Toyota in damage repair mode

Only few months after regaining its position as the world's number one automaker, Toyota of Japan on Wednesday announced another major vehicle recall, involving 2.77 million cars worldwide.

The company said there had been technical problems over steering control and the water pump in some hybrid brands. "There have been no accidents or injuries over these problems, but we have received reports from customers," the firm said in a statement.

Toyota said around 1.5 million affected vehicles were sold in Japan itself, with the remainder shipped to the US, Europe and other regions. It added the popular Prius hybrid was among the brands hit by the technical issues in question, but not units sold this year.

Renewed headache

The Japanese carmaker admitted the detected steering issue could potentially see the driver lose control of the vehicle, while the water pump problem at hand could render cars inoperable.

The firm said it was not able to specify the estimated costs of the recall, but conceded it would push the company even deeper into damage repair mode.

Toyota only last month issued a huge recall of well over 7 million vehicles globally over a possible fire risk related to a fault in the electric window systems of its Camry and Corolla models. Back in 2009, the carmaker made negative headlines by mishandling a problem involving floormats getting trapped under the accelerator. It eventually led to the recall of 12 million units worldwide, a US congressional inquiry and more than $50 million (39.3 million euros) in fines from US regulators.

hg/msh (dpa, AFP)