Fresh on the heels of Toyota’s first losses…ever.  It now seems that the auto giant is now faced with more problems.  It seems that Toyota has called for the recall of over a million cars for some apparently minor problems.  According to news.cnet.com the recall is taking place in various places mostly for a problem with seat belts:

“About 830,000 cars in Europe, North America, and other regions are being recalled, and another 536,000 in Japan. The defective models include the Yaris (called the Vitz in Japan), Belta, and Ractis models built between January 2005 and April 2008.

The recall concerns the tensioner on seat belts that may melt or catch fire in some collision situations. On some models, there’s also concern that the exhaust pipe will crack under extreme heat.”

The recall will include the Yaris as well as other vehicles.  This is actually just the most recent in a recent string of recalls for the auto maker.  Toyota has recalled 200,000 Lexus vehicles as well as more then 500,000 Corollas and Matrix autos.

It seems like such a shame to see this onslaught of bad news effecting Toyota all at the same time.  I hope that they can withstand these bad times and regain their footing as a maker of high quality, reliable cars.  For decades Toyota has maintained a great reputation and I would like to think that it won’t permanently slip due to these problems.

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