Does Your Car Have Acceleration Issues Too?

By Charles Bassett, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- While many know about the investigation involving sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles, Toyota isn't the only manufacturer that has had to deal with sudden acceleration issues. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration gets hundreds of complaints every year on sudden acceleration.

The complaints cover all model years and a majority of the vehicles on the road today.

For example, the Ford F-150 is one of the best selling vehicles in the country. According to NHTSA, the F-150 had 22 sudden acceleration complaints in 2005. The number was only six last year.

These findings were just released in an investigation by National Public Radio News.

"Despite the fact that this problem is generally rare, it does extend throughout the auto industry and across various model years and across various manufacturers," said Robert Benincasa, NPR News.

Along with Ford, Chevy and Honda also have top selling vehicles that have had sudden acceleration complaints.

The 2001 Honda Acura had 143 complaints, while the 2009 model had only 14.

The company fixing the problem can account for the drop in complaints. Something Toyota was slow to do.

"The reason the Toyota stuff is in the news right now is because there have been some terrible accidents and Toyota sells a lot of vehicles," Benincasa said.

AAA Oklahoma said you should always file a complaint if there is a safety issue.

"If they get a lot of complaints on the same vehicle, same model years, same car they'll do an investigation. They'll launch the investigation and do a thorough one as well like they're doing with Toyota," said Chuck Mai, AAA Oklahoma.

Even if you find your car has an acceleration issue, it doesn't always mean it's unsafe.

"Cars are safe or unsafe based on a lot of factors. This particular problem is relatively rare," Benincasa said.

Check to see how many complaints were filed for your car model.