Toyota has announced plans to recall about 2.77 million vehicles worldwide because of problems with the steering mechanism and the hybrid system water pump.
In a worst case scenario, the steering shaft defect could lead to drivers losing control of the vehicle, while the water pump problem could render it inoperable, the Japanese carmaker said.
Toyota will recall 1.52 million vehicles in Japan and 1.25 million vehicles overseas, including 670,000 Prius vehicles in the United States. The affected cars are the Avensis, the Corolla and the Prius.
Owners are being advised to contact their local Toyota dealer. Repairs should take an hour to complete for the steering shaft and no more than 90 minutes to replace the pump.
The announcement comes a month after Toyota recalled more than 7.4 million vehicles worldwide for faulty power window switches that are a potential fire hazard, the biggest single recall since Ford pulled 8 million vehicles off the road in 1996.
"The number of vehicles being recalled is smaller than those from last month," said Satoshi Yuzaki, Tokyo-based general manager at Takagi Securities Co. "Unless the defects turn out to be very complicated, the cost for the recalls shouldn’t affect their earnings too much."
