Toyota Motor Corp.’s share price down, recalls 6.76 million vehicles worldwide due to defects

The largest car manufacturer worldwide – Toyota Motor Corp. made an official statement, revealing that it will recall 6.76 million vehicles all over the world. Considering the fact that some of the vehicles are included in duplicate withdrawals, the total number of companys vehicles is 6.39 million.

According to companys statement, a total of 27 Toyota models are involved in the recalls, including the Toyotas Pontiac Vibe, RAV4, Corolla, Yaris and other models, due to several problems that vary from issues with spiral cables to engine starters, windshield wiper motors, air bags, etc.. In its statement, cited by the Wall Street Journal, Toyota Motor Corp. emphasized on the fact that it “isnt aware of crashes, injuries or fatalities”.

Toyota Motor Corp. said that it improved procedures, which had been quite reliant on decisions made in Japan. The company was accused of covering up information and delaying the withdrawals of more than 10 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010. In March 2014 the company tried to hide safety defects, and agreed to pay a fine estimated to 1.2 billion dollars, after being imposed the biggest criminal penalty ever set on an auto manufacturer in the U.S.

According to information provided by the company, about 3.5 million vehicles worldwide are affected by the defect related with the air bags. 1.67 million of them are located in North America. Seat defects are reported to have influenced 2.32 million vehicles. 670 000 of them are located in North America.

These announcements came at a time when the company is in a process of recovery, after experiencing problems over the last few years. The company went through a crisis due to natural disasters, the strong yen, global financial downturn and previous recalls, which most analysts point to have deteriorated Toyotas positions in the market.

According to Financial Times, shares of Toyota Motor Corp. lost 3.08% to close at 5,450 JPY in Tokyo today, while companys one-year return rate was 3.42%. The same media reported that the 21 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Toyota Motor Corp. have a median target of 7,800, with a high estimate of 9,600 and a low estimate of 6,200. The median estimate represents a 38.72% increase from the last price of 5,623.