More Than 7 Million Cars May Have Deadly Airbag Defect

UPDATE:

Nissan has potentially added more vehicles to their list of vehicles covered by this recall. Honda has upgraded its affected vehicles to a full recall from a service issue. Takata is being investigated for deliberately destroying evidence of a defect.

Remember, this covered the passenger side frontal airbag and is most dangerous in hot, humid climates.

Check directly with the manufacturer of your vehicle or put your VIN number into the NHTSA VIN search, to check if it is recalled and if it has been fixed under past recalls.

ORIGINAL STORY:

It has been uncovered that Takata, a Japanese supplier of automotive safety systems, produced large numbers of potentially defective airbags. These airbags' inflators can break loose, shooting shrapnel into the passenger compartment when deploying.

Since the automotive industry is now global, these airbags found their way into cars sold by GM, Ford, Chrysler, and BMW; but, the largest number are from Japanese manufacturers.

Deep South Most at Risk

A major factor in these defects is humidity: all the complaints of shrapnel flying from deploying airbags came from very hot humid locales: primarily Florida and Puerto Rico. Takata still does not know exactly what caused these defects, but they seem to be exasperated by heat and/or humidity.

NHTSA

From the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration): The numbers cited for potentially affected vehicles below are subject to change and adjustment because there may be cases of vehicles being counted more than once. Owners should check their VIN periodically as manufacturers continue to add VINs to the database. Once owner recall notices are available, owners can retrieve a copy from SaferCar.gov, or will receive one by U.S. mail and are advised to carefully follow the enclosed instructions.

BMW: 627,615 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2000 – 2005 3 Series Sedan 2000 – 2006 3 Series Coupe 2000 – 2005 3 Series Sports Wagon 2000 – 2006 3 Series Convertible 2001 – 2006 M3 Coupe 2001 – 2006 M3 Convertible

Chrysler: 371,309 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2003 – 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 2005 – 2008 Dodge Ram 2500 2006 – 2008 Dodge Ram 3500 2006 – 2008 Dodge Ram 4500 2008 – Dodge Ram 5500 2005 – 2008 Dodge Durango 2005 – 2008 Dodge Dakota 2005 – 2008 Chrysler 300 2007 – 2008 Chrysler Aspen

Ford: 58,669 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2004 – Ranger 2005 – 2006 GT 2005 – 2007 Mustang

General Motors: undetermined total number of potentially affected vehicles 2003 – 2005 Pontiac Vibe 2005 – Saab 9-2X

Honda: 5,051,364 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2001 – 2007 Honda Accord) 2001 – 2002 Honda Accord 2001 – 2005 Honda Civic 2002 – 2006 Honda CR-V 2003 – 2011 Honda Element 2002 – 2004 Honda Odyssey 2003 – 2007 Honda Pilot 2006 – Honda Ridgeline 2003 – 2006 Acura MDX 2002 – 2003 Acura TL/CL 2005 – Acura RL

Mazda: 64,872 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2003 – 2007 Mazda6 2006 – 2007 MazdaSpeed6 2004 – 2008 Mazda RX-8 2004 – 2005 MPV 2004 – B-Series Truck

Mitsubishi: 11,985 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2004 – 2005 Lancer 2006 – 2007 Raider

Nissan: 694,626 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2001 – 2003 Nissan Maxima 2001 – 2004 Nissan Pathfinder 2002 – 2004 Nissan Sentra 2001 – 2004 Infiniti I30/I35 2002 – 2003 Infiniti QX4 2003 – 2005 Infiniti FX35/FX45

Subaru: 17,516 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2003 – 2005 Baja 2003 – 2005 Legacy 2003 – 2005 Outback 2004 – 2005 Impreza

Toyota: 877,000 total number of potentially affected vehicles 2002 – 2005 Lexus SC 2002 – 2005 Toyota Corolla 2003 – 2005 Toyota Corolla Matrix 2002 – 2005 Toyota Sequoia 2003 – 2005 Toyota Tundra