Mitsubishi Motors recalls 38,626 trucks

TOKYO, Jan 30 Reuters reports Mitsubishi Motors Corp, still struggling to rebuild its reputation in the wake of a devastating quality-control scandal in 2000, said on Wednesday it was recalling 38,626 trucks.

Japan's fourth-largest automaker, which is 37 percent owned by DaimlerChrysler AG ,said in a statement it was recalling 16,209 Fuso Canter, Fuso Rosa and Fuso Fighter trucks because of problems with their engines' vaccuum pumps.

In addition, it said it was recalling 22,417 Fuso Canter and Fuso Rosa trucks to fix problems with their anti-lock braking systems.

Mitsubishi said the combined cost of the recall and service campaigns would amount to 1.05 billion yen ($7.91 million).

The company's reputation has suffered badly since July 2000, when it announced that 1.52 million cars worldwide would be recalled and it admitted to hiding defects and customer complaints for more than two decades.

While that scandal mainly affected its passenger-car division, quality-control concerns have now surfaced in its truck division, a major source of profits.

The latest recall follows an offer last week of free inspections on 124,000 large trucks after a wheel fell off a vehicle on a road near Tokyo, causing the death of a woman and injuring her two children.

Mitsubishi budgeted 2.5 billion yen for free inspections of vehicles in Japan similar to that involved in the fatal accident. Measures to be taken overseas are still under consideration.

The vehicles in Wednesday's recall announcement were built between March 1999 and September 2001.

Mitsubishi said it did not know of any case in which the problems had caused accidents.

The automaker's stock was down 1.65 percent in mid-afternoon at 239 yen, roughly in line with a 1.72 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average .

($1 equals 132.78 Yen)