By Marcy Kreiter - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Saturday it is investigating whether the 2012-14 Nissan Versa, Versa sedan and Versa Note are prone to unwanted acceleration.
NHTSA said 360,000 vehicles are involved in the investigation, which resulted from four complaints the tunnel carpet cover trim panel interferes with braking by trapping the driver's shoe, Reuters reported.
Nissan (TOKYO:7201) said it would cooperate with the investigation.
The Detroit News reported one of the complainants said he had to grab his leg and pull up to free his foot, nearly crashing the vehicle. Two of the four complaints said the vehicles were rental cars.
NHTSA has been looking into floor mat issues for four years. It's also investigating issues with Ford Motor Co. vehicles. Ford last month recalled 82,500 vehicles because of all-weather floor mats that had been improperly installed in 2006-11 Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Lincoln Zephyr and MKZ cars.
Toyota (NYSE:TM) was forced to recall millions of vehicles for unintended acceleration due to floor mats and other issues that led to four deaths.
The Wall Street Journal said Nissan Sentras also are being investigated for the same issue.