555,000 More Cars With Takata Air Bags Called Back

Dec 11, 2014 04:00 PM EST | Matt Mercuro

Three Japanese automakers are calling back more than half a million cars worldwide to replace air bag inflators made by Takata.

The recalls bring the total tally of Takata-related recalls across all brands to 20 million since 2008, according to Reuters.

The Honda, Mitsubishi and Nissan recalls correspond with a similar recall by Toyota Motor announced last week after a recent "unusual deployment" of a passenger-side air bag at a Japanese scrap yard.

Honda, which is Takata's biggest customer, said it will recall approximately 400,000 vehicles worldwide, including about 177,000 in Japan across 11 models like the Stream minivan, Fit subcompact and Civic hybrid manufactured back in 2003.

The rest of the vehicles include 100,000 in Europe and 70,000 in Asia-Pacific, and none in the United States, the automaker said, according to Reuters.

A Honda spokeswoman confirmed that the automaker needs to set aside more reserves to pay for the most recent recalls, along with the voluntary expansion to the rest of the world of a region-specific recall that had been limited to certain hot and humid sections in the U.S.

She couldn't confirm a specific figure yet however.

Honda has now called back approximately 13.4 million vehicles globally for Takata air bag inflators since 2008. Nearly half of those vehicles were called back so that the automaker could investigate what could be the root cause of the defects.

U.S. regulators ordered Takata in November to move forward with a nationwide expansion of the regional recall. Takata has refused so far however, putting the burden for voluntary recalls on the car makers.

The recalls were prompted by an explosion of a Takata air bag inflator in a 2003-model Toyota Will Cypha at a scrapyard in central Japan.

Toyota recalled 185,000 vehicles from 2003 that were equipped with inflator made at Takata's Monclova factory in Mexico.

Nissan estimated its global recall would cover 152,000 cars, for 2003 and 2004 model-year vehicles. Mitsubishi will only recall 304 Lancer sedans in Japan.

See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?

© 2024 Auto World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Get the Most Popular Autoworld Stories in a Weekly Newsletter

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics