Less than a year after it was tarnished by reports of runaway cars, the automaker recalled 1.5 million vehicles Thursday to address brake-fluid and fuel-pump troubles, drawing new attention to safety issues that have festered inside the company for years.

The world's No. 1 carmaker said there were no accidents or injuries connected to the latest recall, which covers some Lexus and Toyota models from the 2004 to 2006 model years, mostly in the U.S. and Japan.

For Toyota, the latest recalls hurt the company's image just as it tries to clear up old problems, said Jean-Pierre Dube, a marketing professor at the University of Chicago.

Some previous braking and acceleration problems were blamed on driver error, he noted, but these problems were because of deterioration of parts.

"This is starting to look more like a chronic problem for them," he said. "It's hard to imagine this can't have some effect on how consumers are going to perceive the Toyota brand and to what extent it represents reliability."

AP