Hot on the heels of Toyota’s massive recall announced Wednesday, Honda Motor Co. announced that it would be recalling almost six hundred fifty thousand of its Fit and Jazz models. That number includes approximately one hundred forty thousand cars in the United States. The recall followed a tragic accident during which a child died when a fire erupted in a car last year, and involves a window power switch that is reportedly faulty. Honda’s announcement only added to concerns about the Japanese car industry as to how its products would be perceived.
On Wednesday, Toyota announced the recall of over a million of its Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, RAV4, Sequoia, and Tundra models due to malfunctioning accelerator pedals. The parts, which can cause uncontrolled acceleration, have already been blamed in as many as nineteen deaths worldwide. Toyota is the world’s number one automaker by sales, with an estimated twenty percent share of the U.S. auto market. The eight models recalled represent a combined fifty-seven percent of Toyota’s sales in America.
Between Honda and Toyota, the recalls simply could not come at a worse time for the global auto industry. Currently, vehicle sales are already way down as a result of the worldwide recession. Buyers have been working hard to try and tempt car buyers back into dealerships that they have been avoiding. The slump has been bad enough to take two domestic manufacturers, General Motors and Chrysler, and tumble them into bankruptcy court. Now, two of the biggest foreign manufacturers will be coping with some serious problems of their own.
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