Honda, Nissan, Mazda Recall 3 Mln Vehicles Over Faulty Airbags

(RTTNews) - Japanese car makers Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (HMC), Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NSANY.PK), and Mazda Motor Corp. (MZDAF.PK) Monday said they are recalling about 3 million more cars globally, with potentially defective air bags made by Japanese parts supplier Takata Corp., as the faulty air bag inflaters could cause the bags to rupture.

The latest recall will bring the total number of vehicles affected by the bags to around 10 million. Takata reportedly said the defect was due to excessive moisture.

Honda Motor on Monday recalled 2.03 million cars for the airbag issue, including popular models of Accord and Civic, to fix defective inflaters in air bags. It recalled about 1.02 million vehicles in North America, and 669,000 in Japan. The cars were manufactured between 2000 and 2005.

Nissan said it was recalling 755,000 vehicles with air bags made by Takata, including Nissan cars and Infiniti luxury models. This include 22,800 cars in North America.

Further, Mazda Motor recalled about 160,000 vehicles for the same defect, with about 15,000 vehicles in North America.

Toyota, Honda and Nissan recalled 3 million vehicles last year because of defective airbag inflaters from Tokyo-based Takata.

Recently, Toyota Motor Corp.'s (TM) unit, Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., said it would renotify owners of certain vehicles involved in an April 2013 safety recall for the front passenger airbag inflaters installed in several models.

Toyota expanded the April 2013 recall, involving 2.14 million vehicles because the serial numbers that the supplier had provided had been incomplete.

The 2013 recall remedy included inspection of the front passenger air bag, and if equipped with an affected inflater.

In the U.S., around 766,300 vehicles were covered by the 2013 recall, consisting of vehicles that were inspected earlier and already received a replacement inflater. This recall covers certain Model Year 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla, Corolla Matrix, and Tundra; certain Model Year 2002-2004 Sequoia; and certain Model Year 2002-2004 Lexus SC 430 coupes.