Nissan recalls 540,000 vehicles

Nissan is recalling more than 500,000 vehicles, mainly in the US, because of problems with their brakes and petrol gauges. The move came just hours after General Motors recalled more than 1.3m cars , and further adds to the rash of safety scares gripping the industry. The Japanese manufacturer announced overnight that 540,000 vehicles were being recalled. The models involved include Nissan's Titan pick-up trucks, Armada and Infiniti QX56 sport utility vehicles, and Quest minivans, some dating back to 2005. Some of the vehicles are being recalled to fix a problem with petrol gauges that indicate that there is plenty of fuel even if the tank is almost empty. In addition, Nissan said there were also problems with the brake pedal in some models. The firm has received three reports of incidents in which brake-pedal pins came loose, causing problems with braking, but it said no accidents had so far been reported. While most of the vehicles affected are in the US, some drivers in Japan, east Asia, Russia, Latin America and the Middle East will be affected. Nissan said UK drivers should not be affected by the recall. Last night General Motors is recalling its compact Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5 cars produced in the US over the last three to five years. This follows 1,100 complaints about loss of steering power, which have been linked with 14 crashes and one injury. Toyota, which has recalled more than 8m cars because of a series of safety concerns , said its US sales fell by 9% in February. Yesterday a US senator proposed banning all Japanese car imports to the US until the problems with Toyota's models had been fixed.