Honda, Nissan recall 3 million vehicles over airbags
Flaws related to inadequate pressure and excess moisture during production
Honda and Nissan have recalled almost three million vehicles to repair flaws in Takata Corp. airbags, adding to a call back by Toyota earlier this month.
Honda’s announcement covers 2.03 million vehicles, including the Fitc ompact and CR-V sport utility vehicle, according to Akemi Ando, a spokeswoman for the Tokyobased carmaker. Almost 1.02 million are in North America, including the Civic, CR-V, Odyssey and Element manufactured between April 2000 and October 2002. In Europe, 153,943 examples of the Civic, Stream, Jazz and CR-V are affected by the recall, while the remaining 688,582 are in Japan.
About 755,000 of Nissan’s cars need to be fixed world- wide, said Chris Keeffe, a spokesman for the automaker. About 228,000 vehicles are in North America, including the Infiniti FX35, as well as the Nissan Cube and Pathfinder. In Japan, 128,000 models are affected, including the X-Trail and Teanna, although the Japanese automaker didn’t specify how many vehicles are affected in Europe.
Japan’s three biggest carmakers have called back more than five million vehicles this month because of airbags. The announcements come as scrutiny of potential safety flaws rises in the auto industry, with General Motors Co. facing investigations for taking years to recall millions of vehicles for faulty ignition switches.
“We expected there would be more recalls of this size from other car makers,” Koji Endo, an analyst at Advanced Research Japan, said by phone. The airbag flaws were related to inadequate pressure and excess moisture during production, Ando told reporters in Tokyo. Other recalls
Carmakers called back more than three million vehicles, including 1.73 million for Toyota and 1.14 million for Honda, in April last year because of defective airbag inflators supplied by Tokyo-based Takata.
Honda, the biggest customer of Takata, has called back a total of six million vehicles for problems with Takata airbags in nine recalls since 2008, based on figures from the carmaker.
Two people died in 2009 in accidents related to the defect, Ando said.
Toyota this month said 2.27 million of its cars worldwide are affected by the recall. A recall last year didn’t include all vehicles affected by the defective airbag inflators, Toyota has said.
Mazda recalled 159,807 vehicles, said Takashi Goto, a spokesman for the carmaker. The RX-8 and first-generation Mazda6 are affected by the recall.
“We apologize for the trouble caused to our clients,” said Kikko Takai, a Takata spokeswoman. “We take it seriously and will strengthen our quality control to prevent a repeat of the issue.”