Toyota Vietnam recalls nearly 1,600 cars with airbag faults

The parent company in Japan, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), said that because of programming errors in the central airbag electronic controller unit (ECU), the airbag could be triggered accidentally if the car was jolted while running on a rough road or bumping into a pothole.

The cars, belonging to the Rush SUV model, were assembled between July 16, 2018 and January 10, 2019.

TMC said it would inspect and replace airbag ECUs at no cost at all Toyota dealerships nationwide. "The test and replacement time would take around 25 minutes."

Toyota Motor Vietnam has sent recall notices to all the owners of these vehicles, which were imported from Indonesia. The firm stated that it has not received any customer complaints relating to the above fault.

Last year Toyota Motor Vietnam recalled 20,000 cars in March and 11,300 cars in August, and over various airbag faults.

In the first six months of 2019, Toyota sold over 37,000 new vehicles in Vietnam, equivalent to around 25 percent of the country's new car sales for the period, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).