Another Toyota Recall

From Today's Wall Street Journal

Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 412,000 passenger cars, mostly the Avalon model, in the U.S. for steering problems in which three accidents have been reported, the auto maker said Thursday. The 373,000 Avalons being recalled range from the 2000 model year through to 2004 and have improper casting of the steering lock bar—a component for the steering system—causing cracks to develop on the surface. In some cases, the crack can cause the lock bar to break, potentially leading to a crash if the steering wheel locks, the world's No. 1 auto maker by car sales said. The latest recall comes on top of some 8.5 million vehicles that have been recalled around the world by Toyota since October for a spate of problems, including faulty floor mats, defective gas pedals and braking software glitches.