The recent worldwide Toyota recall has finally landed in China, the recall which has quickly been dubbed ‘Toyotal Recall’, will effect 1.4 million cars in China alone, globally it will see more than 7 million cars returned to Toyota dealers for repair with 2.4 million US cars and more than 1 million EU cars being recalled.

In China affected models include the Toyota Highlander, Camry, Camry Hybrid, Yaris Vios, Corolla, and RAV4 made between 2005 and 2010.

In 2009 during Toyota’s last global recall due to faulty break pads the company was accused of acting slowly in the Chinese market as Chinese owned Toyota’s were recalled much later than EU or US owned cars, Toyota’s CEO Mr. Akio Toyoda flew to Beijing to personally apologise for the issue after his own appearance before a US Congressional hearing.

Although Chinese consumers were angered by Toyota’s slow response to China, Chinese media turned quickly and eventually praised Toyota for its openness towards the issue, and raised questions about the safety of China’s own car brands due to the lack of recalls from domestic car companies. The recent political spat between China and Japan saw Japanese car brands fall in sale by as much as 40% in September alone, add in a major recall and Chinese consumers are not likely to be shopping at Toyota in October either.