News: Toyota Instructs Dealers To Fix Deadly Floormats With... Zip Ties

Dogbert

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http://www.autospies.com/news/Toyota-Instructs-Dealers-To-Fix-Deadly-Floormats-With-Zip-Ties-48655/
In a move almost too strange to be fiction, Toyota is apparently advising its Toyota and Lexus brand dealers to zip tie loose floor mats to the seats in the 3.
8 million vehicles affected by the recent safety recall. Of course, it's phrased much more eloquently than that.

"We have reviewed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration what we?re calling a semipermanent floor mat installation process, and we?re providing these instructions to our dealers," Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons told Automotive News.

500x_floormat-zip-ties.jpg



A stupid fix in a stupid recall for a stupid problem caused by stupid owners.

Awesome.
 
That's worse than the recall for my Grand Prix' engine fires being fixed with spark plug wire holders to hold the wires in a slightly different place.

Now, if I'm seeing that picture correctly, they've got the zip tie in addition to a hook to hold the mat in place? How much money did they spend developing that hook, which is effectively useless and doesn't serve its purpose?
 
facepalm.jpg
 
Classy work Toyota. I'm sure your Lexus customers will appreciate it.
 
Now, if I'm seeing that picture correctly, they've got the zip tie in addition to a hook to hold the mat in place? How much money did they spend developing that hook, which is effectively useless and doesn't serve its purpose?

I can't see a hook. They've just looped it around the mount for the seat I think.
 
I can't see a hook. They've just looped it around the mount for the seat I think.

Look just past where the zip tie goes through the carpet, the hole is where the hook goes.

On another note: Are the seat rails and bolts really that visible in a Lexus? I'd be a little angry if my expensive as crap car looked the same as my 95 Subaru.
 
Todays Toyota headlines!

Good News: Toyota might be making a rather interesting RWD car (with a little help from Subaru, of course)

Bad News: Everything fucking else!

Seriously, if you don't make that AE86 thing (without welding it together with zip ties, of course) then there's just nothing but a big pot of fail at the end of that fail rainbow of misery for you, Toyota. You deserve it.
 
So, didn't they determine this to be a dealer error and no actual defect with the cars themselves? Let me play this out then. Our world requires Toyota to take some sort of action because they don't want any bad press. Toyota recalls all these cars and says, "Ok, there is nothing to fix. What do we do to make it look like we did something? I mean we have to do something to keep up appearances." Thus the zip tie idea is born. And in the end we have a massive waste of time, money I'm sure all in the sake of saving face. Even though there was no face to be saved. We live in a pefectally logical world dont we?
 
If you're gonna do something, might as well take the time to do it well. What about putting snap buttons on the bottom of the mats, or velcro, or little spikes, or a couple little black plastic hooks, or something? Zip ties on a Lexus... wow. Even a dumb Lexus owner is sure to be thrilled with that "upgrade"...
 
Look just past where the zip tie goes through the carpet, the hole is where the hook goes.

Maybe I'm blind, or lacking imagination. I don't see a hook, I just see something round, a hole or something. If they went to the trouble of punching a proper eyelet and/or making a hook, why bother with cable ties?

Edit: If you mean there is a hole there for a hook to be added in the future and said hook isn't shown in the picture, then OK. I just don't see an actual hook in this picture. So people are saying that perhaps they're developing a nicer-looking hook and the cable ties are just a stop-gap solution until it's finished.
 
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to quote James May : that's a quite ingeneous solution for a problem that should have never existed in the first place...
 
That gives me an excellent idea to fix my car's floormats. the driver's one is always moving around and it gets under the pedals. I never thought I could fix it with zip ties. :D
 
If you're gonna do something, might as well take the time to do it well. What about putting snap buttons on the bottom of the mats, or velcro, or little spikes, or a couple little black plastic hooks, or something? Zip ties on a Lexus... wow. Even a dumb Lexus owner is sure to be thrilled with that "upgrade"...

That's how the problem was fixed on my HONDA nearly 10 years ago!
 
Look just past where the zip tie goes through the carpet, the hole is where the hook goes.

On another note: Are the seat rails and bolts really that visible in a Lexus? I'd be a little angry if my expensive as crap car looked the same as my 95 Subaru.

They arent that visible, its just because of how the angle is shot and because the seat looked to be pushed all the way back. Normally, you dont even see the seat rails.
 
I always see the seat rails. Then again, I can't fit in a car that wasn't designed for Sasquatch.
 
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