All has not been well for Japanese car manufacturer Toyota lately. The company, on Wednesday, issued a global recall for 2.27 million vehicles over an airbag system defect that could cause fires. The announcement covered 20 models, including the Corolla sedan, Yaris subcompact and Noah minivan. Toyota has received one report of a seat-cover burn related to defective airbag inflators.
The first part of the year began on a sour note for the company as it had in February recalled 1.9 million of its signature Prius hybrid cars. In April, Toyota recalled 6.39 million vehicles globally over a string of problems, and another 520,000 vehicles last month, mostly in North America, over several issues including cable corrosion that could lead unused spare tyres to fall off. Even in India, in April, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) had announced a recall which included 44,989 units of the Innova to rectify a fault in the cable of the steering wheel.
This recall widens last year’s recall involving Takata’s airbags, with Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. also investigating the issue.
Vehicle recalls have recently become increasingly common now with the General Motors’ vehicle recall being the biggest of them all. However, Toyota management has made it known that they will be concentrating extensively on building back their reputation for quality.
Though this recall has been issued globally, the TKM India is yet to send out word on whether the Corolla sold here will be recalled. Stay tuned as we come back with an official update.