Toyota is going through its roughest patch in history. First it had recalled over 8 million vehicles around the world to fix a problem associated with accelerator pedals and now it has decided to recall the world’s best selling hybrid, the Prius to fix a glitch in its braking system. Toyota will probably upgrade the on-board software to fix this problem. The present recall is only for the Prius models sold in Japan. Earlier, Akio Toyota apologised for the quality issues cropping up in Toyotas.
Safety organisations in the USA and Japan have taken the matter in their own hands and are also investigating the braking problems associated with Prius cars. Prius is Japan’s best selling car and is a symbol of green-achievement by Toyota. Toyota also commands a strong brand name in Japan. According to Yomiuri Newspaper, Toyota has already informed its dealers about the recall. The newspaper also added that Toyota is expected to announce the recall early next week after it consults the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation.
Toyota did consider fixing the glitch voluntarily but has decided to recall the vehicles to restore public’s trust in the company. Toyota has so far sold over 300,000 Prius hybrids including 200,000 in Japan and 103,000 in USA and 29,000 in Europe. The recall comes after 19 deaths which have been linked to unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles in the last decade.
“I would like to take this opportunity to apologize from the bottom of my heart for causing many of our customers concern after the recalls across several models in several regions,” Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota’s founder, told a news conference in Nagoya. Read that article here.
Read the article on recalled Honda Jazz worldwide and Indian Citys.
