India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India announced the recall on Feb. 23 of its its best-selling A-Star hatchback cars due to a fuel leakage problem. Maruti, majority owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp., said it launched the recall last November to fix the fault.
The A-Star is a five-door hatchback and is part of Maruti Suzukis "global" car lineup. It is exported to such European countries as Germany, France and Britain.
The A-Star cars are being recalled both locally and internationally, mainly in Europe, as a "proactive" step, the company said.
"We decided to check all vehicles from the lot, around 100,000 units including those exported overseas," the company said. "We came across an anomaly reported in the fuel tank in some of the vehicles in November last year and contacted customers through letters," the company said. "No problem has been reported by customers."
The recall covers those A-Stars made between November 2008 and August 2009.
The company, the leader in India's main small car market, said it was changing the fuel pump gasket free of charge for customers.
"The recall process is on and should be completed soon with more than 50% of the faulty cars having been fixed," a Maruti spokesman said. The company said the problem could occur if the fuel was filled to the brim.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
