Six car makers recall vehicles due to defective airbags

  • Apr 12, 2013
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Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, General Motors and BMW impacted by defective airbags fitted to their vehicles that were supplied by Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata Corporation

Toyota Tundra

Automobile manufacturers across the world have common suppliers of components to reduce costs. This works very well for the industry until a defect arises.

The latest issue to have impacted the global automobile industry is a defect with airbags manufactured by Japan’s Takata Corporation. Takata supplies airbags to a number of car makers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, BMW and General Motors. As you can well imagine, the magnitude of this impact has been huge.

Toyota will have to recall 1.7 million vehicles worldwide for the defective airbags. This includes about 5,80,000 vehicles in North America, 4,90,000 vehicles in Europe and 3,20,000 units in Japan. The models affected by the recall include the Corolla sedan, Matrix hatchback, Sequoia SUV, Tundra pick-up truck and the Lexus SC 430 sports car.

Honda’s recall will affect the Civic hatchback/sedan, the CR-V SUV and the Odyssey minivan. The recall will include 1.1 million vehicles globally with 6,80,000 Honda vehicles being recalled in North America, 64,000 vehicles in Europe and 2,70,000 vehicles in Japan. 

Honda Civic

Nissan is recalling a total of 4,80,000 vehicles world wide which includes about 2,65,000 vehicles in North America and some 1,37,000 vehicles in Japan. The American models subject to the recall include the Maxima sedan, Pathfinder SUV, Sentra sedan as well as the Infinity FX crossover and QX4 SUV. In Japan, the Nissan recall has affected the Cube MPV, X-Trail SUV and the Maxima, Teana sedans. 

The recall will also affect Latin America, China, the Middle East, Africa and some Asian nations as well.

The recall for the three Japanese car makers will affect models produced from 2001 to 2003. 

Mazda RX8

About 45,000 Mazdas consisting of the RX8 and Mazda 6 sedans have been affected by the recall of which 4,000 were sold in Japan. Mazda is yet to announce its recall in North America, Europe, China and elsewhere.

In case of General Motors, 55,000 Pontiac Vibe hatchbacks have been recalled in North America and Canada from the 2003 model year. 

German luxury car major BMW, which also fitted airbags manufactured by Takata Corporation is inspecting the problem but has not announced a recall yet. 

The defect has been identified as faulty inflator mechanisms that can cause plastic and metal parts from inside the airbag to shoot into the cabin. Takata states that no one has been hurt so far. But there have been six incidents of the air bags deploying improperly on roadways, though no injuries have been reported so far by the problem. 

Airbags
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According to Honda spokeswoman Akemi Ando, two human errors are responsible for the defective airbag. The first is that a worker forgot to turn on the switch for a system weeding out defective products and the second was improper storage of parts which exposed them to humidity. 

This is Takata Corporation’s largest recall since 1995 when nine car makers were impacted by faulty front seat belts installed in a staggering 9 million cars between 1986 and 1991. 

Also read: How airbags work

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