Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to recall 8,000 models of Tacoma pickup trucks 2010 following complaints from the customers about cracks in a common drive shaft component. This decision was announced on Friday and is bound to hurt the reputation as well as sales of the company. Also the step was taken because of the warning received from US President Barack Obama regarding the issue of grumbling up with the vehicle safety.

Obama, in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek on Friday said, "Every automaker has an obligation when public safety is a concern to come forward quickly and decisively when problems are identified. We don't yet know whether that happened with Toyota. That's going to be investigated”.

After supplier Dana Holdings Corp’s reported possibility of cracks in 34,000 drive shaft components Toyota supplied to Ford and Nissan, to US safety regulators, Toyota called for this recollection. According to Dana, the cause and the solution for the problem is being investigated.

A statement by Toyota Motor Sales, USA stated, "The front shaft in these vehicles may include a component that contains cracks that developed during the manufacturing process. As those vehicles are used, the cracks may eventually lead to the separation of the drive shaft at the joint portion”.

According to a report by Kyodo news agency, Toyota president Akio Toyoda, if formally asked to testify at US congressional hearing, he is prepared to do the same.