Toyota to recall 885,000 vehicles

Toyota is recalling 885,000 vehicles to fix a
problem that could cause a water leak from
the air conditioning unit.

It said water could leak into the airbag
control module, causing a short circuit and
triggering a warning light.
In some cases airbags "could become disabled
or could inadvertently deploy" and in limited
cases the power steering function could be
disabled, it added.
The models affected by the recall are the
Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid,
and Venza made in 2012-13.
Some 847,000 cars will be recalled in North
America, while the rest will be in Europe, Asia
and the Middle East.
A spokeswoman for Toyota told the BBC that it
had received reports of two minor injuries due
to the issue, but there had been no reports of
any vehicles crashing.

Reputational damage?
This is the third major recall that Toyota has
issued in recent weeks.
Last month, the company called back more
than 780,000 vehicles in the US to address a
suspension defect in its RAV4 and Lexus HS
250h models, after fears that an initial recall
last year did not fix the problem.
In September, it recalled 615,000 Sienna
minivans in the US to fix a lever problem that
could cause vehicles to shift out of park mode
"without the driver depressing the brake
pedal".
Toyota said at the time that it was aware of 24
"minor accidents" due to the issue.
In recent weeks more than 2.2 million vehicles
have been recalled.
Analysts said the recalls could have an impact
on its reputation with the customers.
"Repeated recalls definitely dent the image of
any carmaker," Vivek Vaidya, an auto analyst
with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan told the
BBC.
"If you have one big recall, it is still
manageable. But if (a company) calls back
different vehicle models at different times for
unrelated issues, customers tend to have a re-
think about your quality assurance.
"And if the problem involves airbag
deployment - it becomes a serious issue," he
added.
The latest move takes the total number of cars
recalled by Toyota this year to six million
vehicles.