Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc issued a recall of 885,000 vehicles in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East because of an issue with the airconditioning condenser unit housing. The company said water from the housing could seep in to the airbag control module. This would cause a short circuit, which in turn could turn the warning light on. The carmaker said there could be instances when this issue could disable the airbags or unintentionally deploy them. Toyota also said there would be limited situations wherein the problem could render the power steering function of the car inoperative.

BBC News reported that this was the third major recall issued by the carmaker in the past few weeks. Over 780,000 RAV 4 and Lexus HS 250h models in the US were also recalled last month because of a suspension defect.

Toyota's global recall in 2010 cost the company around USD 5 billion, according to analysts' estimates. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company spent money to ramp up its incentive campaigns and marketing efforts back then. It also spent for litigation costs. Despite the loss, Toyota still reported a net profit of JPY 80 billion for that fiscal year. WSJ reported that the profit reversed a net loss of JPY 437 billion the year before.