TOKYO (Reuters). Toyota Motor Corp. will recall 2.77 million vehicles worldwide, including some of its popular Prius hybrid cars, for steering and water pump problems. It is the carmaker’s second multimillion-car recall in a little more than a month. The recall affects 496,000 vehicles in Europe, 670,000 vehicles in the United States and 1.5 million vehicles in Japan which include cars that were imported into Malaysia. The defects, which Toyota said had caused no accidents and could each be fixed in an hour or so, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to repair.
While the recall is widespread, the flaws are less serious and any damage to Toyota’s reputation would likely be limited compared with massive recalls in 2009 to 2011.
Toyota is recalling 2.76 million vehicles worldwide to fix a steering component that could be damaged by wear and tear, and 630,000 petrol-electric hybrid vehicles to replace water pumps, company spokesman Joichi Tachikawa said. Many vehicles are targeted by both recalls, resulting in overlap. The recall covers certain Corolla compact models made from 2000 to 2006 and second-generation Prius cars made between 2004 and 2011. Toyota has sold about 3.3 million Prius hybrid vehicles globally since the car went on sale in December 1997. The total number of hybrid vehicles it sold worldwide, including other models such as the UK-made Auris hybrid, was 4.6 million as of the end of October.
