FEWER than 4,000 vehicles in Britain are thought to be affected by the Mitsubishi Motors announcement of a recall campaign for 620,000 cars and trucks worldwide.

The UK importer is asking owners of Mitsubishi-badged grey imports to contact their dealers to see if their vehicle chassis number is in the factory recall list. The company has also sent

letters to 264 owners of 2.4 GDI Galant and to 1,657 owners of 2.4 GDI Space Wagon models affected by a possible brake booster fault. Mitsubishi is applying to the DVLA for details of the estimated 2,000 owners of 1994 and 1995 model year Galants to advise them to take their cars into a dealer to have the fuel tank checked for leaks.

The global recall comes as manufacturer recalls head for an all-time high according to figures just published by the Vehicle Inspectorate.

Up to the end of June, the VI's vehicle safety branch, which monitors recalls, had logged 84 campaigns in the UK this year involving 1,117,117 passenger cars, lorries and motorcycles. Of these, more than one million were cars.

The Inspectorate says fleets should not be concerned about this year's apparent dramatic rise: 'Manufacturers are simply getting better at giving us the information,' a VI spokesman told Fleet News. 'They're getting on board and realising that if there is a problem the best thing to do is get it sorted quickly.'

• VOLVO is recalling 116,000 1999 and 2000 model year S80s worldwide for replacement of the ball joint between the front wheel king pin and the suspension arm link. Out of the 6,500 executive saloons sold in the UK since the range was launched in 1998, about 5,500 cars are affected. The Swedish manufacturer says only one car in the UK had demonstrated the fault.