Toyota's recall woes

Toyota, a name previously linked with top-notch quality, is now tarnished by massive recalls. The number of automobiles subject to its recent recalls has topped the Japanese auto maker's global sales in 2009. And that makes Toyota top in auto recalls.

The largest-ever recalls started from January 21st... when Toyota announced the recall of around 2 point 3 million vehicles in the US to fix accelerator pedals that could have become stuck. It affected eight models, including the RAV, Matrix, Camry and Highlander.

A week later, Toyota recalled around 1 million additional defective vehicles in the US. On the same day, the auto maker announced the recall of over 75-thousand RAV-4 cars in China also due to the potential malfunction of the accelerator pedal.

And it just won't stop, the recall then extended to Europe, Canada, the Middle East and Africa. That pushed the total number of recalled vehicles to more than eight million, bigger than Toyota's global sales in 2009. To add to the woes, consumer confidence is collapsing.

Nobuko Hayashi, a 50-year-old housewife, said, "After I heard the news I don't think I'm going to ride in such a car."

Scott Brownlee, Toyota's UK spokesman, said, "We’re very conscious that people’s confidence in Toyota is taking a knocking and we are very sorry for that."

Toyota says it's working to develop a solution to the latest problem. And it will contact owners directly about the matter.

While Toyota is struggling to cope with worldwide recalls, it has been dealt another blow. More than 100 complaints have poured in both from the US and Japan over brake systems in its popular Prius hybrid. Japanese media reports are already stating that the company will pull back some 270 thousand Prius models in the US and Japan.

Over the past years, Toyota has had frequent recalls. It followed the auto maker's large-scale expansion in the global market in 2005. Analysts say this underscores the difficulty of maintaining quality in a hasty expansion.