Honda has upgraded its last recall increase from an expected 1.7M vehicles. Honda recall increased to 2.2M vehicles over Takata airbag defects. This increase is roughly 500,000 more vehicles than originally expected and a different airbag issue will add another 341,000 recalls.
Honda has upgraded its last recall increase from an expected 1.7M vehicles. Honda recall increased to 2.2M vehicles over Takata airbag defects. This increase is roughly 500,000 more vehicles than originally expected and a different airbag issue will add another 341,000 recalls.
The overall number of Honda and its Luxury brand, Acura, recalls due to the Takata defects hits a high of 8.51M vehicles. No other manufacture has had to recall that many over the Takata issue. The total number of recalled vehicles over all manufacturers is now over 20M and at least 10M of those are in the U.S.
The additional recall issue involves Honda’s Accord sedan and affects 341,000 vehicles. In older Accords, the airbag control units may fail if exposed to water, meaning the supplemental restraint system (SRS), the airbags, may not deploy when needed. Other manufacturers are facing this issue, too. So far, Honda reports that at least two injuries have been linked to this issue.
The Accord airbag control units are manufactured by Continental, a German supplier. Continental supplies several different automakers; the first to report the problem and issue a recall was Mercedes-Benz last fall.
According to Chris Martin, Honda safety spokesman, this issue “is probably going to affect other manufacturers.” With estimates of as many as 5M potential vehicles affected, I would say Mr. Martin is correct.
The major issue – the Takata detonation airbag inflators – has caused at least 10 known deaths, all but one in the U.S. and all but one in Honda vehicles. The one non-Honda was the most recent fatality and was in a Ford Ranger pick-up.
The vehicle model years and models affected by the upgraded recall include:
2005-2012 Acura RL
2007-2011 Honda CR-V
2007-2016 Acura RDX (early production model year 2016 vehicles only)
2007-2014 Honda Ridgeline
2009-2014 Honda Fit
2009-2014 Acura TL
2010-2014 Honda FCX Clarity
2010-2014 Honda Insight
2010-2013 Acura ZDX
2011-2015 Honda CR-Z
2013-2016 Acura ILX (early production model year 2016 vehicles only)
According to NHTSA head, Mark Rosekind, even more recalls could be coming. Last month, Rosekind advised that the number could reach as high as 25M vehicles just in the U.S.
The biggest challenge facing all manufacturers is getting the recalled vehicles repaired. Even with an aggressive recall campaign, only 50% of the targeted Honda recalls – those issued before this week’s upgrade – have been repaired, according to Jeff Conrad, Honda’s brand manager. A big part of that challenge is that many of the older model vehicles have been resold more than once.
In related news, Automotive News reported that Honda put U.S.-based dealerships on notice to stop selling all new and used model year 2007 – 2015 vehicles that have the Takata airbags. The notice was given on January 30 and advised dealers that failure to comply would result in the dealers being held responsible for claims associated with unrepaired vehicles sold.
The notice read, in part, “Should an unrepaired vehicle result in any claim because of the required recall repair, the dealership will be solely responsible to the claimant, and will be required to defend and indemnify American Honda for any resulting claims.”
This notice, applicable to Honda’s own dealerships, is also compliant with federal law barring sales of new vehicles with pending recalls. The law doesn’t cover used vehicles, though.
Repairs of the affected vehicles won’t be available until this summer, due to parts being unavailable.
Source:
Join the conversation!