UMW Toyota Motor to recall 97,000 vehicles for faulty airbag

PETALING JAYA: UMW Toyota Motor will recall 97,000 vehicles in the country due to the faulty airbags made by embattled supplier Takata.
TMC said is expanding its special service campaign to certain Toyota models to address the issue of the possibility of the improperly manufactured front side passenger and driver front airbag inflators that could cause rupture and the airbag to deploy abnormally in a crash.
"UMW Toyota Motor has received confirmation from TMC that there are approximately 97,000 units of Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla Altis, Toyota Vios, Toyota Yaris and Toyota RAV4 manufactured from year 2001 – 2007 which are involved in this Special Service Campaign in Malaysia," it said in après release yesterday.
UMW Toyota Motor said it will contact all affected customers for the special service campaign to carry out the necessary corrective measures and if it is equipped with an affected inflator, the inflator will be replace with a newly manufactured one at no charge to the owner.
"No other Toyota and Lexus models sold by UMW Toyota Motor produced before year 2001 and after year 2007 are affected by this campaign," it said.
Yesterday, Toyota and rival Nissan announced the recall of about 6.5 million vehicles globally in the latest chapter of an exploding airbag crisis linked to at least five deaths.
The world's biggest automaker said its recall of five million vehicles affected 35 models globally produced between March 2003 and November 2007, while Nissan said it was calling back 1.56 million vehicles worldwide due to faulty airbags made by embattled supplier Takata.
"This will affect many of our markets, including Japan, Europe and North America," a Nissan spokesman told AFP, adding that the explosion risk was among a range of problems seen in the defective airbags.
"There might be many factors. (But) we have seen risks that the metal casing for inflators can malfunction."
Nissan's recall affects a range of models produced between 2004 and 2008.
Both automakers said there were no reports of deaths or injuries linked to their latest recall.
The announcement comes after about 20 million vehicles produced by major automakers, including General Motors and Honda, were recalled because of the risk that their Takata-made airbags could improperly inflate and rupture, potentially firing deadly shrapnel at the occupants.