news.sky.com/story/1011193/toyota-issues-another-massive-recall
Toyota has announced its second huge recall of vehicles in as many months in a move affecting almost 2.8 million cars world-wide.
The company blames problems with steering mechanisms and its hybrid system water pump.
The Japanese firm said it was recalling 1.5 million vehicles in Japan, 670,000 in the United States and 496,000 in Europe to correct steering intermediate extension shafts which can be damaged at slow speed.
But it insisted that the problem, seen in cars such as the second-generation Prius and certain Corolla models, could be fixed in about 50 minutes.
Separately, the car-maker is recalling 630,000 vehicles worldwide, including 350,000 in the US and 175,000 in Japan, to fix water pumps in hybrid vehicles.
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My last three cars have been Toyotas, and from my experience their cars are as reliable as ever. Give Toyota their due, they use the recall system to highlight even relatively minor issues and tix them - unlike some other manufacturers.
My last car was involved in the accelerator recall in 2010. Fixed in 40 minutes, £25 'compensation' from Toyota, free set of car mats from the dealer, and a car wash & vac
Bought my latest British-built Toyota new 3 weeks ago, and shall not hesitate to buy another when the time comes.
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So who would you buy a car from?
a) A manufacturer who you know will recall and fix its vehicles should a common fault be found that could lead to a breakdown?
b) A manufacturer who will only recall for safety-critical issues when forced to by the authorities and who, when faced with a common fault, will deny it exists at all in the hope that the mugs who bought their cars will cough up to fix them?
Examples of the former: Toyota as mentioned, Nissan (Crank sensor failure on 1.8 Primeras). Any others?
Examples of the latter recently: VAG (Bosch ABS/ESP units, Siemens injector failure), Volvo (catastrophic early timing belt pulley failure on D5 engines), Ford (Injector seal / turbo failure, Dash ECU), BMW (Swirl flap ingestion destroying engines) and many, many more.
Of that selection of horror stories, as far as I know the only one where the manufacturer has belatedly admitted to the issue and instructed its dealers to fix for free is VAG over the Siemens injector issue. Even then that's not a recall, only an instruction to fix it FOC when it occurs.
Rather interestingly, I'd just last week noticed an occasional squealing from my fleet 2009 Prius when cold, which I'd already flagged as sounding suspiciously like a water pump bearing on the way out........
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I actually wish all manufacturers were as diligent in terms of standing by their product and their customers post sale. As has been mentioned above, most other manufacturers refuse to acknowledge common problems, and make their customers jump through hoops to get things sorted out.
The unfortunate thing is that Toyota must make the most uniformly dull range of cars on the planet today. GT86 aside.
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My respect for Toyota grew when I read this book.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Toyota-Way-Management-Manufacturer/dp/0071392319/
From the wiki link
the 14 principles of The Toyota Way are organized in four sections: (1) long-term philosophy, (2) the right process will produce the right results, (3) add value to the organization by developing your people, and (4) continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning.
All of which are missing in UK at present.
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>> The unfortunate thing is that Toyota must make the most uniformly dull range of cars
>> on the planet today. GT86 aside.
>>
You could say that of VW, or Audi, many of whose cars seem to look roughly the same. Very good cars though.
Personally, I'd rather have "dull" than most of the modern designs however. For example,
** BMWs of the Bangle era were ugly IMHO.
** Renaults - bottom-fixated
** Mercedes A-class - over styled to appeal to yoof.
** Ford - too many creases & angles, and hideous interiors which are already dated.
** MINI - the jest is wearing a bit thin by now
** RR Evoque - Looks like someone sat on it
** Nissan - a motley collection of niche cars. The Joke, err "Juke" looks like a dog doing it's business.
Last edited by: Londoner on Thu 15 Nov 12 at 13:05
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Toyota - Another Massive Recall - Auristocrat
