The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Chrysler has recalled 35,000 Dodge Caliber vehicles worldwide over problems with sticky acceleration pedals.
Chrysler is recalling 25,000 Dodge Caliber of the 2007 model year sold in the United States, as well as a smaller number of large four-wheel drive Jeep Compass vehicles, also from 2007, built between March and May 2006.
The remaining vehicles involved in the recall are in Mexico, Canada and other countries.
The acceleration pedals were built by CTS, a company that also built pedals implicated in Toyota's acceleration-related recall earlier in the year.
Chrysler told the NHTSA that the pedal design was different and made with different equipment than the pedals involved in the Toyota recall.
The NHTSA opened a probe into the Chrysler pedals on April 29, based on five complaints, the agency said.
Chrysler believes that the problems do not represent a high risk for the safety of passengers, but said it decided to issue a recall out of abundance of caution. The company said it has no information on accidents caused by the problem, and said it will inspect the recalled vehicles and replace pedals if necessary.
The NHTSA is also investigating possible problems with floor mats that could trap the accelerator pedal in the down position in two models of Ford cars.
Toyota has recalled about 10 million vehicles worldwide, mainly for problems attributed to involuntary acceleration due to pedals being jammed in the down position.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
