Everyone is talking about the massive airbag recall covering many millions of vehicles in the U.S. from nearly two dozen brands. Here\u2019s what you need to know about the problem; which vehicles may have the defective, shrapnel-shooting inflator parts from Japanese supplier Takata; and what to do if your vehicle is one of them.<\/p>\n
The issue involves defective inflator and propellent devices that may deploy improperly in the event of a crash, shooting metal fragments into vehicle occupants. More than 7 million vehicles are potentially affected in the United States.<\/p>\n
Initially, only six makes were involved when Takata announced the fault in April 2013, but a\u00a0Toyota recall in June\u00a0this year\u2014along with new admissions from Takata that it had little clue as to which cars used its defective inflators, or even what the root cause was\u2014prompted\u00a0more automakers to issue identical recalls. In July, NHTSA forced additional regional recalls in high-humidity areas including Florida, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to gather removed parts and send them to Takata for review.<\/p>\n
Another major recall issued on October 20\u00a0expanded the affected vehicles across several brands. For its part, Toyota said it would begin to replace defective passenger-side inflators starting October 25; if parts are unavailable, however, it has advised its dealers to disable the airbags and affix \u201cDo Not Sit Here\u201d messages to the dashboard.<\/p>\n
While Toyota says there have been no related injuries or deaths involving its vehicles, a New York Times<\/em> report in September found a total of at least 139 reported injuries across all automakers. In particular, there have been at least two deaths and 30 injuries in Honda vehicles. According to the Times<\/em>, Honda and Takata allegedly have known about the faulty inflators since 2004 but failed to notify NHTSA in previous recall filings (which began in 2008) that the affected airbags had actually ruptured or were linked to injuries and deaths.<\/p>\n Takata first said that propellant chemicals were mishandled and improperly stored during assembly, which supposedly caused the metal airbag inflators to burst open due to excessive pressure inside. In July, the company blamed humid weather and spurred additional recalls.<\/p>\n A<\/strong>FFECTED VEHICLES (total number if known in parentheses):<\/strong><\/p>\n Acura:\u00a0<\/strong>2002\u20132003 CL and TL; 2003\u20132006 MDX; 2005 RL<\/p>\n BMW (627,615):<\/strong> 2000\u20132005 3-series sedan and wagon; 2000\u20132006 3-series coupe and convertible; 2001\u20132006 M3 coupe and convertible<\/p>\n Chrysler\u00a0<\/strong>(371,309, including Dodge):\u00a0<\/strong>2005\u20132008 Chrysler 300; 2007\u20132008 Aspen<\/p>\n Dodge\/Ram (371,309, including Chrysler):<\/strong> 2003\u20132008 Dodge Ram 1500; 2005\u20132008 Ram 2500, Dakota, and Durango; 2006\u20132008 Ram 3500 and 4500; 2008 Ram 5500<\/p>\n Ford (58,669):<\/strong> 2004 Ranger; 2005\u20132006 GT; 2005\u20132007 Mustang<\/p>\n Honda (5,051,364, including Acura):<\/strong> 2001\u20132007 Accord; 2001\u20132005 Civic; 2002\u20132006 CR-V; 2002\u20132004 Odyssey; 2003\u20132011 Element; 2003\u20132007 Pilot; 2006 Ridgeline<\/p>\n Infiniti:\u00a0<\/strong>2001\u20132004 Infiniti I30\/I35;\u00a02002\u20132003 Infiniti QX4; 2003\u20132005 Infiniti FX35\/FX45<\/p>\n Lexus:\u00a0<\/strong>2002\u20132005 SC430<\/p>\n Mazda (64,872):<\/strong> 2003\u20132007 Mazda 6; 2006\u20132007 Mazdaspeed 6; 2004\u20132008 Mazda RX-8; 2004\u20132005 MPV; 2004 B-series<\/p>\n Mitsubishi (11,985):<\/strong> 2004\u20132005 Lancer; 2006\u20132007 Raider<\/p>\n Nissan (694,626, including Infiniti):<\/strong> 2001\u20132003 Maxima; 2001\u20132004 Pathfinder; 2002\u20132004 Nissan Sentra<\/p>\n Pontiac:\u00a0<\/strong>2003\u20132005 Vibe<\/p>\n Saab:<\/strong> 2005 9-2X<\/p>\n Subaru (17,516):<\/strong> 2003\u20132005 Baja, Legacy, Outback; 2004\u20132005 Impreza, Impreza WRX, Impreza WRX STI<\/p>\n Toyota (877,000, including Lexus and Pontiac Vibe):<\/strong> 2002\u20132005 Toyota Corolla and Sequoia; 2003\u20132005 Matrix, Tundra<\/p>\n Source: Car&Driver<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everyone is talking about the massive airbag recall covering many millions of vehicles in the U.S. from nearly two dozen brands. Here\u2019s what you need to know about the problem; which vehicles may have the defective, shrapnel-shooting inflator parts from Japanese supplier Takata; and what to do if your vehicle is one of them. The issue involves defective inflator and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,224],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-car-safety","category-personal-safety","tag-airbag-recall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mvragency.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}