Honda, Nissan, Mazda Recall 3 Million Over Defective Airbag Inflators

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Honda, Nissan and Mazda are recalling a total of 3 million vehicles equipped with defective airbag inflators supplied by Takata, following a similar action by Toyota.

Automotive News reports 2.03 million Hondas, 755,000 Nissans and 159,807 Mazdas globally are being recalled to replace the defective units. The effort comes just after Toyota recalled 1.62 vehicles outside Japan that were recalled earlier this month for the same issue, and 655,000 vehicles in the home market that were being recalled for the first time. As of June 23, 10 million vehicles between 2009 and 2014 have been recalled due to defects in Takata’s airbag units.

June’s action follow those by the four automakers conducted in April of this year, when Takata informed the group that a number of the defective units had escaped into the supplier channels due to poor record-keeping between 2000 and 2002 at the supplier’s plants in Washington and Mexico, where the moisture-infected units were assembled and stored. Moisture degraded the airbags’ inflators, which led to the units exploding, throwing metal shrapnel throughout the cabin.

Other manufacturers who used Takata airbags — including Ford, Chrysler and BMW — are also calling back a handful of affected models, especially those in humid climates such as Florida and Puerto Rico; CEO Shigehisa Takada claimed “the high levels of absolute humidity in those states” may also cause catastrophic failure of the inflators.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Mikey Mikey on Jun 24, 2014

    I wasn't wearing my GM fanbois hat. My point is, that none of todays auto makers are immune from recall/defects. As in most scandals, the issue at GM was the cover up. Not the actual defect. To a certain degree, Toyota was guilty of the same thing with U.A.

  • Calgarytek Calgarytek on Jun 24, 2014

    Weird. Japan is for the most part a humid country. Also, hard to believe that Civic SI is 2750 lbs. A comparable EM2 is only 2400 lbs.

  • Phillin_Phresh Phillin_Phresh on Jun 24, 2014

    I have a 2006 Mazda 3 and spend the last 30 minutes searching different news stories for more information on this. I think it is completely irresponsible of news outlets to not have a concise, bulleted list of affected models. What if someone dies or gets hurt because they didn't know their car was recalled? Anyone looking for recall information can use this very handy site from USDOT: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchSafetyIssues

  • DrGastro997 DrGastro997 on Jun 24, 2014

    This is what happens when companies like Takata outsource manufacturing of critical components like the canister holding the airbag. Those aluminum tubes are impact extruded. What the hell did they change??? Material???

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