Toyota recalls 1,000 units of Corolla Altis diesel

Japanese car major Toyota announced a third recall of cars in India over the last one year, as the company is calling back nearly 1,000 units of the Altis sedan to fix a potential problem with the driveshaft. The recall will cover the diesel variant of the model and is for cars manufactured between August 3, 2012, and February 14, 2013.

The exercise follows a potential aberration on the left or right side of the driveshaft that has been observed by the company "in a few cases". The company will repair or replace the driveshafts after inspection. This will be done free of cost, and will take approximately two hours.

In April this year, Toyota had announced recall of about 1,000 Corolla sedans - manufactured during January-June 2003 - over a problem that could cause the passenger-side air bag to deploy with too much force. This was part of a massive global recall of 34 lakh cars announced by Japanese carmakers Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda.

In October 2012, Toyota recalled around 8,700 units of Camry and Corolla Altis sedans as part of a global recall to inspect faulty power window master switches, which could be a potential fire hazard. Toyota's latest recall comes just days after compatriot Nissan announced a call-back of as many as 22,000 units of small car Micra and Sunny sedan globally due to a faulty braking system.

While India does not have an official policy on vehicle recalls, industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has come out with voluntary guidelines on fixing faulty vehicles when the problem is generic in nature. Companies were initially reluctant to talk about recalls fearing bad publicity, but increasing concerns on customer safety and strict disclosure regime in Western countries have seen many of them announce recalls when problems are noticed.

In March this year, domestic major Mahindra & Mahindra had called back nearly 25,000 units of its XUV5OO SUV for replacement of faulty parts on a select batch of vehicles produced in 2011 and 2012. In August last year, Ford India had called back over 1.2 lakh units of the Figo hatchback and Classic sedan (earlier known as Fiesta) to fix a potential problem related to the rear suspension and the steering unit that could have caused breakdown and even fire.

Also read: New Toyota Corolla to be shown on June 6