Source: New York Times
March 19, 2015 – Honda Motor is expanding a national recall of vehicles with Takata-made airbags to include more than 104,000 cars, including one model that had not been included in previous recalls for the defect. Takata airbags can deploy violently and send metal fragments at passengers.
On Thursday, the automaker said it would recall certain 2008 Pilots, 2004 Civics and 2001 Accords. No 2008 Pilots had been recalled before for the defect.
The company said in a regulatory filing that all of the vehicles had been identified on March 5 through a process of matching Takata airbag inflater part numbers to individual vehicle identification numbers, or VINs. Honda discovered that the more than 88,000 Pilots should have been included last year’s Takata-related recall, a limited regional action that was expanded nationally in December after pressure from federal regulators.
Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman, said the company had no reason to believe that further expansions of the recall would be necessary. Mr. Martin said that about 6.2 million Honda and Acura vehicles in the United States had now been subject to safety campaigns related to airbag ruptures.
He said that Honda had not been able to estimate the number of vehicles affected worldwide, but that about 14.3 million Takata airbag inflaters in Honda and Acura cars globally have been subject to recalls.
More than 18 million vehicles with the faulty airbags, including cars produced by Honda, Chrysler, Ford and other major automakers, have been recalled in the United States, and at least six deaths worldwide have been linked to the defect. Last month, safety regulators began to fine Takata $14,000 a day for not fully cooperating with its investigation into the Japanese supplier’s hazardous airbags.
