Toyota and Nissan today announced new and expanded recall activity to replace potentially deadly Takata airbags in nearly 6.5 million vehicles worldwide. The recall affects nearly 1 million vehicles in North America.
In a statement, Toyota explains that the recall will “replace Takata-supplied driver front airbag inflators” on 637,000 affected U.S. vehicles. The automaker has launched a new recall affecting 160,000 RAV4 sport-utility vehicles from the 2004 and 2005 model years, and expanded previous recalls to include 177,000 model-year 2003 and 2004 Tundra pickup trucks and 2004 Sequoia SUVs.
Toyota has also expanded a regional recall in high-humidity areas of the U.S., affecting coastal areas of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana, as well as the entire states of Florida and Hawaii and U.S. territories in Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. The regional recall now encompasses an additional 300,000 of the following vehicles:
- 2005–2007 Toyota Corolla
- 2005–2007 Toyota Matrix
- 2005–2007 Toyota Sequoia
- 2005–2006 Toyota Tundra
- 2005–2007 Lexus SC
In addition, Nissan is recalling 326,000 vehicles in North America that could carry faulty Takata airbags. At the time of writing, Nissan was not able to verify the number, models, or years of the vehicles it will recall. In an e-mail to Car and Driver, a Nissan spokesperson said the automaker is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the details of its recall expansion for U.S. and Canadian customers, and a formal statement with additional information will be available on Friday, May 15.
This is just the latest in an ongoing series of massive actions involving vehicles with Takata-manufactured airbag components. The airbags, used in vehicles sold by nearly two dozen brands of cars, trucks, and SUVs sold in the U.S. market, may contain components that can malfunction due to moisture, causing overly forceful airbag deployment that can shoot metal fragments at vehicle occupants. Numerous investigations have alleged that both Takata and Honda were aware of injuries and deaths caused by malfunctioning airbags long before the first round of recalls. Takata faces civil fines of $14,000 per day for alleged noncooperation with a federal investigation, which blames the company’s malfunctioning airbags for six fatalities and dozens of injuries.
For a complete list of models recalled as part of the Takata investigation, check our continually updated master list; to see if your specific vehicle is affected, use NHTSA’s VIN-lookup tool.
Bob Sorokanich previously served as deputy editor of Road & Track Magazine. He is based in New York City.
