Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
CNN.com - Toyota's totally bizarre recall - Jul 12, 2006
This fall, Toyota will voluntarily recall nearly 160,000 Toyota Tundra pickups so that they can be made less safe for children riding in the front seat.
No, that's not a mistake - at least not on our part.
The recall, announced Monday, is meant to make Tundras comply with a set of safety regulations. The rules say that vehicles built after 2002 must have a child-seat anchor system known as LATCH in the front seat if they also have a front-seat airbag shut-off switch.
The Tundras in question were built with an airbag shut-off switch but not the LATCH system.
The solution? Spend lots of money and inconvenience customers...to remove the airbag shut-off switch.
The move not only doesn't enhance the safety of these vehicles, it actually makes the vehicles unsafe for small children riding in the front seat.
The NHTSA really really needs to give Toyota a waiver for this. While it isn't a good idea for children to ride in the front seat, nothing should be done to make it less safe for children that are already there.
Posted by pqbon at August 9, 2006 5:09 PM