Spare Tires Can Fly! BY JAMES WEST Toronto - Omiya Motors announced on March 10 that it will launch a voluntary safety recall involving approximately 500,000 first and second generation Leon 2WD mini-vans sold in Canada to address potential corrosion in the spare tire carrier cable. Representatives of the company stress that the problem is not dangerous and that no accidents or injuries have been caused by the defects, but they encourage owners to return their vehicles to the closest Omiya dealership. Omiya technicians have been trained to identify and rectify the problem. However, some experts warn that continued prolonged exposure to road salts may cause excessive corrosion of the carrier cable in some of these vehicles. In the worst case, the carrier cable may fail and the spare tire could become separated from the vehicle, and a road hazard for the vehicles could increase the likelihood of a crash. Omiya Motors has issued an apology to its customers. According to the company spokesperson, Watanabe Shinji, all costs associated with this repair will be paid by the manufacturer. Owners of the affected vehicles will receive a written notification within the next month. From: Mike Sanders To: Customer Service Date: March 14 Subject: Article To whom may it concern, Thank you for the article of our mini-vans in yesterdays newspaper. I am writing to ask you to correct some information in the article. The reporter cited expert opinions, however, it is not true that the spare tire could become separated from the vehicle since the vehicle has an auxiliary cable behind the spare tire. Therefore, in the worst case, the spare tire could be dangling from the body, but it will not necessarily cause a crash. I hope that you will remind your readers of this fact so that they can drive without worrying about the safety of their vehicles. Thank you. What are the car owners advised to do?