Categories: Business

Toyota recalls 650,000 cars in Japan over potentially defective airbags

Toyota is recalling about 650,000 vehicles in Japan because of Takata’s potentially defective airbags, the carmaker announced on Wednesday.

The Japanese carmaker said the move will expand a costly recall it announced in 2013 because the supplier, Takata Corp, had not fully identified the problematic parts.

Shares of Takata dropped after the announcement and were down over 4% when the Tokyo market closed.

A Takata spokesman said that more vehicles could be recalled by other manufacturers because of potential airbag inflator defects.

Toyota is recalling about 650,000 vehicles in Japan because of Takata’s potentially defective airbags (photo Reuters)

Carmakers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan Motor Co and BMW in 2013 recalled 3.6 million vehicles in total due to problems with the airbag inflator that could potentially explode and injure the driver or passengers. Those airbags were manufactured by Takata.

Honda and Nissan also said they were investigating whether they needed to recall more vehicles due to this problem.

Toyota said it was expanding the recall it announced in April 2013 that involved 2.14 million vehicles because the serial numbers that Takata had provided for potentially flawed airbag inflators had been incomplete.

In a further step, Toyota said it would instruct its dealers in the US and other overseas markets to begin replacing suspect Takata inflators on all of the vehicles covered by last year’s recall. Previously, the carmaker had asked its dealers to inspect the airbags and only replace those that were judged to be defective.

Toyota said it had been notified of one case in which a defective airbag inflator had caused a seat cover to burn. It said all of the recalled vehicles were equipped with passenger-seat airbags that could be defective and deploy “abnormally” in the event of an accident.

Toyota vehicles covered by the recall include the Corolla and Camry sedans, and Tundra trucks.

Takata has acknowledged to US safety regulators that it improperly stored chemicals and botched the manufacture of the explosive propellants used to inflate airbags.

The company has also said that it kept inadequate quality-control records which made it impossible to identify vehicles with potentially defective airbag inflators a decade or more after they were manufactured at factories in the US and Mexico.

The Takata recall in 2013 was the largest airbag-related recall in history and came after a series of accidents and at least two deaths allegedly caused by faulty airbags.

oCwsGniy448
Clyde K. Valle

Clyde is a business graduate interested in writing about latest news in politics and business. He enjoys writing and is about to publish his first book. He’s a pet lover and likes to spend time with family. When the time allows he likes to go fishing waiting for the muse to come.

Recent Posts

Donald Trump and Elon Musk Celebrate Election Victory at UFC 309

Image source: Wikimedia Commons President-elect Donald Trump celebrated his election victory at the Ultimate Fighting…

5 days ago

White House 2024: Donald Trump Wins, Kamala Harris Calls Him to Concede Election

Millions of voters across the US chose to return Donald Trump to the White House…

2 weeks ago

Who Won? Donald Trump Declares Victory as He Addresses Jubilant Supporters in Florida

Donald Trump declares victory in the US election as he addresses jubilant supporters in Florida.…

2 weeks ago

Stocks Soaring as Donald Trump Closes in on US Victory

Stocks around the world are rising as Donald Trump appears to be on the cusp…

2 weeks ago

Who Won? Kamala Harris Cancels Election Night Party as Path to Victory Narrows

Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia and taken a lead over Kamala…

2 weeks ago

Quincy Jones Dead at 91

Quincy Jones, the celebrated musician and producer who worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Ray…

2 weeks ago