Toyota Recalling 1.5 Million Cars for 2 Problems

Toyota Recalling 1.5 Million Cars for 2 Problems
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/business/global/22toyota.html?_r=1


TOKYO — The Toyota Motor Company announced a global recall of 1.53 million vehicles on Thursday because of brake and fuel pump problems, but stressed that the repairs reflected a companywide effort to be more proactive in addressing potential flaws.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will call back about 750,000 cars in North America, and 599,000 cars in Japan, mostly models made from 2004 to 2006, the automaker said. About 140,000 cars in the rest of Asia and Australia, and 50,000 cars in Europe, also are being recalled.

Quality at Toyota has come under the spotlight after the automaker recalled about 8.5 million cars and trucks worldwide over a range of problems, including gas pedals that could jam or get stuck under floor mats, causing vehicles to speed out of control. The size of the earlier recalls, as well as Toyota’s slow handling of recall procedures, was widely criticized by United States policy makers and triggered a series of Congressional hearings.

The president of the company, Akio Toyoda, subsequently promised to improve quality and customer service, including paying more attention to customer complaints and speeding up recall decisions. In February, the automaker set up a special global committee to oversee quality, led by Mr. Toyoda.

“Every time we announce a recall, that is a step toward increasing quality,” a spokesman for Toyota in Tokyo, Paul Nolasco, said Thursday. The pedal-related recalls had “brought it home to Toyota that we need to refocus on quality,” he said.

Most of vehicles in Thursday’s recall need to be fixed for a problem in the brakes’ master cylinder, Mr. Nolasco said. The cylinder, which contains brake fluid, could leak under certain circumstances, causing a loss in braking power.

Toyota has also found an electrical fault with the fuel pump that could cause the engine to stall, Mr. Nolasco said. That defect was concentrated in models sold in Japan.

The automaker is not aware of any accidents linked to these problems, he said.

Models affected in the United States include the 2005-6 Avalon; 2004-6 non-hybrid Highlander and Lexus RX 330; and 2006 Lexus GS 300, IS 250 and IS 350 vehicles, according to a company release.

Owners will be notified by mailings beginning early next month, and dealers will replace part of the brake’s master cylinder free of charge, Toyota said.

In Japan, the recall includes the Crown, Crown Majesta, Harrier, Mark X, Alphard, Kluger, Lexus GX 350, Lexus IS 250 and Lexus IS 350.

The latest recall comes as Toyota races to fix cars affected by its gas-pedal and floor-mat recalls, the first of which was announced last November.

Earlier this month, Toyota said its dealers had repaired 3.7 million of the 6 million vehicles affected in the United States in those recalls, or about 65 percent of the total. In April, Toyota agreed to pay a record $16.4 million fine to United States regulators for waiting too long to initiate a recall after learning that its accelerator pedals contained a defect.