A Huge Cross-Brand Recall over Third-Party Airbags
What do Ford, Mazda, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan have in common (besides the fact that they all build 4-wheeled vehicles powered by gasoline engines)? Well, it would seem they all bought airbags from a manufacturer in Japan that may have quickly skipped over some important details when the time came to design its products…
This recall is currently ongoing, which means that we don’t know the exact number of cars affected yet. However, we do know that it will be huge.
The faulty part is the inflator in the airbags. They are all made by Takata, and they have been installed in a large variety of vehicles made in the last decade, from the 2001 BMW 325 Ci to the 2011 Honda CR-V. Others are affected too, including the Toyota Tundra, an undisclosed number of Nissans, and even the wonderful Ford GT.
In a recalled vehicle, the inflator could literally explode when a crash is detected. This, as you can imagine, can be harmful to the passengers of the car.
There is a silver lining, however (at least for us!): The vehicles that have been flagged as dangerous are all situated in faraway regions of the United States (Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, etc.) so we are not in danger… Yet.