Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it would call back 6.39 million vehicles globally after uncovering five different faults involving parts ranging from steering to seats, in one of the biggest recall announcements in automotive history.
The world’s biggest carmaker said it was not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by the glitches, which were found in 27 Toyota models including the RAV4 and Yaris subcompact. Faults were also found in the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia, two models the automaker built for General Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries.
The company did not say how much the recalls would cost, and it was not clear if the faults stemmed from Toyota’s suppliers or its manufacturing process.
Tokyo’s announcement of five different recalls on a single day comes as major automakers face increasing scrutiny in the United States on how quickly they take preventive safety action and share information with regulators and the public.
The company agreed last month to pay $1.2 billion to the U.S. government for withholding information related to unintended acceleration in its vehicles. That safety crisis had caused Toyota to recall more than 9 million vehicles.
In a high-profile case that has the potential to change U.S. safety regulations, Toyota rival General Motors is meanwhile under investigation for failing to act on a known ignition switch defect linked to a dozen deaths. The company has recalled 1.6 million vehicles over the issue.
In the largest of the recalls announced Wednesday, Toyota said 3.5 million vehicles needed a spiral cable to be replaced. The faulty cables could be damaged when the steering wheel was turned, potentially causing the air bag to fail in the event of a crash, the automaker said.
In total, about 2.34 million of the vehicles to be recalled were sold in North America. Another 810,000 were sold in Europe.
In the second-largest of the recalls, some 2.32 million three-door models made between January 2005 and August 2010 will be checked for a fault in the seat rails that could cause the seat to slide forward in a crash, risking injury for the driver or passengers.
Source: Reuters
