GCC recalls for Honda & Toyota begin

Toyota and Honda are proceeding with recall campaigns in some GCC countries. Toyota is offering a free fix for affected Avalon and Sequoia owners, while Honda will do complimentary work on a handful of Odyssey minivans.

The US-built Toyota vehicles affected in the UAE are the 2005-2010 Avalon and the 2009-2010 Sequoia. The free repairs will be available to UAE owners from February 24. It simply involves installing a steel plate to avoid the accelerator pedal getting stuck in cold weather, though looking at the design of the repair, it almost seems like full-throttle acceleration will not be possible any more. Also, the floor-mat recall that affects other Toyota models will not be conducted here. In the United States, Toyota is already in the process of recalling further models for various other problems, such as failing driveshafts in the Tacoma pickup, brake issues in the hybrid Prius, and soon steering problems in the US-built Corolla.

Meanwhile, Honda is recalling US-built 2001-2002 Odyssey minivans, only 158 of them in Saudi Arabia, for an airbag fault. A new airbag component will be fitted. Apparently no other vehicles in the region are affected as most other models use a different component. Honda has no other recalls in the GCC, as the recent Jazz recall does not affect the UAE.