BMW Joins Airbag Recall

April's airbag recall that affected over 3 million vehicles built by Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and Honda has claimed another victim.  BMW will be calling back 220,000 automobiles built in 2002 and 2003 due to the fact that it, too, built cars using the same airbag supplier.

The issue in question - improper airbag inflation due to a problem during the manufacturing process that involving the propellant in each unit - affects the passenger's side of the automobiles implicated in the recall.  Although no injuries have occurred so far, the potential for a fire, or for occupants to be struck by flying shards of metal during airbag deployment remains very real.

• Also: Honda Canada recalls more than 107,000 vehicles over faulty airbags
• Also: Honda issues recall for 748,000 Pilot and Odyssey vehicles for potential airbag problem

Specifically, BMW will be recalling versions of the BMW 3 Series.  All body styles, as well as the high performance M3 models, are affected.  So far, roughly 12 accidents have occurred - not in BMWs - that alerted Takata, the supplier of the safety system, to the problem.