General Motors (GM, Financial) and Subaru (FUJHY) are the latest automakers to get hit by the Takata air bag recall. The automakers are adding up vehicles to the accumulating list of recalled models of as many as 11 car makers. The potential threat of the exploding air bags is costing automakers big bucks, on top of impacting their image.
The models recalled by automakers will get the inflators replaced by the concerned dealers at no cost to the customers. On a positive note, General Motors said that it's aware of no crashes or injuries owing to such air bags malfunction in its vehicles. Let’s take a look at the details of the recall and see what’s been done.
General Motors’ endless recall string
General Motors said that it is adding around 375,000 GMC Sierra and its heavy-duty pickup trucks Chevrolet Silverado to the recall in the North American market. The Detroit automaker said that the trucks recall is part of the biggest ever recall of vehicles associated with Takata air bags. The affected trucks are from model years 2007 and 2008.
General Motors said that it has been scrutinizing the air bags since last October. The company confirmed the identification of around 36,000 passenger Takata air bags that got deployed in its vehicles in a collision but found no event of “any humidity-related ruptures in Takata air bags in GM vehicles.”
Subaru also affected
Subaru announced the recall of around 81,000 vehicles for the air bag issue. The automaker had earlier expected a restricted regional callback of around 20,000 recalls. But the recall expansion of the Takata air bags has made it a national recall. Subaru is recalling 2004 and 2005 model year Impreza. It also added the 2005 Saab 9-2X to the growing list of recalls. Subaru said it has already alerted its vehicle dealers on May 20 and is presently in the course of receiving up to date registration details.
The model information was announced by the U.S. government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHRSA) on Friday. The Takata air bag inflators equipped vehicles may get deployed with excess force, causing discharge of shrapnel into the passenger section. The scope of the recall is increasing with time. Both Subaru and General Motors confirmed that they have not received any reports of accidental deployments of the air bags in any of their affected vehicles.
Takata air bag impacting on a big scale
The ongoing Takata Corp. air bag inflator recall has been spreading like wildfire. Early this month it expanded to other automakers as well. Five automakers – Ford (F), Fiat Chrysler, BMW (BAMXF, Financial), Mitsubishi and Honda (HMC, Financial) - were reported to increase the air bag recalls running into millions of vehicles on Thursday. Mazda, Daimler Trucks, and Nissan (NSANY, Financial) were also impacted.
The latest recalls were reported a week after Takata and U.S. safety administrators entered into an agreement to increase the recall numbers of vehicles that are exposed to a potential defective Takata air bag inflators. The air bag manufacturer has been in the headlines quite a lot in the recent year. The company’s air bags have become a massive problem for automakers. Moreover, since Takata supplies the air bags to almost all global automakers, the impact of its faulty air bag is huge. Honda and Toyota (TM, Financial) are the worst hit among all carmakers.
