Honda Expands Takata Airbag Recall… Again

While five major car manufactures have recalled millions of vehicles with Takata-produced airbags in the last year, Honda has by far been the most affected. And today, the car company continued to distance itself from other automakers by recalling more than 100,000 additional vehicles that may contain the airbags known to spew pieces of shrapnel at drivers and passengers upon deployment.

Reuters reports that Honda will expand its Takata-related recall to include 104,871 model year 2008 Pilot SUVs, and model year 2004 Civic and Accord sedans.

Honda says the additional recall was initiated after the company took another look at which models were equipped with the potentially defective airbag inflators.

Previously, Honda had recalled more than 6 million vehicles with Takata airbags worldwide. The defect has been linked to at least six deaths, all of which occurred in Honda vehicles.

Last week, the car company announced it would begin a multi-million dollar campaign urging consumers to take their recalled Honda vehicles to a dealer for much-needed repairs.

Honda said it planned 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 manufacturers attributed the likelihood of an airbag rupture to an area’s humidity.

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.

Honda’s additional recall and increased effort to have affected vehicles fixed 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 expands recall for Takata air bags by over 100,000 vehicles [Reuters]

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