The French auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen said Monday it would recall 97,000 Peugeot 107s and Citroen C1s made in a Czech factory it shares with Japanese automaker Toyota.
The move comes after the Japanese auto giant on Friday pulled millions of cars around the world due to faulty accelerator pedals.
In a statement PSA said the recall concerned cars “made in a factory shared” with Toyota in the Czech Republic and concerned “models constructed jointly” with the Japanese firm.
It said the recall was a precautionary measure and affected European car owners who would be informed of the problem by mail.
“The biggest sales (of the cars concerned) in the largest countries,” a PSA spokesman told AFP Monday, naming Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.
In France, some 15,400 vehicles are affected by the recall, he added.
Both models are produced in the TPCA (Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile) plant, a joint venture which assembles around 200,000 Peugeot and Citroen cars every year alongside Toyota Aygo vehicles.
The compact models are exclusively produced in the plant in Kolin, 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of Prague and are chiefly destined for European markets, the PSA spokesman said.
Developed by Toyota, the Peugeot 107, the Citroen C1 and the Aygo are essentially the same car with styling and fitment difference.
PSA has no other joint ventures with Toyota.
Toyota pulled up to 1.8 million vehicles in Europe on Friday — the latest in a series of recalls that have affected almost eight million Toyota cars worldwide — more than its entire 2009 global sales of 7.8 million vehicles.
Toyota, which overtook General Motors in 2008 as the top-selling automaker, has been bedevilled by a series of safety issues that have raised questions about whether it sacrificed its legendary quality to become world number one.
