Toyota Motor Corporation, the company known for its top-selling car brand, is having its fourth global recall this year which is said to involve around 1.75 million cars. The carmaker will be checking flaws that would revolve around faulty brake master cylinder and fuel pipes.
The recall would include 1.05 million vehicles in Japan and 615,000 in other countries. It would cover certain Toyota models such as Auris, Corolla Rumion, Voxy, Noah, Crown and Crown Majesta. Likewise, it would also cover more than a dozen models from the Lexus lineup.
In April, Toyota made a global recall of 6.39 million vehicles which is the company's second biggest recall announcement. Two months later, a third set of recall was made which involved almost 2.3 million cars globally. The recall addressed the issue on defective airbag inflators which have also affected other car manufacturers.
"This recall is generally not that big of a deal," said analyst David Whiston of Morningstar. "Reputation only tends to be an issue when people die and Congress gets involved."
The latest round of recall would involve 802,000 models of Voxy, Noah, Crown and Crown Majesta which had manufacturing dates between June 2007 and June 2012. The company would have to replace a rubber seal ring found in the car's brake master cylinder in order to avoid leakage of the brake fluid. If such leakage has already occurred, the brake booster would have to be changed.
Toyota also recalled around 190,000 Auris and Rumion cars in Japan wherein the company had to replace the cars' emission-control units. These could cause fuel leaks which could pose a bigger fire risk.
For the U.S. market, Toyota has already recalled around 5.3 million vehicles this year. However, a total count of vehicle recalls done globally is not available yet.
"With the lessons learned from past recalls in North America, Toyota keeps showing the attitude to proactively recall and have everything under control before any serious accident happens," said Takashi Aoki, fund manager at the Tokyo-based Mizuho Asset Management Co. "I don't think this recall would damage the brand image, or cause the shares to decrease, as there were no injuries, fatalities or crashes."
While it is true that the latest recall would require the automaker to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, it is also believed that there will be a lesser cash risk since not all customers are getting the repairs. Toyota didn't disclose the estimated cost of the recalls.
