TOYOTA RECALL UK NEWS UPDATE
Toyota's recall crisis continues to embarrass the beleaguered company as it grapples with an issue that could affect a vast number of its cars - and deliver eight million dents to Toyota's cast-iron reputation for quality.
It's a physically small but very serious problem - accelerator pedals in a small number of Toyota's cars have been malfunctioning; the worst case scenario being the pedal sticks and the vehicle keeps moving after you've taken your foot off the gas.
TOYOTA RECALL UK NEWS UPDATE
A Sticky Situation for Toyota!
The ramifications are huge however and the Japanese car maker is issuing recall notices on eight million of its cars round the world to make sure that the potential problem is resolved as quickly as possible. Of those eight million cars, 1.8 million are from Europe with over 180,865 Toyotas in the UK believed to be affected.
The problem is believed to originate from the pedal parts made by US automotive group, CTS Corp which are used in some of Toyota's cars. The group also has a division up in Scotland which supplies these 'throttle position sensors' to Toyota's factories in Derbyshire and France.
Toyota says that a solution has been found which reinforces the pedal and is being made available to its European dealers from next week. The fix can't come soon enough though - Peugeot Citroen has already announced recalls on 97,000 of its Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1s in Europe because both cars are built at one of Toyota's factories and use components from CTS Corp. Meanwhile Renault, which also uses parts from CTS Corp, is said to be "monitoring the situation".
Is Your Car Affected?
In Europe, there are eight Toyota models being recalled for the sticking accelerator problem. If you own a model listed below, you should be hearing from the company shortly:
Auris (Oct 2006 - 5 Jan 2010)
Avensis (Nov 2008 - Dec 2009)
AYGO (Feb 2005 - Aug 2009)
Corolla (Oct 2006 - Dec 2009)
iQ (Nov 2008 - Nov 2009)
Verso (Feb 2009 - 5 Jan 2010)
RAV4 (Nov 2005 - Nov 2009)
Yaris (Nov 2005 - Sep 2009)
Peugeot Citroen are recalling 6,667 107s and 36 C1s. If you own an ESP-fitted petrol version of either model, the car maker will be in touch before the of the week.
