"Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), the world’s largest carmaker, called back more than 6 million vehicles to fix a range of safety defects in one of the biggest recall announcements in automotive history.
The company found five types of safety hazards in vehicles including some of its top sellers such as the Camry sedan, RAV4 sport-utility vehicle and Corolla cars, according to a statement today. The carmaker isn’t aware of any injuries or fatalities linked to the defects, it said.
The recall, Toyota’s second-biggest since late 2012, is a setback for President Akio Toyoda, who has spent years trying to restore the company’s reputation for quality after the 2009-2010 recall crisis it faced over unintended acceleration. Scrutiny of safety practices in the auto industry is rising as U.S. regulators investigate General Motors Co. (GM) for its handling of deadly ignition-switch flaws that the company knew of as far back as 2001.
“Something is wrong,” Koji Endo, an analyst at Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo, said by telephone. “They may even need to review their production process. Even if the problem is with the suppliers, Toyota should be responsible for it.”
While details weren’t available for precise calculations, Endo estimated that the recall could cost Toyota about 60 billion yen ($589 million) to 70 billion yen, or 10,000 yen per vehicle."
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