Toyota drivers in the UAE are not affected by the faults that prompted today's recall of almost 3 million cars, according to the automobile maker's local distributor.
The beleaguered Japanese car brand said it is recalling 2.77 million cars worldwide due to a water pump problem and a steering shaft defect, its second multi-million vehicle recall in as many months.
A spokeswoman for Al-Futtaim Motors, the UAE distributor for Toyota, confirmed that the country is not included in the recall, but declined to release an official statement.
Toyota is recalling 1.5 million cars in Japan, 670,000 in the United States and 496,000 in Europe due to a problem in the steering shafts, which could be damaged at slow speed, spokesman Joichi Tachikawa told Reuters.
An additional 630,000 cars are being recalled worldwide, including 350,000 in the United States and 175,000 in Japan, due to a problem with water pumps in hybrid vehicles.
Some models are affected by both recalls, bringing the total to 2.77 million vehicles, said Mr Tachikawa.
No accidents have been reported as a result of the problems, which could cause faulty steering, the company has said.
Models subject to the recall include the Prius hybrid, Corolla and Wish vehicles produced in Japan from 2000 to 2011 and from 2000 to 2009 overseas.
The latest recalls have accelerated Toyota’s troubles.
The Japanese manufacturer has taken 14 million vehicles off the road in recent years due to a range of faults in its models affecting floor mats, braking and accelerator pedals.
“They seem to continue to be obsessively monitoring these things and looking for potential problems before they arise,” Deutsche Securities autos analyst Kurt Sanger told Reuters.
Toyota has not revealed the cost of the latest recall, but Mr Sanger said it could reach 30 billion to 40 billion yen including parts and labour.
“That’s a decent range of financial impact, we assume. There doesn’t seem to be much brand risk around this, given that there haven’t been injuries and excessive complaining leading up to the product action and recall,” he added.
Last month Toyota called back more that 7.4 million cars worldwide to fix faulty power window switches which could melt and cause a fire. More than 65,000 Toyota and Lexus cars were included in the recall, the largest in the industry since Ford was forced to call back 8 million cars in 1996.
This time last year, 2,000 Toyota and Lexus cars in the Emirates were also included in a recall to fix a fault that could lead to steering problems. It was part of a pull back of 550,000 vehicles worldwide.
Shares in Toyota were down 0.8 per cent to 3,060 yen on Wednesday afternoon.
