Toyota recall spreads to Britain

Adding to its recalls and suspension of sales in the U.S., Toyota has recalled eight of its UK models due to the ongoing problem with faulty accelerator pedals.

The company has confirmed around 1.8 million vehicles will be affected by the recall. Accelerator pedals may mechanically stick open or return slowly to idle, a problem which has already led to more than eight million Toyotas in the U.S. being recalled and sales of certain models being suspended.

Models which Toyota UK has recalled are listed below:

• Aygo (Feb 2005 – Aug 2009)

• iQ (Nov 2008 – Nov 2009)

• Yaris (Nov 2005 – Sep 2009)

• Auris (Oct 2006 – 5 Jan 2010)

• Corolla (Oct 2006 – Dec 2009)

• Verso (Feb 2009 – 5 Jan 2010)

• Avensis (Nov 2008 – Dec 2009)

• RAV4 (Nov 2005 – Nov 2009)

In a statement, Toyota said: “Toyota has identified a remedy for this issue, and is currently pursuing a final evaluation and confirmation procedure. As soon as the countermeasure is confirmed, Toyota will communicate to all customers and other concerned parties the details of the corrective action and of the implementation procedure.

“A running change in production using different parts has already been implemented model by model for the models on sale in Europe, as part of Toyota's continuous quality improvement policy. Therefore, there is no need or intention to stop production in Europe. Only a limited number of incidents have been reported in Europe, and Toyota Motor Europe is not aware of any accident resulting from this issue.