Consumer Reports yanks Recommended status on recalled Toyotas

Consumer Reports yanks Recommended status on recalled Toyotas

Filed under: Car Buying, Recalls, Toyota

This could help quell some criticism against Consumer Reports being biased in favor of Toyota when handing out its valuable "Recommended" status to vehicles. The popular consumer products review magazine announced today that it has temporarily suspended Recommended status for all eight vehicles involved in Toyota's accelerator pedal recall. Just to refresh, the vehicles involved include the Avalon, Camry (except the Hybrid and some other models), Corolla, Highlander (again, except the Hybrid model), Matrix (and by extension the Pontiac Vibe), RAV4, Tundra and Sequoia. Here's what Jim Gues, President of Consumers Union, the publisher of CR had to say:

"Although incidents of sudden acceleration are rare, we are taking this action because the vehicles have been identified as potentially unsafe without a fix yet being available to consumers, and in general our position is that you shouldn't compromise on safety."

The status suspension, however, is temporary and CR expects to reinstate their recommendation of these vehicles once the problem is fixed, though with so many questions still unanswered, we wouldn't expect that to be any time soon. The consumer pub also notes that instances of unintended acceleration are not exclusive to Toyota vehicles, and recommends their handy guide called "How to stop a runaway car" in case it happens to you. Of course, they also reported in December that 40% of sudden acceleration claims involve Toyota models.

[Source: Consumer Reports]Consumer Reports yanks Recommended status on recalled Toyotas originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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