Toyota Motor Corp., the renowned Japanese multinational auto maker, has announced that it will recall around 2.77 million units from across the globe, due to some unresolved technical but minor glitches. Widely regarded as one of the most dependable car companies in global automobile scene, Toyota has identified few problems in the steering and water pumps installed in its cars marketed throughout the world, comprising much popular Prius hybrid vehicles. Evidently, the latest multimillion vehicle recall is second for the Japanese car maker in two months.
According to Kurt Sanger, an auto analyst with Deutsche Securities, the real reasons behind the infamous recall are not major ones but could cost Toyota Motor Corp. hundreds of millions in repair and support operations. The auto analyst has lauded the Japanese car maker's attitude towards latest multi million vehicle recall from all over the world and said, “They seem to continue to be obsessively monitoring these things and looking for potential problems before they arise.”
Highlighting extent of the multi million vehicle recall announcement, Joichi Tachikawa, a spokesperson for Toyota Motor Corp., informed that the company is recalling 2.76 million vehicles from all across the world to fix a steering wheel component. Tachikawa said that the damaged steering wheel component could become a problem in the long run due to routine wear tear and needed to be replaced. He further affirmed that the faulty water pumps installed on some 630,000 petrol electric hybrid vehicles needed to be changed as well.
Evidently, no information regarding total cost of the latest recall announced has been revealed by Toyota Motor Corporation, but industry analysts have an opinion that the new development could cost the company somewhere around $ 380 to $ 500 (30 billion to 40 billion Yen). Commenting on financial implications of the announced multi million vehicle recall on Toyota's image and market share, Sanger added, “That's a decent range of financial impact, we assume. There doesn't seem to be much brand risk around this, given that there haven't been injuries and excessive complaining leading up to the product action and recall.”
Reportedly, more than 50 per cent of the vehicles featured in latest multi million recall are from the Japanese auto maker's native turf at around 1.5 million units, which makes it the company's biggest single recall at home. Further, Toyota Motor Corp. will also recall around 6.7 lac units and 4.96 lac units from the auto markets of United States and Europe, respectively. The cars featured in the recall comprise certain compact variants of Toyota Corolla that were made between 2000 and 2006 along with second generation Prius hybrid cars manufactured from 2004 to 2011. The Japanese auto maker has recorded sales of more than 3.3 million units of Prius car from all cross globe, since the hybrid vehicle was made available to public in December way back in 1997.
Evidently, Toyota Motor Corp. has been involved in a tumultuous battle towards restoring its image as makers of most dependable cars in the world. The Japanese auto giant has recalled more than 10 million vehicles from several international auto markets between 2009 and 2011, citing both major and minor technical glitches. Hence, the latest global multi million vehicle recall could prove to be a huge damper for the company's image as most reliable car maker in the world.
