Quality issue with Takata airbags. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, GM, BMW, Subaru impacted

[sarathlal]

BT is carrying reports on Takata(The airbag supplier for the likes of Toyota, Honda, Nissan) admitting on its improperly stored chemicals and botched the manufacture of the explosive propellants used to inflate airbags. The company is also said to have admitted on inadequate quality-control records which made it impossible to identify vehicles with potentially defective airbag inflators including the time or batch records.

Since we have many cars like Corolla, Camry, Civic, Fortuner, Accord, CRV etc which were either CBU or CKD's, are we looking at a possible major recall?
The report says the manufacturing hub as US and Mexico though. But for the same issue, it happened earlier in India as well.
Toyota did the recall in India, whereas Honda and Nissan confirmed that the Indian market cars were not impacted.

At present, Toyota is reported to be issuing a massive recall in US, whereas Honda and Nissan are investigating whether they needed to recall more vehicles due to this problem.

We had the same issue discussed earlier.
Honda recall information from 2009: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intern...01-3-cars.html

Toyota recall information from 2013: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ne-2003-a.html

Source: http://businesstoday.intoday.in/stor.../1/207122.html

[GTO]

Man, this is scary. I'm hoping that any necessary recalls in India aren't brushed under the carpet. Cars sold here - if affected - should be treated with the same sense of urgency as in Japan. It's a question of life.

Toyota India has shown its high level of responsibility with the earlier Corolla recall

[latentpotential]

The media states that the manufacturer had not identified all the serial numbers which were affected and needed a recall. Since this has been done now, there should be a good more number of vehicles which will replacement parts. At the same time, another article did state that most vehicles that would need replacement would be in Japan, but this could be updated with better information later.

[Maky]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

BT is carrying reports on Takata(The airbag supplier for the likes of Toyota, Honda, Nissan) admitting on its improperly stored chemicals and botched the manufacture of the explosive propellants used to inflate airbags.

Since we have many cars like Corolla, Camry, Civic, Fortuner, Accord, CRV etc which were either CBU or CKD's, are we looking at a possible major recall?

My friend had a minor accident in his Honda City(previous gen). The airbags did not deploy.
Could it be all Honda cars which come with airbags and not just the ones mentioned?

This is Indeed scary.

[EasyR1der]

This is indeed very scary to drive around with a airbag which you know will not get deployed. I think all the companies to take the seriousness of the situation into account and do a systematic recall.

[vinair]

Looks like my apprehensions have come true!! I have always wondered how can the manufacturer check the proper working of an airbag after it is fitted into a car? I don't think any manufacturer would pull a vehicle off the assembly line and crash test it to measure safety parameters are in fact working fine.

It is more of a prep work manufacturers do while sending the vehicle for an independent crash testing or ensure the vehicle is a test dummy when putting through a crash course within their facility.

This is infact pretty scary!

[chncar]

Holy crap!!! This is scary

The very purpose of purchasing a car variant that has airbags (at least in the Indian context) is to have a bit of peace of mind, and this just has the opposite effect.

[Simhi]

Originally Posted by EasyR1der

This is indeed very scary to drive around with a airbag which you know will not get deployed.

A naive question - is there a way for us to check and figure out if the airbag is fitted properly or it is something only ASS or Company can check?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Simhi

A naive question - is there a way for us to check and figure out if the airbag is fitted properly or it is something only ASS or Company can check?

AFAIK, the manufacturer/ASC can check the functioning of the airbag.

We can check it by banging the car head-on.

Anurag.

[GrammarNazi]

Originally Posted by GTO

Man, this is scary. I'm hoping that any necessary recalls in India aren't brushed under the carpet. Cars sold here - if affected - should be treated with the same sense of urgency as in Japan. It's a question of life...

Seriously hope the matter is treated as a question of life and not as a market in a country where consumers have bare minimum rights.

...Toyota India has shown its high level of responsibility with the earlier Corolla recall

No quite. Remember there was a defect in some spring in the steering in Innova's made during 2005-08 which could supposedly lead to airbag failures. Toyota didn't bother to do anything despite a large number of customers faced the issue. If the car showed a warning, the rod/spring was replaced at customers cost like a regular repair job.

[racer_ash]

Looks like the recalls have started as per this report on Bloomberg. Though it pertains to Japan, the artcile mentions worldwide recalls. Lets hope India is considered under the Worldwide umbrella.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...air-bag-recall

[SlowRider]

Originally Posted by Maky

My friend had a minor accident in his Honda City(previous gen). The airbags did not deploy.
Could it be all Honda cars which come with airbags and not just the ones mentioned?

This is Indeed scary.

Not all impacts deploy airbags. Even if it was a frontal impact, it's possible it wasn't severe enough. Since you categorized it as a 'minor' accident, I don't think we have enough reasons to suspect airbag malfunction yet.

[debmum]

I think the scary thing is not about "the airbag not deploying". The scary thing is "airbag deploying" in a minor accident or because of high humidity (it seems the airbag explosive substance that triggers an airbag in less than half the blinking time for eyes, or in 40 milliseconds, reacts with moisture). There have been reports of sharpnel shooting out and cutting the throat of a teenage female driver in Japan in a minor accident--a Reuters report also says Toyota and Honda have switched off all passenger-side airbags in Japan after taking clearance from the transport authorities there. I find it quite scary now, especially for cars manufactured before 2007!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0EX0K820140623

[sarathlal]

For those that matters to our market, so far Honda, Ford and BMW has issued the recalls as per the press release from NHTSA filing.

Honda has gone ahead with US and Canada recalls. They have Civic, Corrolla and CR-V in their list for year range < 2007.
Ford list didnt feature any Indian models
BMW list includes 3 series in the <2007 range.

You can read the complete list here: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/latestrecalls.cfm

[sarathlal]

Honda India likely to recall Accord sedan sold before ~2007.

ET reports that Honda is likely to issue recall Accord sedan sold in India, mostly in the same time frame reported for its global counterparts.
The report also says that the number would be very minimal, and the officials are awaiting further information from Honda.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/37153004.cms