Toyota Recalls 550,000 Cars

[BSB]

Toyota recalls 550,000 cars for steering issue
The Associated Press
6:51 AM EST November 9, 2011
© AP

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide - mostly in the United States - for problems that could make it harder to steer.

The recall affects 447,000 vehicles in North America, as well as 38,000 in Japan and another 25,000 in Australia and New Zealand, said Toyota spokesman Dion Corbett. In Europe some 14,000 vehicles are being recalled along with 10,000 in the Middle East and 14,000 in Asia outside Japan.

Toyota has received a total of 79 reports about the defect dating back to 2007, said Corbett. There have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the problems, he said.

Toyota's reputation has taken a hit over the last two years due to a string of huge recalls that have ballooned to 14 million vehicles over that time, including millions recalled last year for acceleration problems. It faces damage lawsuits and lingering doubts in the U.S. about whether it had been transparent enough about the recall woes.

Japan's largest automaker has been trying to communicate better with customers and empower regional operations outside Japan to make safety decisions.

The news comes a day after Toyota said its July-September profit slid 18.5 percent to 80.4 billion yen ($1 billion) on plunging sales caused by parts shortages from the tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan.

It now faces such uncertainties from flooding in Thailand, where it has many suppliers and three assembly plants, that it declined to release an earnings forecast for the full year through March.

[BSB]

http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/articles.aspx?afid=1&aid=45218616

[sirs]

Loving my Solara   

[Xavier_Onassis]

Toyota makes good, reliable cars. I drove my 77 Celica for 15 years and over 130,000 miles and it was 5 years old when I bought it.

The metal under the vents in front of the windshield rusted out, and every time it rained, water poured on my feet. The engine and the tranny were fine until they towed it away.

These days, I think Hyundai and Subaru are a bit ahead of Toyota in the warranty and design departments. Toyotas are like Chevrolets and Fords used to be: everyone had them, so the design, which is generally quite attractive, tend to become commonplace simply because there are so many of them on the road. They sell so many Toyotas that the design ends up being like a navy blue suit and a white shirt.

A friend has a 2007 Corolla with 125K on it and has yet to change the plugs. His car before that was a 1991 Nissan Sentra and he got rid of it only because of an accident, at 365,000 miles. It burned no oil and ran fine until the end.

All car are lots better than they used to be: better mileage, better looking, easier to repair simple things, and they do not rust easily.

[BSB]

My Toyota Lexus drives like a top. In fact it drives better and better the more miles I put on it. Most people lease what I have which I don't understand entirely. It's at the top of the Lexus line and I should get 250,000 miles out of it with little trouble. "Should get".  Time will tell.

Toyota's problem is a parts problem. They used to make all their parts inhouse but they got too big in the 2000s and had to outsource. That's when they started to slide.


BSB

[Christians4LessGvt]

after being in the transportation business for almost three decades
i find there are none better than Toyota and Honda for reliability
my personal vehicle is made by the Toyota Corporation and it's been great

[Plane]

   How do you like the Toyota trucks?