Are they sure it’s not tin whiskers? At least, so far, Ray LaHood didn’t say “Stop driving your Fords!”

Anyway, the problem could affect up to 249,301 Fusions and Milans. Ford spokesperson, Said Deep (I checked, that really is his name, poor man) said that the instructions on the all weather floormats state that owners should not place them on top of existing floormats. “We do not recommend stacking floormats in any vehicle” Deep said. “We will co-operated fully with NHTSA as we always do.”

The Reuters article also mentions that Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com, described a incident like the one described above, in mid-April in a 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid. The accelerator pedal got stuck on some stacked floormats. He reported the incident to the NHTSA. I hope he included the VIN, after all, any yahoo can file a complaint on the NHTSA database. If fact, maybe Ford might want to point that out to the NHTSA?

Though the real question I have is this: do people REALLY have to be told NOT to stack floormats around the pedals? I guess, they do. WARNING: Objects in your mirror may be larger than they appear!