After seeing all of the news on the unintended acceleration problems with Toyotas (I own a 2001 Highlander that is not a part of the recall), I was wondering...do Volvos have any kind of brake throttle override function?

I've never heard of acceleration issues with Volvos, but I'd think that this type of override would be a reasonable safety feature to have.

 

Its called stick your foot under the accelerator pedal and pull it up.

 

The Toyotas having issues are all electronic throttle cars.
Why people can't just stomp on the brakes and turn the ignition off I don't know.
Perhaps because driving a car has just become something you have to do with minimum effort and concentration.
I wonder if Toyota will be nearly sued out of the US market like Saab almost was over boneheads engaging a forward gear in their automatic cars without applying the foot brake?

Regards, Andrew.

 

Better yet, but oem floor mats that are made by the company for that particular car...i bought the floor mats from fcp that are made for the volvo and love them! often, people cheap out and by generic mats that slide all over the place and get stuck behind the pedal..my wifes volvo is like that ..drives me crazy!!!
fabs

 

Any answers to my original question?

IMO the accidents are caused by people panicking when the problem happens...not unlike the situations with the Ford Exploders rolling over after a tire blows out (although a stuck throttle seems like it would be much easier to deal with).

I didn't know that Saabs had acceleration problems...I do remember the problems with Audis where people were pressing the accelerator and then shifting into gear.

 

I believe the answer is no. However, when Audi's had the problem back in the mid 80's, my 740 GLE had a simular problem. My air control valve was making my car rev the engine up to about 1,800 RPM's. The dealer fixed it in about 10 minutes.

Of course, the brake can easily hold a car at 1,800 rpm's but I'm not sure what these Toyotas are doing. I asked that our office manager NOT park facing the building. She has an '08 or '09 Camary.

Personally, I think they should hold a class "what to do if your car tries to take off on it's own". It should be easy to bump the shifter into neutral, stop the car, and turn it off. I'll check when I get back to the office.

Something is wrong with my 850. I can shift it into all gears without pushing the button. Not sure about out of park without the brake. I'll post back in a day or two.

As for the Toyota's, if the gas pedal is actually getting stuck, it will happen when you lift your foot off the pedal. If it's a computer malfunction, it can happen at any time and it can happen when you have the foot on the brake. A lady on tv today said that she had both feet on the brake, and she was streatched out in the car and the car still went forward, through the back of her garage and finally stopped when the front end was off the ground in a bathroom (wheels still spinning). Not sure why she let it get that far before she shut the dang thing off. I think that it is such a rare thing that it catches DISTRACTED drivers off guard and their response time is so delayed they have an accident (on phones, texting, etc.).

 

Interesting. My '88 760 GLE does that. Car can be off, foot off brake pedal and you can shift into whatever you want. I always just figured that's the way it is.

 

Nope, it's broke.

Also, you can easily shift the 2008 Camary from drive to neutral.

 

Do Volvos have the same feature as the German cars: press hard on the brake and it will automatically override the accelerator?

RSPI's answer above is exactly the solution to accelerator gone wild if the override does not exist:
...bump the shifter into neutral, stop the car, and turn it off.

This is a video lesson in what do do with runaway acceleration:
http://video.consumerreports.org/ser...id=48234862001

 

Actually, if my pedal was stuck that's what I would have done, stuck it into neutrual slowed down and turned the car off.

 

Oh, btw, my 850 does shift out of park without the brake. I'm loosing track of time. Can't figure out what a couple of days are anymore.