Following top automaker Toyota Motor Corp.’s (TM) foray into massive automotive safety recalls, Honda Motor Co. (HMC), Japan’s second biggest automaker, is heading down a similar road. Honda has recalled 437,000 vehicles on top of a recall of 514,200 vehicles last year due to a problem related to air bag inflators. The additional recall includes 378,000 cars in the U.S., about 41,000 cars in Canada and 17,000 cars in Japan, Australia and elsewhere in Asia.
The recall — about 952,000 vehicles in total — includes 2001 and 2002 year models of Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, Pilot, Acura TL and Acura CL vehicles in the U.S., as well as the Inspire, Saber and Lagreat models in Japan. All the vehicles are manufactured at Honda’s U.S. and Canadian plants.
Honda originally announced the recall in November 2008, involving 4,200 vehicles of 2001 Accord and Civic sedans in the U.S. The recall was expanded in July 2009 to 514,200 vehicles globally, including the 2001 and 2002 Accord and Civic as well as 2002 Acura TL sedans.
Honda officials stated that the air bag inflator deploys with too much pressure, causing the inflator to rupture and injure or kill the driver. The company has noticed 12 incidents in the U.S., including 11 injuries and one death, and no accidents elsewhere linked to the problem until July 2009.
The airbags are manufactured by the U.S. unit of Japan’s Takata Corp, which was not aware of any defect in their airbags supplied to other automakers. An ongoing investigation has revealed that the defect was caused by insufficient stamping pressure during the production of the inflator propellant and not by the propellant’s excessive moisture intake, as previously believed.
Automotive safety recalls are regular issues with major automakers. Last month, Honda announced a global recall of about 646,000 cars for a fault with a window switch. Last year, Ford Motor (F) completed a series of recalls affecting 14 million vehicles due to a faulty cruise control deactivation switch. However, the recent recalls have been highly focused, denting the image of automakers like Toyota.
Recently, Toyota has expanded its global recall to 437,000 units (223,000 units in Japan, 156,000 in the U.S., 53,000 in Japan and 5,000 in other nations) of its popular 2010 Prius hybrid and other hybrids such as the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the U.S. and Japan, and the Sai, sold only in Japan. The recall addressed a problem related to braking system.
The latest recall of Toyota comes on top of a global recall of 8.1 million vehicles related to faulty accelerator gas pedals and slipping floor mats. About 4.45 million vehicles (2.21 million units in the U.S., 270,000 in Canada, 1.71 million in Europe, 75,552 in China and 180,000 in other nations) have been recalled for faulty gas pedals and 5.75 million vehicles (5.35 million units in the U.S. and 400,000 in Canada) for slipping floor mats. Of this, about 2.1 million vehicles have both pedal and floor mat related problems.
U.S. regulators are reportedly also reviewing dozens of complaints about potential steering problems in new Toyota Corolla vehicles, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is discussing the matter with Toyota to see if a formal investigation is warranted.
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