Toyota recalls more than 120,000 cars in China for defects

by Sanjay Jha | December 25, 2008 at 07:31 pm

490 views | 13 Recommendations | 14 comments

The beleaguered Toyota Automobile company has been jolted with more bad news in the deepening recession. Toyota has been forced to recall more than 1, 20, 000 vehicles in China after some defects were detected in the steering. The recall comes in the wake of more bad news this week for the world's biggest automaker which forecast a first-ever annual operating loss amid tanking global car demand.

Toyota will recall 12,1930 vehicles in China as of Friday to fix a problem that could cause drivers to lose steering control, said China's quality watchdog Thursday.
The recalled vehicles include 62,517 units of Crown, produced between 2005 and 2006, 54,657 units of Reiz, produced between 2005and 2006, and 4,756 units of Lexus, produced between 2004 and 2006,said a notice released by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ).

Due to manufacturing defects, the electric power steering (EPS) system on these vehicles could fail to function and lead to steering failure in the worst cases, the notice said. The notice did not state whether there are any accidents reported due to defects, said the GAQSIQ.

Toyota will contact owners of the affected vehicles, conduct free checks and replace the defected parts at no cost.

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Paschen

at 19:37 on December 25th, 2008

now that will hurt. The Auto industry is now in global trouble due to the soon to be named depression.

Art_By_Alida

at 22:08 on December 25th, 2008

120,000 recalled cars is not much, compared to the hundreds of thousands of defective tires which Ford Motors had to recall because of a defective part they imported from China. Many people were hurt from those tires.

Low sales volume is primarily the reason for what is hurting Toyota, just like most other auto manufacturers.

Today I was at my brother-in-law's house and he restored a beautiful car in mint condition from the 1960's.

It didn't have electric windows nor a CD player nor air conditioning. It was a simpler and less complicated car. You could repair it yourself if you had any talent at all. You didn't have to have a degree in electronics in those days to fix your auto.

Maybe we should go back to making simpler cars and get the costs lowered so people can afford to buy a car which is more reasonably priced.

You don't even have the choice of buying a "bare-bones" auto anymore.

I wonder if people were not injured as much in those old steal and stainless cars than in the plastic molded ones of today?

Has anyone done studies to see if the newer cars are really safer and that they HAD to add airbags and spend so much more money to protect passengers than if they built cars the old way?

Maybe someone will start making a simple car without all the extras which drive the costs up.

I sure would be interested.

In those days, we had a radio and that was it. If you wanted a tape player, or a fancy stereo system, you added it yourself.

I love the way Fidel Castro would not let Cuba be dominated by cars.

NaturesEnthusiast

at 01:07 on December 30th, 2008

mmk

at 01:46 on December 30th, 2008

Car prices sure will go down to the actual with all this news...!!!!

Debbini

at 03:38 on December 30th, 2008

Debbini
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbini
all rights reserved.

Debbini has contributed a photo to this story.

ZillaPhotography.com

at 05:27 on December 30th, 2008

Toyota logo on car

ZillaPhotography.com has contributed a photo to this story.

A_G

at 06:24 on December 30th, 2008

Pic has been made on an annual german car event called NipponClassicDays - the amount of people discovering the unique world of (another german word) "Japanbarock". This Crown is quite rare - more popular are the sporty looking models like the Celica TA-models

A_G has contributed a photo to this story.