After asking owners of certain Toyota models to remove their floor mats in September, Toyota has begun sending out letters to Toyota/Lexus owners with affected VINs. This isn't yet the formal recall campaign; rather, this is an interim letter explaining the how/why of the floor mat situation and advising customers that a second letter detailing a specific dealer cure is forthcoming.

Toyota also announced in a press release that the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) recently advised the company that the agency has denied a customer petition for a defect investigation into the 2007 Lexus ES 350. The petition was filed in March by Jeffrey Pepski, of Plymouth, Minnesota, owner of an '07 ES 350, who claimed his car experienced unintended acceleration. Note that this petition was unrelated to the fatal crash in California involving an ES 350 dealer loaner car with non-standard floormats.

This remains a messy public relations situation, so Bob Daly, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Sales, has prefabricated this video for the Toyota faithful.

"It's important to note that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver-side floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly installed," Daly says. "The question of unintended acceleration involving Toyota or Lexus vehicles has been thoroughly investigated by the NHTSA's engineering experts without any finding of a defect other than an unsecure or incompatible driver's floor mat.

"In fact, the federal agency recently closed yet another study [the above petition] finding that the only cause of unintended acceleration in that case was an out-of-position or inappropriate floor mat."

Toyota's letter to owners

–> List of vehicles with potentially affected VINs after the jump.

If you own any of these vehicles, you might be getting a letter from Toyota.

2007-2010 Camry
2005-2010 Avalon
2004-2009 Prius
2005-2010 metropolis
2007-2010 Tundra
2007-2010 ES 350
2006-2010 IS 250 and IS 350