Italian luxury brand Maserati is recalling all of its Quattroporte and Ghibli luxury sedans from the 2014 to 2016 model years for the same problem that blindsided Toyota about six years ago.
It's the nightmare of the runaway car, due to unintended acceleration. Only in Maserati's case, a safety feature that Toyota has since added appears to have made a difference.
Maserati blames floor mats that can slide under the gas pedal, jamming against the floorboards, as the cause for its unintended acceleration cases that led to the recall of 28,235 cars. That's the same causes that Toyota believes was the root cause of its cases..
Maserati says in a filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it opened an investigation into the problem last year when four instances were reported.
"The first analysis of the claims performed in mid-February of 2015 indicated a potential pedal entrapment issue due to a possible driver side floor mat which was not properly attached and/or had broken anchors, which caused the mat to consequently slide forward toward the accelerator pedal," the filing states.
Maserati says that all its affected cars are equipped a brake override feature, the same feature that Toyota has since added its lineup. Brake override systems typically cause the engine to disengage acceleration if it detects multiple pushes of the pedals, as if a driver were panicking.
"In each of the four events, the brake override system overrode, and disabled the acceleration event as designed, with no accidents or injuries reported," the filing says.
Toyota recalled millions of vehicle in 2009 and 2010 for the issue over the issue of unintended accleration. The automaker said the main cause was improperly installed floor mats that could trap the gas pedal. It paid a fine of $1.2 billion for failing to disclose the issue promptly as required by law.
This article originally appeared on USA Today.
