An announcement made by Toyota Motor Corp on Tuesday said that the automobile manufacturer would be recalling 5,850 cars, the majority in the United States, for possible steering problems that might result in a loss of control.

According to the Japanese automaker’s statement, about 5,650 Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon and Avalon Hybrid cars from 2014 would be called back due to a left front suspension lower arm. It seems that this suspension arm runs the risk of separating from a ball joint which in turn could cause the loss of steering control. Such a malfunction might increase the risk of an accident. The remaining 200 automobiles were sold in Canada and the Middle East, a Toyota spokeswoman said.

And although the number of recalled cars is still under 6,000 there were so many recent recalls that this number could change by December. It is in December that Toyota plans to formally notify all owners of cars with the suspected defect.

Until the formal notification of these steering problems, owners of all the affected models could benefit from bringing the car into a service center to make sure that everything is running smoothly. During other automobile recalls, companies agreed to reimburse car owners who chose to make repairs on the vehicle before the official recall notice. As such, it seems like a precautionary trip to the service shop would be highly recommendable.

With Toyota’s recent recall, it’s clear that automakers are facing the worst year in recall history. Until now, over 50 million vehicles have already been recalled to dealers because of safety issues such as faulty ignitions or malfunctions resulting in accidents and fatalities. More than half of this 50 million figure was caused by General Motor’s recall on an ignition switch malfunction affecting 26 million older vehicles.

It came to light that General Motors ignored this problem despite the fact that company personnel had documented it thoroughly. For over a decade, GM hoped that everything would go away.

When everything didn’t go their way, General Motors had to admit to the ignition issue which caused the deaths of at least 30 people. This is precisely why all automakers have decided to err on the side of caution, even if the issue in question isn’t as dangerous as what GM had to deal with.

And while Toyota’s recall is most likely not as dangerous as GM’s switch ignition problem, owners could surely do well with a check.