Category: Companies / October 10, 2012 9:41 AM EDT
Toyota Motor Corp announced a massive recall in Wednesday to fix malfunctioning power window switches. The Japanese automaker said it would pull back 7.43 million vehicles worldwide in the biggest single recall since 1996. The recall will include 2.47 million vehicles in the United States, as well as 1.4 million vehicles in China and 1.39 vehicles in Europe. The move comes a day after Toyota reported that its sales fell 48.9 percent year-on-year in China in September. Paul Newton, auto analyst said the recall was damaging but not as bad as past recalls:
"Well, in terms of where it was with its previous recall where there were actually serious injuries and deaths associated with it this is really quite minor in terms that the risk is theoretical, it affects an awful lot of vehicles, but nobody has been hurt and there is no reported incidents of fires or anything else."
Japanese car brands have suffered as a result of a territorial dispute between China and Japan. The recall primarily affects cars in the United States, China and Europe. At this point there have been no accidents, injuries or deaths as a result of the problem.
Shares in Toyota ended down 1.90%.
