Honda Starting New Campaign Urging Consumers To Repair Recalled Vehicles

After recalling 6.2 million vehicles for a Takata airbag defect that can spew pieces of shrapnel at passengers and drivers, Honda now plans to launch a multi-million dollar campaign urging consumers to take those recalled vehicles to a dealer for much-needed repairs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new ad campaign, which will begin Monday, will ask owners of all Honda vehicles to check for open recalls and other safety issues to ensure they’re fixed.

John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda’s auto division, said in a statement that the campaign is designed to “save lives and prevent injuries.”

For now, Honda says it plans to focus the campaign –– which will feature a website, as well as newspaper, radio and Facebook ads –– in 11 states and U.S. territories with high humidity. During the initial recall of vehicles with Takata-produced airbags, Honda and other manufactures attributed the likelihood of an airbag rupture to an area’s humidity.

So far, the Takata defect has been linked to at least six deaths, all of which occurred in Honda vehicles.

While Takata faces several inquiries by regulators and federal departments regarding the slow output of replacement airbags, Honda believes it will have enough new parts to meet repair demands by the spring, the WSJ reports.

Honda’s attempt to bring awareness to the need for consumers to quickly repair the airbags comes after the manufacturer faced months of scrutiny related to the recalls.

Back in January, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined the company $70 million after it determined that Honda failed to report over 1,700 injuries and deaths over a period of 11 years.

Shortly after that the company announced it would replace its president and chief officer, Takanobu Ito, with Takahiro Hachigo, who most recently oversaw Honda’s European and Chinese operations. The change is expected to take effect in June.

Honda to Launch Ad Campaign Urging Customers to Repair Recalled Vehicles [The Wall Street Journal]

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