On Thursday, Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC) called back another 4.9 million vehicles with the speculation that they might also have faulty air bags.
Honda is throwing in more precaution by making sure it will check all the vehicles that were fitted with airbags from TAKATA CORP, TOKYO (OTCMKTS:TKTDF). The vehicle manufacturer has joined its rival vehicle companies who installed airbags from the Japanese company in the recall process.
This is the second fleet that Honda is calling back since the flaw was detected. The recent recall by Honda will not include vehicles in the United States. This is because the company did not install the airbags with the design of the flawed ones in the vehicles designated for the American market. However, vehicles sent to Japan and other countries were potentially affected thus the need for a callback.
A day before Honda called back its vehicles, Nissan and Toyota had issued a recall for 6.56 million of their vehicles that had been fitted with the Takata airbags. In total, about 35million automobiles have been called back since 2008 by 10 or so vehicle manufacturers. 19.6 million of the called back vehicles are from Honda making it the most affected.
So far, six deaths have been linked to the airbag flaw where explosions occur as the airbags violently deploy. Some of the Honda vehicles affected include the company’s most famous and bestselling vehicles like the CRV, Accord, Fit and the Civic. The specific models are those manufactured from 2002 to 2008.
Honda’s spokeswoman Yuka Abe said that the company has already determined part of the problem though they have not yet identified the root cause. In most cases, the propellant loses its density leading to faulty inflators thus the explosions. Additionally in most of the cases the fault occurs on the driver’s side increasing the risk to other passengers.
The recalls came a few weeks after GM called back some of its vehicles citing some technical errors.
