Porsche Panamera recalled

All Porsche Panameras sold to date have been recalled due to a safety issue. All told, that's 11,324 cars from around the world.

The Porsche Panamera is a high performance prestige car designed to do battle with the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class and Aston Martin Rapide. However one very important aspect of the design (or possibly manufacturing) seems to have gone awry for the normally squeaky clean sports car company -- the seatbelts.

There is a known issue with the front seatbelt mounts, which have the potential to detach from the anchoring system when the front seats are positioned close to the steering wheel. In essence, the seatbelts could fail if the seats are adjusted to an extreme forward position, such as when short drivers are in control.

Toyota recently took a hit to its reputation after global recalls on its cars were announced, due to alleged unintended acceleration. With the all-new second generation Cayenne due in Australia in a couple of months, the timing of the Panamera recall won't do Porsche any favours. The German car company has a fix in place for its seatbelt problem and the recall is unlikely to deliver the blow that Toyota's recalls have for the Japanese company -- but it proves that fortune favours no one in the automotive industry. The last company to recall its products in this country for a seatbelt defect was Great Wall Motors.