Toyota Recall - the world's biggest car recall in 16 years

Toyota Recall – The world’s biggest car recall in 16 years…

Toyota recalling 2.5 million automobiles purchased in the United States due to a likely risk of fire.

The recall will involve 7.43 million vehicles world-wide sold under the Toyota and Scion brands. It is the biggest safety-related service action the manufacturer has reported since it began a series of recalls related to the risk of unintentional acceleration in late 2009. That in addition to other issues of safety Toyota recalled 14 million automobiles during 2009 and 2010.

It is the biggest single recall since Ford Motor Co retracted 7.9 million automobiles in 1996.

Many of the vehicles involved in the new Toyota recall also had been called back one or more times due to unintended acceleration issues.

The latest Toyota recall is the response to an issue with a potentially defective power window switch on the driver’s side of the affected vehicles that, the maker claims, “may experience a ‘notchy’ or sticky feel during operation. If commercially available lubricants are applied to the switch in an attempt to address the ‘notchy’ or sticky feel, melting of the switch assembly or smoke could possibly occur and lead to a fire under some scenarios.”

Toyota already announced recalls for several models involving similar window switches and in February, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it would open an investigation into the issue. But at that time it concentrated on just 830,000 Camry and RAV-4 models sold during the 2007 model year.

The massive size of the new recall underscores the hazards manufacturers such as Toyota encounter when they share fundamental parts on a wide range of vehicles seeking to improve manufacturing economies of scale.

In the U.S., the vehicles involved with the most recent recall include:

• 2007 – 2009 Camry sedans, approx. 938,100 vehicles;
• 2007 – 2009 Camry Hybrids, approx. 116,800 vehicles;
• 2007 – 2009 RAV4 crossovers, approx. 336,400 vehicles;
• 2007 – 2009 Tundra pickups, approx. 337,100 vehicles;
• 2007 – 2008 Yaris subcompacts, approx. 110,300 vehicles;
• 2008 Highlander SUVs, approx. 135,400 vehicles;
• 2008 Highlander Hybrids, approx. 23,200 vehicles;
• 2008 – 2009 Scion xD models, approx. 34,400 vehicles;
• 2008 – 2009 Scion xA models, approx. 77,500 vehicles;
• 2008- 2009 Sequoia SUVs, approx. 38,500 vehicles;
• 2009 Corolla compacts, approx. 270,900 vehicles; and
• 2009 Matrix crossovers; approx. 53,800 vehicles.

To check whether your automobile is involved, you can visit Toyota’s recall web site. The maker estimates the evaluation and repair process will take little more than an hour and involves the disassembly of the master switch and, if necessary, the application of a special fluorine grease.

NHTSA has received more than 200 reports involving problems regarding the faulty switch including fires, though there are not any known crashes or injuries. At least 39 similar problems were reported in Japan, where Toyota recalled 460,000 vehicles.

Another 1.39 million vehicles are subject to the latest Toyota recall in Europe, while the massive safety campaign also covers Australia, China along with parts of Asia and the Mideast.

In the U.S. market, the Toyota announcement is the biggest recall of the year and might revive fears about quality control with a manufacturer commonly near the top of the charts. These problems plagued the manufacturer during much of 2009 and 2010 and officials including President Akio Toyoda were hauled before Congress to describe the massive recalls associated with the unintended acceleration issue.

Toyota has repeatedly assured, since that scandal began, to ramp up the maker’s quality control process, and it is important to note that all the vehicles impacted by the latest recall were produced during or before the 2009 model year. Even so, the newest service action will yet again put an unwanted spotlight on the maker.

Toyota recalled more vehicles than any other auto maker in the U.S. in 2010 and came just short of obtaining that dubious distinction again in 2011. A substantial recall late that year, however, put Honda at the top of the list. Indeed, Honda recalled 1.7 million autos as part of three separate service actions last week – while NHTSA launched an investigation into potential problems involving another 600,000 vehicles.

While there have been a lot of recalls announced this year involving every brand from Chevrolet to Ferrari, with today’s announcement, it would appear that both Toyota and Honda are again in an undesired contest to lead the recall list again for 2012.

Toyota Recall - the world's biggest car recall in 16 years