Volkswagen said on Thursday it was recalling nearly 200,000 vehicles in Brazil because of a problem with the rear wheels that could cause them to seize or fall off.
The recall affects its Novo Gol and Voyage models made in Brazil before last July.
Volkswagen is the second-biggest carmaker in Brazil after Italian group Fiat. It has sold more than 17 million vehicles in the country — Latin America’s biggest car market — since launching operations there 50 years ago.
Its announcement follows a massive worldwide recall by Toyota over accelerator and brake problems, and another by rival Japanese maker Honda in North America, Japan, Taiwan and Australia of models with a dangerous airbag fault.
Volkswagen Brazil said on its Web site that 193,620 Novo Gol and Voyage cars were at risk of not having sufficient lubrication on its rear wheels, which “can cause noise and continuous use could lead to a blockage of the wheels.”
“In extreme cases, the wheel can come off,” it said.
“It’s important to note that this recall only concerns some vehicles in the 2009-2010 lot. Cars made after July don’t have this lubrication problem. From July to now, all other vehicles are OK,” a Volkswagen spokesman said.
The spokesman denied that Volkswagen had been slow to react, saying: “A certain time is needed to identify the problem. What’s important is that the problem has been identified and resolved.”
It was the third such operation launched by Volkswagen in Brazil.
In April 2008, it recalled 477,000 of its Brazilian-made Fox compact models to fix a fault with the rear seat. In December of that same year, 120,000 late-model Fox, Novo Gol and Voyage cars were recalled because of a brake fault.
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
UNITED: The other candidates congratulated Cheng on her win, saying they hoped the new chair could bring the party to victory in the elections next year and in 2028 Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday won the party’s chair election with 65,122 votes, or 50.15 percent of the votes. It was the first time Cheng, 55, ran for the top KMT post, and she is the second woman to hold the post of chair, following Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who served from 2016 to 2017. Cheng is to succeed incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Nov. 1 for a four-year term. Cheng said she has spoken with the other five candidates and pledged to maintain party unity, adding that the party would aim to win the elections next year and
RSS