CarComplaints.com Notes: Although it has a stellar record in terms of vehicle problems, initially the 4th generation (2003 - 2009) 4Runner didn't earn our top "Seal of Awesome" rating because it received poor crash test ratings for rear impacts. However it's proven to have one of the lowest driver death rates out of all vehicles (not just SUVs), so we've bumped it back up to our top award.
I was waiting for another car to pull out of a parking space at the car wash. As I inched forward with my foot off the accelerator, my 4Runner suddenly started accelerating and when I braked, it didn’t stop. With my foot on the brake and the car accelerating, I was able to steer away from the car in front of me that was pulling out. My 4Runner stopped when I hit a rock about 18†high along the driveway to the car wash.
The damage to my car is $3,200.00. My insurance company is State Farm and they paid the repair bill less my deductible. I asked State Farm to investigate the sudden unintended acceleration with Toyota. All State Farm did was search some database and there wasn’t anything in the database they searched.
I know now from searching the internet that this problem is called Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA). I’m afraid to drive my 4Runner anywhere and I’m really afraid that if it accelerates like that again that I might even hit a pedestrian. When coming to a stop or moving forward slowly, I'm putting it in neutral now. This is terrifying and I can’t afford to replace my 4Runner.
Update from Sep 20, 2018: September 11, 2018: I took my 4Runner to the Toyota dealer in Salt Lake City to have the SUA checked out. My 2008 4Runner has had both recalls for the accelerator fixed, one in 2011 and one in 2014. They told me my 4Runner was not safe to drive and asked me to leave it with them. They said it was my choice and told me it could take weeks for a Toyota team to be brought in to Salt Lake City to investigate. I chose to leave it with the Toyota dealer. The service manager asked me some questions on a form called "Unintended Acceleration (UA) Interview Guide - Form 2." They also gave me a page called "Toyota Dealer UA Process Flow." On 09/14/18, someone called from Toyota to ask me more questions. This person was terse and unfriendly. She bullied me for answers. Some of the questions were asked more than once but rephrased, and I told her that she had already asked me that question. In the end, she asked me for my permission to submit my answers to Toyota. I asked to review the questions and answers before submitting. That was when she told me the notes are internal Toyota notes. I asked a second time and she told me the notes she typed in were proprietary to Toyota. I told her I wanted to see what she typed in and she said I wasn't allowed to see them. If I didn’t give my permission, the investigation would come to an end. She also told me very emphatically that Toyota would not be loaning me a vehicle while mine was being investigated.
On 09/18/18, I received an email from a third party working for Toyota, asking my permission to pull the Event Data Recorder (EDR), which is a black box similar to what is found on airplanes, from my 4Runner. I searched the Internet and found a couple of interesting things. First, Toyota says the black boxes are very basic and don't give much information about the car unless the airbags deploy. They contradicted themselves over the black box information. Second, the information they do get from the black box is proprietary to Toyota. That means I'm not allowed access to the information they gather. I have not signed that permission as of this writing.
Any information I refuse to give them means they won't check my 4Runner for SUA.
I'm updating my complaint because I know this is still happening to people and it's not easy to find current and ongoing issues. A class action lawsuit against Toyota was settled in 2013 for over $1 billion. Complaints since then seem to be handled one-on-one. The cases that do make it to court have gag orders so that the settlement/outcomes can't be disclosed to anyone. Toyota is in denial about SUA. Our government isn't doing anything to help and they've taken the position that it's the driver's error in accelerating. There are too many events that tell me SUA continues to be a problem. I don't want to kill or hurt anyone and I don't want to die or be hurt myself either.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I was waiting for another car to pull out of a parking space at the car wash. As I inched forward with my foot off the accelerator, my 4Runner suddenly started accelerating and when I braked, it didn’t stop. With my foot on the brake and the car accelerating, I was able to steer away from the car in front of me that was pulling out. My 4Runner stopped when I hit a rock about 18†high along the driveway to the car wash.
The damage to my car is $3,200.00. My insurance company is State Farm and they paid the repair bill less my deductible. I asked State Farm to investigate the sudden unintended acceleration with Toyota. All State Farm did was search some database and there wasn’t anything in the database they searched.
I know now from searching the internet that this problem is called Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA). I’m afraid to drive my 4Runner anywhere and I’m really afraid that if it accelerates like that again that I might even hit a pedestrian. When coming to a stop or moving forward slowly, I'm putting it in neutral now. This is terrifying and I can’t afford to replace my 4Runner.
Update from Sep 20, 2018: September 11, 2018: I took my 4Runner to the Toyota dealer in Salt Lake City to have the SUA checked out. My 2008 4Runner has had both recalls for the accelerator fixed, one in 2011 and one in 2014. They told me my 4Runner was not safe to drive and asked me to leave it with them. They said it was my choice and told me it could take weeks for a Toyota team to be brought in to Salt Lake City to investigate. I chose to leave it with the Toyota dealer. The service manager asked me some questions on a form called "Unintended Acceleration (UA) Interview Guide - Form 2." They also gave me a page called "Toyota Dealer UA Process Flow." On 09/14/18, someone called from Toyota to ask me more questions. This person was terse and unfriendly. She bullied me for answers. Some of the questions were asked more than once but rephrased, and I told her that she had already asked me that question. In the end, she asked me for my permission to submit my answers to Toyota. I asked to review the questions and answers before submitting. That was when she told me the notes are internal Toyota notes. I asked a second time and she told me the notes she typed in were proprietary to Toyota. I told her I wanted to see what she typed in and she said I wasn't allowed to see them. If I didn’t give my permission, the investigation would come to an end. She also told me very emphatically that Toyota would not be loaning me a vehicle while mine was being investigated.
On 09/18/18, I received an email from a third party working for Toyota, asking my permission to pull the Event Data Recorder (EDR), which is a black box similar to what is found on airplanes, from my 4Runner. I searched the Internet and found a couple of interesting things. First, Toyota says the black boxes are very basic and don't give much information about the car unless the airbags deploy. They contradicted themselves over the black box information. Second, the information they do get from the black box is proprietary to Toyota. That means I'm not allowed access to the information they gather. I have not signed that permission as of this writing.
Any information I refuse to give them means they won't check my 4Runner for SUA.
I'm updating my complaint because I know this is still happening to people and it's not easy to find current and ongoing issues. A class action lawsuit against Toyota was settled in 2013 for over $1 billion. Complaints since then seem to be handled one-on-one. The cases that do make it to court have gag orders so that the settlement/outcomes can't be disclosed to anyone. Toyota is in denial about SUA. Our government isn't doing anything to help and they've taken the position that it's the driver's error in accelerating. There are too many events that tell me SUA continues to be a problem. I don't want to kill or hurt anyone and I don't want to die or be hurt myself either.
- Debra S., Kamas, US