New blow for Toyota over hybrid cars

The UK recall of the Prius hybrid cars is part of a 400,000-vehicle recall worldwide.

The news is the latest blow to the company's esteem following about seven million recalls globally, including 180,000 in the UK, over accelerator problems.

With its ultra-low emissions, the petrol-electric Prius is seen as the foremost "green" car and makes up more than a third of the UK Government's 240-vehicle ministerial and dispatch car pool.

However, none of the Government cars are part of the UK recall which only involves third-generation Priuses made from last summer up to January 27 this year.

Toyota said the problem related to what it described as "inconsistent brake feel" during slow and steady braking on bumpy road surfaces when the anti-lock braking system (ABS) was actuated.

There have been reports of more than 120 cases of braking problems in the United States. Yesterday, Toyota said there had been no accidents linked to the problem in Europe. Toyota GB said the recall would consist of a software upgrade in the ABS. The procedure would be carried out free of charge and would take about 40 minutes using standard test equipment in use at all authorised Toyota service centres.

The company said it would write individually to every owner or keeper in the next few days.

"In the meantime, the cars are safe to drive. At no time are drivers without brakes. Toyota GB guarantees to every customer its utmost attention to making this upgrade as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Toyota GB added that insurance cover on Toyota cars was unaffected by the current safety recall and quoted an earlier assurance by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

There was support for the troubled company from the AA, whose president Edmund King said: "We believe that Toyota is dong the right thing by recalling these cars. The consumer prefers manufacturers to be open about potential problems.

"In the past some manufacturers would only look to a product recall as the last resort, whereas today manufacturers often consider recalls as the first resort. Our website lists the details for all official safety recalls for passenger cars since 1995. Last year there were 95 official recalls affecting a total of 673,000 individual passenger cars.

"The Toyota Prius was in the top three safest cars tested by EuroNCAP (the European new-car assessment crash-test programme) last year.

"Now that consumers are aware of a potential braking problem they will be in a much better position to deal with it in the unlikely event that a problem will arise. Consumers do not need to panic over official safety recalls."

But lawyer Nick Freeman - dubbed "Mr Loophole" for his court defences of celebrities accused of driving offences - yesterday urged Toyota owners affected by the recalls not to drive their cars until the problems were sorted out.

Mr Freeman said owners should get Toyota to come to them to pick up vehicles for the upgrade work to be completed. "If I had a Toyota I would not even drive it to the dealership for the repair work to be done. What if you had an accident on the way? You could be criminally liable."

Problems with hybrid braking systems haven't been limited to Toyota. Ford Motor Co said last week it plans to fix 17,600 Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion gas-electric hybrids because of a software problem that can give drivers the impression that the brakes have failed.

The car-maker says the problem occurs in transition between two braking systems and at no time are drivers without brakes.