Japanese based Toyota Motors announced that they are recalling 681,500 vehicles in two separate recalls, including the 2009 - 2011 Toyota Venza, the 2009 Camry, and the 2005-2009 Toyota Tacoma trucks.

Some 495,000 Tacomas are being recalled because of problems in the steering wheel spiral cable assembly that may cause the airbag not to deploy. Additionally 70,500 Camrys and 116,000 Venzas are being recalled to replace defective stop-lamp switches.

Since 2008 Toyota has recalled some 12 million vehicles for a variety of safety concerns. In 2008 alone Toyota recalled almost a million vehicles due to a faulty break system that could have led to accidents. Toyota's production issues were further exacerbated by the devastating earthquake in Japan and the intense flooding in Thailand late last year, which impacted its supply chain.

Cars are recalled because of engineering errors at a particular plant or time period. The National High Traffic Safety Administration gives the following most-common reasons as to why a vehicle is recalled:

  • Steering wheel that breaks suddenly causing loss of control
  • Accelerator controls that break or stick
  • Wheels that crack or break
  • Air bags that deploy late or for no reason
  • Seats that fail to operate
  • Windshield wipers that don't work
  • Child safety seats that may cause an injury
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