Toyota, Honda, Hyundai & Peugeot recalls

It seems to be ‘factory recall’ season, at least of which is simply fall-out from the Toyota floor-mat fiasco that has spun out of control. Alongside further worldwide recalls by Toyota, Peugeot is doing a precautionary recall for their Toyota-rebadged models. Meanwhile, Hyundai and Honda are having recalls of their own, both related to safety issues.

After recalling a bunch of models for floor mats late last year, Toyota has started a recall for millions of cars in the U.S. for a sticky throttle pedal mechanism from suppliers CTS Corp. Interestingly, Toyota’s American division says the problem is limited to US-built Toyota models such as the Avalon and the Sequoia, as Japanese-built Toyota models use a different pedal supplier. But then Toyota went ahead and announced a recall in Europe for 1.8 million cars, involving the Euro-spec Auris, Avensis, Aygo, Corolla, iQ, RAV4 Verso and Yaris, all using a different supplier than CTS Corp. Recalls have also been announced in China, but not anywhere else yet.

On the other hand, Peugeot sells a rebadged version of the Euro-spec Toyota Aygo in a joint venture. Called the Peugeot 107, it is the only Peugeot model to be recalled, and involves less than 100,000 cars.

In other news, Hyundai is recalling all 2006-2009 Azera models manufactured between September 27, 2005 and October 1, 2008 under U.S. NHTSA government agency orders. In total, 65,226 vehicles sold in the U.S. are subject to the recall. The wiring harness for the front-right seatbelt tension sensor may become damaged after repeated use over time. If the sensor wiring is broken, the airbag will not deploy in the event of a crash. The Azera was also previously recalled last April as part of a Hyundai range-wide recall over faulty tail lights.

Also in the news is Honda, Honda is recalling 646,000 Fit models to fix a defective master switch. Better known in the GCC as the Honda Jazz, the recall includes 140,000 vehicles in the United States and also includes cars sold in South America, Europe, South Africa and parts of Asia. No cars sold in Japan are subject to this recall, and it is unknown if cars in the UAE are subject to this defect. Water can apparently enter the power-window switch mechanism, which could start a fire in certain instances. So far, three fire incidents have been reported, one in South Africa and two in the United States.

And that’s about it in current recall news. Call your local dealer for more information, assuming they acknowledge any of this.