Toyota Announces a Record Breaking Recall of 6.4 Million Cars

Photo by mytho88

The year 2014 may be remembered as the record breaking recalls by Toyota and GM racing to hold the title for the largest number of vehicles recalled.

Toyota Motor Corp , in its second-largest recall announcement, said on Wednesday that it would call back 6.39 million vehicles globally, and analysts saw automakers increasingly turning to recalls rather than risk bad publicity or legal costs.

However, a recall at this scale would definitely take a serious blow to the companies reputation and create unhappy owners.

Toyota's biggest rival, General Motors Co is in the midst of its own recall of 2.6 million cars related to an ignition switch problem, which has been linked to at least 13 deaths.

At least for Toyota, there has not been any related accidents and injuries from the problems being addressed in the recall.  The recall this time involves 27 Toyota models - higher number than what most smaller auto makers produce.

Toyota models affected by the recall include  some of Toyota’s most popular brands. Certain Corolla, Yaris, RAV4, Scion xD, Matrix, Highlander and Tacoma models were among the approximately 2.34 million vehicles recalled in North America.

Toyota said problems were also found in the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia, two models the automaker built for General Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries .

The move by Toyota to announce five different recalls on a single day from Tokyo comes as major automakers face increasing scrutiny in the United States on how quickly they take preventive safety action and how quickly they share information with regulators and the public.

Toyota agreed last month to pay $1.2 billion to the U.S. government for withholding information related to unintended acceleration in its vehicles. That safety crisis had caused Toyota to recall more than 9 million vehicles.

"The negative publicity is causing automakers to react faster," said Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group. "The harm done to Toyota and GM is significant. Others don't want to suffer the same fate."

This is a great thing for consumer when auto makers proactively deals with defects rather than try to sweep in under the rug.

If you have a Toyota and it’s registered in the U.S, you can go to Toyota’s website and type in your vehicle’s 17-digit vehicle identification number. You can find your VIN number in a couple places: one your car insurance identification card, on your vehicle registration card, on your dashboard near the windshield on the driver’s side, or on the driver’s side doorjamb.

Toyota customers can also call 1 800-331-4331. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also keeps information about all safety recalls for cars sold in the U.S.