As if the news wasn’t bad enough for Toyota, the company has announced a global recall of 1.3 million vehicles due to a defect that could start fires in the event of a collision. Recall news is not new to Toyota who issued a recall back in the holiday months of over 130,000 vehicles in China. Read on for the details of the latest woes for the Japanese automaker.

The recall was issued for American Yaris models from 2006 to 2007 and affects 134,900 in total here in America. The source of the defect is found in a gas expelled by the mechanism that tightens the seat belt in front end collisions which can cause the surrounding sound insulating foam to ignite, causing a fire. The recall spans worldwide and includes all models based on the Yaris platform, better known abroad as the Vitz and the Ractis. Although there are no reported incidents of fires caused by this defect in the US, Toyota will mail letters to all owners of 06 to 07 Yaris sub-compacts later this week. If you have a Yaris, simply take it to your dealer and they will fix the problem free of charge in less than an hour.

What do I think about this? I thought you would never ask. It seems that the fabled superior Japanese quality has leveled out in recent years, and in my opinion American car makers are on par with the likes of Toyota and Nissan. No doubt companies like Toyota are innovative and have enjoyed the success of the Prius and other hybrids, but watch out for ‘Merica to come back with some fuel saving vehicles of their own. Big_Blocker out.