Toyota 4 Runner Cold Air Accident Free Low Cost Delivery on 2040-cars

Auto blog

5,000 Toyota Prius V models recalled due to airbag issue

Toyota has issued a recall of roughly 5,000 Prius V hybrids. All of the affected vehicles are from model years 2014 and 2015. The problem with the hybrid MPVs centers on its Occupant Classification System. According to the company, the OCS is responsible for activating and deactivating the passenger's side airbag, and in the affected models, the system may not have been calibrated correctly. Should a crash occur, the passenger front airbag may not deploy. The company reports there have been no injuries or fatalities related to the OCS faulty calibration. Owner will be notified and will, naturally, be asked to report in for a free recalibration. TOYOTA RECALLS CERTAIN 2014-2015 MODEL YEAR PRIUS V VEHICLES TORRANCE, Calif. – Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., today announced plans to conduct a safety recall of approximately 5,000 Model Year 2014-2015 Prius V vehicles. In the involved vehicles, the front passenger seat is equipped with an Occupant Classification System (OCS), which activates / deactivates the passenger seat air bag system depending on the weight of the seat occupant. There is a possibility that some OCS's may not have been calibrated properly during the vehicle manufacturing process. Under some conditions, this could result in no deployment of an airbag, increasing the risk of an injury to a front seat passenger in the event of crash. Toyota is not aware of any injuries or fatalities caused by this condition. Owners of the involved vehicles will receive a notification by first class mail. Toyota dealers will recalibrate the Occupant Classification System properly. Detailed information is available at www.toyota.com/recall and by calling Toyota Customer Service at 1-800-331-4331. ###

Vote to unionize Toyota Canada plant faces delay

Volkswagen isn't the only automaker with high-profile unionization efforts afoot at one of its North American factories. Unifor, Canada's largest private-sector union, is attempting to organize Toyota's factories in Ontario, reports Reuters. A vote was originally set for next week, but Unifor has apparently found more workers eligible to vote, delaying the proceedings. It hasn't rescheduled the ballot yet, but claims there are 7,500 employees with the right to vote, with over 3,000 having already signed union cards.
Toyota is pushing against organizing, saying that workers already have a payment and benefits near the top of the industry, and noting that it has never laid off a permanent employee in Canada. Unifor has reportedly countered by saying that about a quarter of the workforce is operating under a temporary contract, which receives lower benefits.
The automaker has three factories in Ontario - two in Cambridge and one in Woodstock. To form a union, a majority of eligible employees must vote to join Unifor. If successful, they would be the first wholly owned Toyota plants in North America to be organized. Previous attempts to unionize the Japanese automaker's Canadian factories in 2001 and 2008 failed due to lack of support.

Five automakers now being investigated by NHTSA for airbag woes

It appears that Toyota's renotification to owners of recalled vehicles from last year is just the tip of the iceberg for what could potentially be a much larger industry-wide recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening a preliminary evaluation investigation into roughly 1.1 million vehicles from Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and parts supplier Takata regarding faulty airbag inflators in several models.
NHTSA has received six reports - three directly, two from Takata and one from Toyota - of vehicles with ruptured airbag inflators from 2002-2006, which resulted in three injuries. So far, all six incidents have occurred in high humidity areas like Florida and Puerto Rico. According to Toyota's latest recall announcement, the inflators may have an improper propellant that could cause it to rupture in a crash and the bag to deploy abnormally.
This new investigation follows a previous recall from April 2013 of about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide for the airbag inflators from Takata. As Autoblog reported, Toyota jumpstarted the new situation when it found that the original list of serial numbers for the faulty part was incomplete and discovered more cars in need of replacement. Honda and Nissan told us that they were investigating whether further models would need called in again as well. Mazda told Autoblog: "Regarding the current Takata situation, we're working closely with NHTSA and investigating the situation, but nothing else to report at this time." Chrysler Group responded to us with the statement: "Chrysler Group engineers are conducting the appropriate analysis. The Company will cooperate fully with the National Highway Traffic Administration."