Toyota Motor Corp. TM -2.06% issued five recalls Wednesday affecting a combined 6.39 million vehicles world-wide, in a possible blow to the Japanese company's reputation for quality control.The world's largest auto maker said the company "isn't aware of crashes, injuries or fatalities" caused by the five problems that prompted the decision to go ahead with the recall.
The recalls concern defects affecting seat rails, cables connected to air bags, engine starters, steering column brackets and windshield wiper motors.
The problems with the spiral cable assembly attached to air bags affects 3.5 million vehicles world-wide, including 1.67 million in North America. The problems involving seat rails affect 2.32 million vehicles globally, including 670,000 vehicles in North America.
Automobiles subject to the recalls include RAV4, Corolla, Yaris, Matrix and Highlander models.
The latest glitches follow a global recall of 7.4 million vehicles by Toyota in 2012, the company's largest recall to date for a single part.
The latest news comes at a time when Toyota is regaining its strength after tough years including the plunge in demand after the global financial crisis, previous recalls, a strong yen and natural disasters.
In February, Toyota said solid vehicles sales coupled with a now weaker yen pushed net profit up more than fivefold to $5.2 billion in the quarter ended December.
For the full fiscal year ending March, Toyota raised its outlook for net and operating profit to ¥1.9 trillion and ¥2.4 trillion, respectively. Both surpass the company's previous record set in fiscal 2007.
Toyota's shares were down 3.1% at the close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Source: Automobile News
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