Toyota has just issued a worldwide recall of 1 million vehicles
. Of interest here in the USA is 170,000 Priuses are part of that recall. Apparently under certain situations there may be a problem with the steering. Snippet: In conjunction with the recall, Toyota said it is conducting a "special service campaign" in the United States for 170,000 Toyota Priuses, which the company believe to be the only Toyota vehicles that may have the steering malfunction...
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So it looks like Toyota is human afterall (if that analogy can be made), in that they too make errors from time to time.
So it looks like Toyota is human afterall (if that analogy can be made), in that they too make errors from time to time.
ateixeira says:
02:04 PM, 06/ 2/06
Interestingly it's a recall for Japan-built Toyotas. Most aren't even sold here. None of the vehicles recalled were made in the USA.
joepublic says:
12:13 AM, 06/ 4/06
AFAIK, the problem is that the steering intermediate shaft was underdesigned (too weak), so it sounds more like a design flaw than an assembly issue. Given that, it seems the factory location is not very important.
I heard from a Toyota tech that the component in question is designed, in the event of a head-on collision, to collapse on itself instead of being pushed into the cabin. But they designed it so weak that it cracks when stressed in conditions that could occur in everyday driving. This issue is an additional data point in the trend of worsening Toyota quality, but they do deserve credit for issuing a voluntary recall (or SSC, whatever they want to call it) before any accidents occurred.