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Back to Motoring news

Motoring news

Toyota extends massive safety recall to Europe

28/01/2010

Shares in Toyota were sent tumbling yesterday as the car giant moved to recall millions of its vehicles world-wide, amid safety fears about its accelerator pedals.

The Japanese manufacturer announced that a recall operation already affecting around 7.5 million cars in the US would now be extended to Europe and China.

According to a statement on the Toyota website, the carmaker said that "in rare instances, there is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position".

It added that customers with vehicles affected will be spoken to directly, and said that "the models and exact number of potentially affected vehicles is under investigation".

Although the fault has forced the company to stop the sales of eight models in the US and halt production at six plants, Toyota said this would not be the case in Europe. This was because "a running change in production using different parts has already been implemented model-by-model in the European production".

According to recent sales predictions, Toyota had been expecting to have a relatively buoyant year following major losses in 2009 when it lost its place as the world's biggest car manufacturer.

Meanwhile in yet more bad news for the company, 750 job losses were announced at Toyota's main UK factory, the Burnaston plant near Derby.

In a statement reported by the Guardian, Toyota Manufacturing UK said the job losses were needed to improve production efficiency, and that workers at Burnaston had been warned of the impending 'streamlining' last August.