Toyota hit by new recall

Toyota Motor Corporation was recalling about 6.39 million vehicles worldwide, the Japanese auto maker said on Wednesday.

The recall was prompted by a total of five defects, including steering column problems, faulty driver's seats, an engine starter glitch and defective cables, Toyota said in a statement.

The problems affected a total of 27 Toyota models such as the popular Corolla and Yaris models, as well as the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia. The cars were made in the last decade, Toyota added, with 1.08 million of them sold in Japan, 2.3 million in North America, about 700,000 in Europe and 62,000 in China.

Toyota said in the statement that the starter defect had caused two fires, but that it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities caused by these conditions.

The latest recall is the third within just one and a half years. In October 2012, Toyota announced a global recall of 7.43 million vehicles over a possible fire risk. In February this year, it recalled 1.9 million of its Prius hybrid cars.

Last month, the world's leading carmaker agreed to pay $1.2 billion (870 million euros) to settle US criminal allegations that it lied to safety regulators and the public and tried to cover up deadly accelerator defects in 2009.

uhe/msh (AFP, dpa , Reuters)