Japanese auto giant Toyota on Wednesday said it will recall 8,700 units of its premium sedan Corolla Altis and Camry in India to rectify faulty power window switches as part of a global exercise.
The company will start the exercise from next month and will contact the respective customers, check and change the part, if necessary, free of cost.
“In line with recall announced by Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) globally, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Wednesday voluntarily announced recall of Corolla Altis and Camry,” TKM said in a statement.
The company will recall the Corolla Altis manufactured between July 30 to December 31 in 2008, while for Camry it will be those vehicles rolled out from September 1, 2006 to July 31, 2008, it added.
“TKM will recall approximately 8,700 vehicles in India to inspect the power window master switch (PWMS). TKM will conduct this campaign on a voluntary basis... the company requests its customers not to panic, as this is not a safety hazard but only a precautionary measure, voluntarily carried out by the company,” the statement said.
The recall exercise will start from November across all Toyota dealers in India and owners will be contacted.
“Authorised Toyota dealers will inspect and replace (if deemed necessary) at no charge to the vehicle owner. The repair is expected to take approximately one hour, depending on the dealer’s work schedule. No other Toyota models, sold in India, are covered by this recall campaign,” TKM said.
“As a part of the customer first policy, TMC has globally announced this voluntary recall. TKM has followed the same in India,” the company said, adding that it will also notify industry body the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers as a part of the voluntary code on vehicle recall even though the recall “does not fall within the purview of any safety hazards”.
Keywords: Toyota Motor Corp, Corolla Altis, Camry
I think in recent times it is the only product recall happening in Automobile sector in India. Though not a major issue considering the "highly tolerant nature" of Indian customer Toyoto has resorted to the move to boost up its image. It remains to be seen to how much the recall will benefit Toyota on the above front!
It is clear that Toyota has not been able to live up to its expectations atleast as far as the Quality of its cars is concerned. One of the reasons may lie in the fact that Toyota has been cutting short the Product development times sharply as compared to its competitors between 2000 to 2005.Its design was claimed as "finely tuned development process based on exceptionally well trained engineers and excellent leadership and surgically inserted information technologies to enhance it.(Reference: Jeffrey Liker The Toyota way). As recent statistics show, Toyota has decreased its market share for the last four consecutive years in USA and remains in 9th place in Europe. In US it is Ford which is gaining at the cost of Toyota. With recalls mulitplying and customers moving away, it remains to be seen how Toyota is going to improve and retain its No 1 position. It is very interesting that during all the years of decline, the Japanese consultants used to claim that Toyota is superior.
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