A massive airbag recall covering many millions of vehicles in the U.S. has been announced. A list of vehicles that may have the defective, shrapnel-shooting inflator parts from Japanese supplier Takata; can be found at the bottom of this page along with links to each make of vehicle affected, taking you to the company’s recall page.
The airbag maker Takata issued a statement last week offering a “substantive rebuttal” to accusations by two former employees that the company carried out tests on airbags in 2004 in Michigan and found signs of defects but did not report the results to federal regulators.
The two former employees of the Takata testing lab in Michigan said the tests were conducted secretly in the summer of 2004. The employees, who said they took part in the testing, said that the tested airbags were retrieved from scrapyards, and that two of 50 tested airbag inflators cracked during the tests, a condition that can lead to rupture.
The Japanese manufacturer said the claims, reported by The New York Times on Nov. 6 simply were not true. Takata’s statement said, “They did not and could not perform inflator tests in 2004.”
The statement says that Takata’s engineers in the United States did not learn of the first accident involving an airbag with the defect — this defect can cause an airbag inflator to rupture when it deploys in an accident, sending metal fragments into the car’s cabin — until “the middle of 2005.” The event involved the crash of a Honda Accord in Alabama in May 2004, injuring the car’s driver.
When asked in August about the Alabama accident, Honda said in a statement that it had “immediately shared all available information with the airbag supplier and reported the incident” to safety regulators “in the second quarter of 2004.”
These defective airbags can explode violently when they deploy in an accident, and send shrapnel into the car’s cabin toward the driver and passengers. Five deaths and dozens of injuries have been linked to the defect in these airbags manufactured at Takata’s plants in the United States and Mexico.
More than six million Honda and Acura models have been recalled. BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors vehicles are among the 14 million affected.
Affected Vehicles
(Total number if known in parentheses + link to manufacturers site for recall information):
- Acura: 2002–2003 CL and TL; 2003–2006 MDX; 2005 RL http://owners.acura.com/service-maintenance/recalls
- BMW (627,615): 2000–2005 3-series sedan and wagon; 2000–2006 3-series coupe and convertible; 2001–2006 M3 coupe and convertible
- Chrysler (371,309, including Dodge): 2005–2008 Chrysler 300; 2007–2008 Aspen https://www.moparownerconnect.com/oc/us/en-us/sub/Pages/RecallsQuery.aspx
- Dodge/Ram (371,309, including Chrysler): 2003–2008 Dodge Ram 1500; 2005–2008 Ram 2500, Dakota, and Durango; 2006–2008 Ram 3500 and 4500; 2008 Ram 5500 https://www.moparownerconnect.com/oc/us/en-us/sub/Pages/RecallsQuery.aspx
- Ford (58,669): 2004 Ranger; 2005–2006 GT; 2005–2007 Mustang
- Honda (5,051,364, including Acura): 2001–2007 Accord; 2001–2005 Civic; 2002–2006 CR-V; 2002–2004 Odyssey; 2003–2011 Element; 2003–2007 Pilot; 2006 Ridgeline http://owners.honda.com/service-maintenance/recalls
- Infiniti: 2001–2004 Infiniti I30/I35; 2002–2003 Infiniti QX4; 2003–2005 Infiniti FX35/FX45; 2006 Infiniti M35/M45
- Lexus: 2002–2005 SC430 http://www.toyota.com/recall
- Mazda (64,872): 2003–2007 Mazda 6; 2006–2007 Mazdaspeed 6; 2004–2008 Mazda RX-8; 2004–2005 MPV; 2004 B-series
- Mitsubishi (11,985): 2004–2005 Lancer; 2006–2007 Raider Mitsubishi Cars
- Nissan (717,364, including Infiniti): 2001–2003 Maxima; 2001–2004 Pathfinder; 2002–2006 Nissan Sentra
- Pontiac: 2003–2005 Vibe https://my.gm.com/na-gm/recalls
- Saab: 2005 9-2X https://my.gm.com/na-gm/recalls
- Subaru (17,516): 2003–2005 Baja, Legacy, Outback; 2004–2005 Impreza, Impreza WRX, Impreza WRX STI
- Toyota (877,000, including Lexus and Pontiac Vibe): 2002–2005 Toyota Corolla and Sequoia; 2003–2005 Matrix, Tundra
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