Honda Motor Co. said Monday it would recall about 200,000 passenger cars globally due to defective engine parts. The company said it had received 63 customer reports in Japan of engine malfunctions as a result of the defect, but said none had led to accidents. In Japan alone, the car maker will recall more than 50,000 units of three models – the Stream, Civic and Crossroad – that were produced at its domestic plants between July 2008 and July 2010, it said. Honda will exchange engine bolts that may cause trouble with the motor cooling system and that could eventually cause the engines to stop. “Globally there are some 200,000 cars, including the 50,122 in Japan, with similar trouble,” a Honda spokesman said, adding that it would recall about 100,000 units in South America and 6,800 in Europe. The other vehicles are being recalled in the Middle East and Africa, but the recall does not cover markets in North America. Meanwhile, Toyota said Monday domestic production in the first half of 2011 tumbled 38 percent due to the impact of the March 11 disasters, before mounting a faster-than-expected recovery. Domestic sales slipped 41 percent in the six months to June to 500,638 units. The earthquake and tsunami hammered auto production, shattered supply chains and crippled electricity-generating facilities, including the Fukushima nuclear power plant at the centre of an ongoing atomic crisis.
