Toyota recalls hit 20 million after latest round

More problems for Toyota: the Japanese car manufacturer has recalled 885,000 vehicles because of a problem with water leakage from their air-con units that could cause a short circuit in their airbags.

The recall applies to Camry, Avalon and Venza models made in 2012-13, and mainly applies to the US, where 847,000 cars are being recalled. The rest are in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

It’s the third major recall Toyota has issued recently – and one of a long line of recalls that have taken place over the past two years. In fact, while the total number called back since September is 2.2 million, pushing the total number of cars vrooming back to the factory over the past two years to nearly 20 million. That’s about 10 times the total number of new cars sold in the UK last year.
 
To be fair to Toyota, recalls are usually a precautionary measure – airbags aren’t about to start exploding all over Britain’s motorways, and there haven’t been any major crashes or accidents (although there have been ‘minor injuries) to prompt this latest round of recalls.

But it’s not going to do much to help restore the car manufacturer’s reputation –having recalled 15 million vehicles in 2009-10, it’s now more tattered than the upholstery on a 1936 AA Sedan.