S. Korea to widen probe of Toyota vehicles

SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- The government said Wednesday it plans to launch an in-depth probe into possible defects of vehicles sold by Toyota Motor Corp. in South Korea as the Japanese carmaker's recalls ballooned to more than 7 million cars globally.

The Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs has investigated since
Friday whether Toyota cars sold here have the type of accelerator pedal covered
by the massive recall.
In a preliminary result of the probe, the ministry said Toyota cars in South
Korea have different accelerators, but it will check other possible defects of
Toyota vehicles throughout the in-depth probe.
And then, the ministry plans to decide on whether to issue a recall for Toyota's
Korean unit, officials said.
Toyota started selling the Camry sedans and RAV4 sport-utility vehicles in South
Korea in October last year.
The company's Korean unit has insisted that the models sold here have no problem
because they were built in Japan using different gas pedals to those affected by
the recall.
But, there are about 2,000 Toyota-branded models on the road in South Korea sold
via gray importers, according to an industry source. Those models were apparently
affected by the recalls because they were produced in the United States.
In a change of stance on Tuesday, Toyota's Korean unit said it will fix the gas
pedal problem free of charge in some of Toyota models that were sold in South
Korea via gray importers.
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