Canvey Carriage Company on Toyota Recall

Canvey Carriage Company read today that Toyota is to recall of 1.9 million Prius hybrid cars due to a fault with speed control. Toyota, the world's biggest car maker said cars may suddenly slow down due to a problem with software. In some cases, they said, the car may even come to a full halt while being driven.

They also said, however, that the fault may simply activate the warning light and cause the car to enter “failsafe mode”. While the cars would still operate, they would do so at a reduced output. If the car was to stop, it would not do so suddenly, instead making a gradual slow before coming to a stop.

The issue centres around the boost converter in the Intelligent Power Module. The boost converter is required when for example you accelerate hard from a standstill. The problem was identified through Toyota’s stringent quality reporting system.

Toyota confirmed it had identified at least 400 faulty vehicles, three-quarters of those were discovered in Japan. The recall will now affect 30,790 Prius cars in the UK and 700,000 in the US. There have been no reports so far of any accidents or injuries relating to this issue, though it is a recurring problem.

All the vehicles that are affected by the software problem will be recalled for a system update. Registered owners will be contacted by Toyota over the next few weeks by post or telephone. They will be invited to take their car to their nearest Toyota garage where a full update will be carried out.

Toyota and other Japanese car firms have suffered a series of high profile recalls in recent years, which has undermined their reputation for quality control. In the US a recall has also been issued on 260,000 2012 RAV4s, Tacomas and Lexus RX 350s over an unconnected potential braking issue. They have also recently announced an end to production in Australia. Read more on that here.