autoevolution
 

Takata Recalls Extended With An Additional 1.7 Million Cars

After six years since the first recall and following 23 deaths, the Takata controversy is far from over. In the latest round of recalls, automakers ranging from Daimler Vans to Ferrari decided to add 1.7 million vehicles to the tally. Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles already released their 2019 recalls related to Takata-manufactured airbags, totaling more than 5,000,000,000 vehicles worldwide.
Airbags 1 photo
Photo: Kia
As of December 2018, no fewer than 50.36 million airbag inflators were recalled by automakers on a worldwide scale. Approximately 23 million are left to go according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA can help U.S. owners check their vehicles by entering the 17-character VIN on the agency’s website.

Turning the focus back on the February 2019 expansion, and the most affected of six automakers is Subaru with 826,144 vehicles. These include the Forester crossover, Outback wagon, and Legacy sedan from 2010 through 2014. Next up is Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Vans with 288,779 and 159,689 vehicles, respectively. Volkswagen (and Audi) announced it’s recalling 119,394 vehicles while BMW is calling back 266,044 cars and crossovers.

Even Tesla is affected, planning to replace the Takata airbags in 68,763 Model S sedans from 2014 to 2016. Last, but certainly not least, Ferrari has to replace the airbags on no fewer than 11,176 vehicles from the 2014 to 2018 model years. It’s curious why Ferrari continued to equip its supercars with Takata airbags for such a long time, more so when you remember the first series of recalls date back to 2013 and the Monclova plant in Coahuila, Mexico.

Takata filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2017, following a bankruptcy back home in Japan. The company had to no other way to compensate what it owed customers, automakers, and governments but to sell everything to Key Safety Systems for $1.6 billion. Following the completion of the acquisition in April 2018, Takata was renamed to Joyson Safety Systems.

As if that wasn’t complicated enough, Joyson is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The parent company is Ningbo Joyson Electronic, a Chinese automotive conglomerate that acquired Key Safety Systems in 2016 for $920 million.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories