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Toyota and Honda announce major vehicle recalls this week

Japanese auto giants Toyota and Honda both announced major recalls this week, moves that come at a difficult time for an already struggling auto industry.  Both recalls affect vehicles across the globe.  Toyota’s recall comes after 19 reported deaths from auto accidents, and Honda has one death attributed to their recall issue.

Toyota’s recall is especially troubling, as it is an expansion on previous recalls for problems with unintended acceleration.  Late last year Toyota issued recalls for a faulty floor mat / accelerator pedal combination that affected over four million vehicles.  This week’s recall targets sticky throttles, and is expected to affect 2.3 million cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. alone.

Honda is recalling a total of 646,000 Fit / Jazz and City models worldwide.  140,000 of those vehicles are in the United States.  Countries affected include North America, South America, Europe, South Africa, and Asia.  Japan is not affected.

The Honda recall is due to a defective master switch, which could allow water to enter the power window switch and potentially cause a fire.  A total of three fires linked to this defect have been reported.  Two were in the U.S. and one was in South Africa.  In one report, a child died last year when a fire started in a Honda vehicle.

The Toyota recall has attracted the attention of the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman.  He plans to hold hearings to review consumer complaints about the unintended acceleration problem and try to determine what Toyota and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it.

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