Massive Takata airbag recall

At the latest count more than 17 million vehicles from ten manufacturers have been recalled for frontal airbags in the United States alone and another seven million vehicles worldwide may also impacted by faulty airbags from the same manufacturer. Airbags are made by the Japanese parts manufacturer Takata and installed in vehicles starting model year 2002 through 2008. Among the recall are vehicles made by Acura, more than 765,000 vehicles from BMW, 2.88 million vehicles from Chrysler including Dodge and Ram, Over 500,000 vehicles from Ford, 5.5 million vehicles from Honda, Infiniti, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Pontiac, Saab, Subaru, and 877,000 vehicles from Toyota.

The issue is defective inflator and propellant deterioration over time and may deploy improperly during an accident causing severe damage to the driver and passengers. Metal fragments from the airbag housing structure can also be released throughout the cabin adding more harm to occupants.

First sign of faults started with Infiniti in April 2013 and it took couple more years to realize the true impact of the problem. Toyota started to recall its vehicles in June 2014. Takata was slow to admit the problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that the problem is acute under humidity and forced regional recalls starting with Florida, Hawaii and the rest of the US.

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