Honda Motor Co. will need to replace airbags in about 3 million vehicles in the U.S. after the Japanese automaker expanded a recall nationwide, Bloomberg reports.
DETROIT, MI - Honda Motor Co. will need to replace airbags in about 3 million vehicles in the U.S. after the Japanese automaker expanded a recall nationwide, Bloomberg reports.
The vehicels have been supplied with Tokyo-based Takata Corp.'s airbags, and are part of a wider recall that has so far spanned 7.8 million vehicles in the U.S. across 10 automakers.
Takata Corp. told both a federal safety regulator and lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week that its data and testing show it is does not need to make nationwide a recall linked to faulty and potentially deadly driver-side airbags.
That's despite a request by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month that the supplier, which has its North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, to expand its existing recall the 7.8 million cars in mostly humid areas of the U.S. and related territories to the entire country.
Honda, with executives also facing questions from lawmakers in Washington Wednesday, decided on its own to make the recall nationwide for its vehicles.
Takata's U.S. recall has so far included Florida, Puerto Rico, limited areas near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana, as well as Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and Hawaii.
In humid environments, some of the defective airbags' inflators have ruptured and exploded, sending metal shards flying through the car. The flaw has been linked to at least five deaths and dozens injuries, according to the AP.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter