Ford and Honda are putting more than one million additional vehicles down on the list of recall-worthy products with potentially deadly Takata airbag inflators.
Announced late on Tuesday, Honda Motor Company is recalling roughly 772,000 additional Honda and Acura vehicles in the United States for defective front passenger seat airbag inflators made by Japanese parts supplier. Not to be outdone, Ford is recalling over 816,000 units within the whole of North America for the very same reason.
In case you’ve missed our ongoing coverage of the perilous safety device, Takata supplied automakers with tens of millions of defective airbags that can explode in a crash and fling shrapnel throughout the interior of the car — not unlike a grenade. The faulty airbags have already been attributed to the deaths of 10 Honda passengers and one unlucky Ford owner.
The recent recalls cover the 2006-2009 and 2012 Ford Fusion, Lincoln Zephyr and MKZ. Mustangs from the 2005-2009 and 2012 model years are also subject, as is the 2007-2009 Ford Ranger and Edge, 2006-2009 Mercury Milan, and the 2005-2006 Ford GT.
Of the Hondas recalled, we have the 2005-2012 Honda Pilot, 2006-2012 Honda Ridgeline, 2010-2012 Honda Crosstour, 2005-2011 Honda CR-V, 2005-2011 Honda Element, 2008-2012 Honda Accord, 2006-2011 Honda Civic, 2007-2012 Honda Fit and 2010-2012 Honda Insight.
The 2005-2006 Acura MDX, 2005-2012 Acura RL, 2010-2012 Acura ZDX, 2009-2012 Acura TSX, and 2011-2012 Acura TSX Wagon are also affected. Honda even had to recall a few hundred additional Gold Wing motorcycles equipped with unsound airbags.
If you are new to the story or want to double-check to see if your automobile is one of the 69 million in North America with an ammonium nitrate IED sitting a few inches away from your chest, go to the NHTSA’s website and input your VIN.
Isn’t that a Ford dashboard?
Looks to be a Focus ST1.
What a nightmare.
Honda bloodshed continues….
Allow me to provide my Scornful Initial Reaction.
I’ll take my chances in that recalled Ford GT.
Why have a picture of a focus when it is not affected?
I know, right? Lol couldn’t find one of the many cars actually affected to illustrate?
“2007-2012 Honda Fit”
Last year my wife drove a 2007 Honda Fit, and I drove a 2006 Acrua RSX-S. Each time a recall notice came down I checked it and we weren’t on it time and time again. I was starting to feel like ours were the only Honda models of that vintage not to be recalled. We traded it in middle of last year, but I am still amazed they finally got to it.
Still hasn’t touched my RSX-S though. Traded that in too though.
I have one of the affected cars. 07 Fusion. Stinks having to wait for the recall process to generate a letter in the mail. Wish I could just take it to a local ford dealer and have them order the parts and schedule the install. Talked to one today. No can do.
And who says you can’t get a Focus with a manual?
I remain incredibly disappointed that GM moved to block a recall on GMT900 platform vehicles, and was granted the pause the NHTSA. I’m not enjoying having myself and my family being laboratory experiments for a corporation when we drive the truck.
Better get used to such decisions. With the continual stream of corporate types into the very agencies that are tasked with protecting us, yours is going to be the norm, not the exception.
“Corporations are people, my friend.”
Very rich and privileged people, with many more friends in high places.
At this point, are there any Hondas that haven’t been recalled for this?
S2000 :)
And the RSX-S.
Odyssey!
– Owner of a 2010 Odyssey.
“At this point, are there any Hondas that haven’t been recalled for this?”
My dear, departed ’85 Civic Si?
2012 CR-V and 2004 Acura TSX.
Well our ’12 Mustang had the driver side airbag replaced under recall so why not the passenger side!
Could be the driver side and passenger side are from different manufacturers. I know there are a number of models that had driver side only, or passenger side only recalled for this reason. Varies from maker to maker, model year to model year.
Other possibility is your driver side was parts available but the passenger side isn’t.
The previous recall was for just the driver side airbag. I’ll be waiting for the passenger side airbag recall notice.
Different parts, and possibly different suppliers.
Even if the parts were identical and their failure rate was the same it still makes sense to use the limited supply of recall parts only on the driver side.
Since driver seats are occupied 100% of the time and passenger seats are occupied <100% of the time the risk of injury in a given deployment is significantly lower for a passenger side airbag.
Had my wife’s RDX done last summer, guess it’s time to get the TSX done. Hope that means another few days pimping around in a new MDX.
Although a check of Acura’s owner portal says no recalls on my VIN, updated 1/11/17. Hmm.
“with an ammonium nitrate IED sitting a few inches away from your chest”
A potentially faulty airbag is not an IED.
Why this odd phrasing instead of “with a airbag subject to recall” or something else similarly straightforward?
“A potentially faulty airbag is not an IED”
Sure it is: power source, switch, initiator, explosive. Granted, the shrapnel feature is a serendipitous enhancement.
I’d hardly call an airbag ignitor assembly “improvised”. It is a carefully engineered device. Sadly in this case, cost – as usual – was more important that life-saving.
Maybe it isn’t improvised, but the effect is largely the same.
Same reason they said “the manufacturer that created exploding laptop batteries” or something to that effect in the headline of another article today, as though that’s the only thing they’ve ever done.
I can hear Millhouse from The Simpson’s: “what about all the times I DIDN’T wear a tutu to school?! Nobody remembers that!”
What about all the products they made that didn’t explode that most certainly out-numbered the one(s) that did? That doesn’t sensationalize the story enough I guess.
In the sense of “create or produce something from whatever is available”, doesn’t every engineered product start as somebody’s improvisation to meet a particular need?
So while calling airbags IEDs may be something of a symantic stretch, the functional outcome of a faulty one, i.e. burning, blasting and lacerating whomever’s nearby, is pretty similar.
“symantic stretch”
Curse you Symantec for worming into my eyeballs every day at work.
Melody’s right; we’re all just branding vectors.
Marketing is its own “virus”.
Not a fan of metaphors?
I prefer the phrase, “. . . with an airbag that occasionally kills people by spraying high velocity shrapnel . . .”
Funny thing is – Takata is still in business… Don’t get it.
My sense is that regulators are allowing Takata to stay in business for now, because if they were liquidated, it would be extremely difficult to replace all these airbags. Common sense prevailing.
Takata is being sold or will be forced into Bankruptsy. The top two suitors are Key Safety and Autoliv for the sale, Champain IL based Flex-N-Gate did not make the cut because of lacking expertise in the automotive safety side of the business.
Because Takata’s main product is seatbelts…
Takata was propped up by Honda as the largest stake holder.
In this year of record auto sales, too bad none of the OEMs couldn’t pay their subs to set up more production lines for the replacement bags, and set up additional service centers to install the bags. My 2013 Audi TimeBomb has been on the recall list for almost a year, and I know there are many others with older cars who have been on for longer. Saying that Takata made the bags doesn’t absolve the OEMs of responsibilty. Takata is their subcontractor.
Somehow, my 2009 Civic is still not on the recall list (knock on wood)
Still beats the heck out of me how an airbag on a motorcycle is going to save you.
How bad has the safety beauracy failed in the u.s.? This has been on going for years now. Embarsssing/deadly. All congressman their families as well as government agencies should have to drive takata equipped vehicles exclusively. Maybe then we’d see some action.
What is a “beauracy?” A soft-core flick involving a Fabulous Baker Boy?
I’m kinda glad now that my ’08 MKZ took a dump on me and that I replaced it by joining the church of the “3-series lessee” or I’d have to deal with this crap too. My Lincoln hate grows (even though I kinda like the new Continental).