[Yonhap News Photo]
In a widening probe triggered by Volkswagen's emissions-cheating, three foreign carmakers including Mercedes-Benz have been ordered to recall some 9,000 cars brought into South Korea due to defective parts, transport authorities said Thursday.
The recall followed an intensive safety check into faulty parts of imported cars that began after Volkswagen was accused of faking emissions results for some of its diesel models.
Mercedes-Benz Korea will recall 1,135 E-class sedans produced between December 8, 2015, and May 10 this year for safety concern related their powertrain control system, said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
It warned that an accident could occur if an error in the luxury sedan's powertrain software fails to transmit power to its automatic transmission. The E-class sedans would be released for sale after their software was upgraded.
Honda Motor's local unit will recall 7,659 Civic, Legend, Insight and CR-Z cars, produced between March 22, 2006, and January 31, 2012, for defects in airbags produced by Japan's Takata Corp, as part of the company's worldwide recall plan. Free repair service will be available from August 16.
The South Korean unit of Ford Motor was ordered to fix a problem in the fuel tanks of 222 Lincoln MKX sedans produced between September 22, 2008, and July 12, 2010, the ministry said.
South Korea has issued a series of recall orders for foreign cars after Volkswagen admitted in September last year to falsifying US emissions tests on some of its diesel cars.
On Wednesday, prosecutors seized 950 Volkswagen cars -- A1, A3 and Golf -- following a raid in February into the German company's local unit.
In November last year, South Korea's environment ministry ordered Volkswagen to recall more than 125,000 diesel-powered cars and fined it 14.1 billion won (11.4 million US dollars).
This year, Japan's Nissan Motor has been ordered to recall 814 Qashqai diesel vehicles in South Korea with a fine of 330 million won for manipulating emissions tests. Nissan argued it has never used an illegal defeat device for any vehicles.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
