Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, is recalling 367,600 U.S. Highlander and Lexus RX sport-utility vehicles to fix faulty clips that may cause a console panel to fall onto the accelerator.
Toyota's U.S. unit will begin notifying owners of 2004 and 2005 Highlanders and RX 330s and 2006 Highlander Hybrid and RX 400h models later this month, spokesman Bill Kwong said today. Dealers will install stronger versions of two clips that hold a four-inch panel to the right of the gas pedal, he said.
“We've had seven reported complaints of panels popping out, and in two cases this caused accidents when the panel fell onto the accelerator,'' Kwong said. Neither accident led to deaths or injuries, he said.
The recall, reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration yesterday, is the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker's second this week. Two days ago the company said it would recall 157,000 Tundra pickups to remove a switch that turned off passenger-side air bags. The switch was in violation of a U.S. child-seat safety regulation. NHTSA also began a probe of Toyota's Scion tC Tuesday after reports glass in the coupe's “moonroof'' can shatter.
Toyota also sells the SUV models in Japan and Europe. Kwong couldn't immediately confirm the total number of vehicles being recalled globally for the same problem. Dow Jones Newswires, which reported the recall earlier today, said more than 380,000 of the SUVs would be recalled worldwide.
Toyota's U.S. operations are based in Torrance, California. Toyota trails only General Motors Corp. among automakers, based on the number of vehicles sold worldwide.
U.S. shares of Toyota fell $3.18, or 3 percent, to $102.53 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:02 p.m.
