Toyota leads safety recalls for first time

In a first, Toyota led the U.S. auto industry in recalled vehicles this year, thanks to its largest safety-related problem since it began selling vehicles in the United States.
The Japanese automaker has struggled with the fallout from the recall of 4.3 million Toyota and Lexus models for unintended acceleration linked to fatal crashes.

Toyota told federal officials in December it would start fixing the vehicles now, but some repairs would not be ready until March.

According to a Detroit Free Press analysis of federal data, automakers recalled 15.2 million vehicles in 2009, a sharp jump from 8.6 million in 2008.

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Safety recalls have generally declined in recent years as automakers catch problems earlier, but the totals can fluctuate wildly with one or two big problems.

All three Detroit automakers also saw their count of recalled vehicles rise in 2009, even as they caught problems earlier in production.

Nearly all of Ford's recalled models were tied to one longstanding problem with cruise control switches; without it, the company would have hit a record low.

From misplaced labels and faulty seat belt reminder buzzers to engine fires and broken wheels, the 117 recalls from automakers in 2009 covered a vast range of safety-related problems.

Such problems are as close as the federal government comes to tracking the quality of cars and trucks, and in years past have mirrored the quality scores from outlets such as Consumer Reports .

While automakers have stepped up their monitoring to catch problems, those that get through can affect millions of consumers because of the industry's practice of sharing parts across more models.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks only those recalls that could affect safety. Automakers typically call back vehicles for other types of problems as well, and they contend those campaigns shouldn't be considered recalls.

That was the argument Toyota first advanced in September, when it announced it was recalling 4.3 million vehicles to replace floor mats after uncontrolled acceleration problems were linked to about a dozen fatal crashes.

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