Owners of 313,000 older Hondas and Acuras are being told to stop driving them and get them repaired after new tests found that their Takata air bag inflators are extremely unsafe.
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The cars have faulty Takata airbags in them and need to be replaced.
New tests show in 313,000 Honda and Acura vehicles made from 2001-2003, the inflators have a far higher risk of exploding.
Takata air bag inflators have been linked to as many as 14 deaths worldwide, including 13 in Honda Motor Co (7267.T) vehicles, because they can deploy with too much force sending deadly metal fragments flying, the company and USA investigators say.
Those cars include 2001 and 2002 Honda Civics and Accords, 2002 CRVs and Odysseys, 2002 and 2003 Acura TLs and 2003 Acura CLs and Honda Pilots.
According to Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox, you should not drive these vehicles unless you’re going straight to the dealership to have them repaired! Those that do should contact their nearest dealer to schedule a no-cost immediate fix.
They are only a small fraction of the total of 70 million airbags that have been or must be recalled, it said.
Takata Corp’s chief executive has said he would resign so that the auto parts supplier could move ahead in dealing with its multi-billion dollar airbag recall. Testing of the inflators from these vehicles show rupture rates as high as 50% in a laboratory setting, the agency stated.
The Virgin Islands Attorney General’s Office has filed suit against Takata and Honda “for producing and selling these risky airbags, and for failing to disclose accurately to Virgin Islands consumers the risks from these airbags”, Walker said. NHTSA has called the Takata inflators a “ticking time bomb”.
All of the cars in question were under recalls issued between 2008 and 2011, the NHTSA said.
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If you own any of the following list of cars, the NHTSA has an urgent message for you.
