AConsumer Reports analysis of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety complaints database shows over 40 percent of sudden-acceleration complaints involve Toyota and Lexus models.

The review of 2008 model-year data also finds Ford standing out with a significant number of related complaints. Both car companies had a lopsided number of occurrences for their market share, though the statistical likelihood of experiencing such events is low.

CR's Auto Test Center and Statistics Department analyzed all 5,916 reports on 2008 models and identified 166 cases in which the complaint described verified the unintended acceleration that the driver found hard to control.

The incidents resulted in a safety advisory on floor-mat entrapment issued by both NHTSA and Toyota in September 2009.

The magazine says its analysis found the sudden-acceleration incidents were distributed over 22 brands with 47 complaints about Toyota models and five for Lexus vehicles. All told, the two accounted for more than a third of all the unintended-acceleration incidents among 2008-model vehicles. As Consumer Reports put it, "Toyota racked up more unintended-acceleration complaints than Chrysler, GM, Honda, and Nissan combined."

A check of the ConsumerAffairs.com database found numerous complaints about Toyota. Among them:

? Andrew of Leverett, MA, wrote of an incident involving his wife's Prius: "In traffic on a multi-lane highway in Canada, the car did not slow when I let up on the accelerator, and then I realized that it was actually accelerating. I used the service brake repeatedly to keep the speed down to the speed of the traffic (probably about 60mph) until I found a place to pull off."

? Miriam of Oakland, CA, says she was driving at slow speed due to traffic conditions, when suddenly her Prius "felt as if it uncontrollably sped up and lunged forward. I hit the brakes but it did not stop it from running into the back end of the car in front of me. It was very unnerving."

Complaints about Ford also were high. CR says there were 36 complaints some indicating that the pedal arrangement in the popular F-150 pickup makes it too easy to hit the brake and accelerator at the same time. There also were other sudden-acceleration events that could not be explained.

Consumer Reports says it found the following complaints about the F-150 in the NHTSA database:

? "This Ford F-150 pickup truck has the widest gas (accelerator) pedal I have ever seen and as a result my right foot continues to press down on it, even after I have started applying the brake pedal with the same foot."

? "I entered the vehicle, started the engine, and put the vehicle in drive. The engine immediately increased in rpm to the point where the rear tires began spinning on the gravel. I put the transmission in Neutral and the engine rpm increased. I removed my foot from the brake and the engine continued at a very high rpm. I then depressed and released the accelerator and the engine returned to a normal idle."

? "...the truck spontaneously accelerated at full throttle with my foot firmly on the brake… I was advancing without applying the accelerator. With the brakes fully applied, I continued to advance into the parking lot and I immediately shifted into Park in attempt to stop the vehicle. The vehicle came to a stop and the engine was racing at full throttle in Park."

CR points out that while the NHTSA complaint database does not reflect all sudden, unintended acceleration cases, the data show statistically more complaints for certain Toyota, Lexus, and Ford brand models.

CR says its analysis found the ratio of reports for experiencing such a problem on 2008 model-year vehicle from Toyota Motor Corporation is about one in nearly 50,000. Ford's reported risk is about one in nearly 65,000, while the reported risk for a General Motors vehicle is just one in 500,000.