Advertisement

NHTSA issues airbag warning on 4.7 million vehicles

Share

If you drive a car made in the early 2000s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants you to see your dealer -- right now.

The federal agency issued a rare alert Monday, warning that owners of vehicles fitted with airbags made by Takata Corp. should have their vehicles inspected as soon as possible. The airbags could fail to deploy properly, the agency said.

The warning is particularly urgent for owners of vehicles in Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, as well as certain other regions of the Caribbean and South Pacific, because humid weather could aggravate the problem.

Advertisement

The warning affects more than 4.7 million vehicles made by Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, BMW and General Motors. A full list of the affected cars and model years is below.

At the same time, Toyota Motor Sales issued its own Takata-related warning, saying it would conduct a “supplemental safety recall” of 247,000 of its own Corolla, Matrix, Sequoia, Tundra and Lexus SC vehicles manufactured from 2001 to 2004. These vehicles are all equipped with the same suspect Takata airbags.

The Takata airbag problems have resulted in several previous Toyota recalls.

In humid areas, Toyota warns, the problem is more acute. Though the company reports no accidents or injuries related to the recall, it said owners of the affected vehicles in “consistently high absolute humidity areas” should contact dealers.

The models and model years affected are as follows (and the number of vehicles potentially affected):

Toyota: (778,177)
2002 – 2004 Lexus SC
2003 – 2004 Toyota Corolla
2003 – 2004 Toyota Corolla Matrix
2002 – 2004 Toyota Sequoia
2003 – 2004 Toyota Tundra
2003 – 2004 Pontiac Vibe

Honda: (2,803,214)
2001 – 2007 Honda Accord (4 cyl)
2001 – 2002 Honda Accord (6 cyl)
2001 – 2005 Honda Civic
2002 – 2006 Honda CR-V
2003 – 2011 Honda Element
2002 – 2004 Honda Odyssey
2003 – 2007 Honda Pilot
2006 Honda Ridgeline
2003 – 2006 Acura MDX
2002 – 2003 Acura TL/CL

Nissan: (437,712)
2001 – 2003 Nissan Maxima
2001 – 2003 Nissan Pathfinder
2002 – 2003 Nissan Sentra
2001 – 2003 Infiniti I30/I35
2002 – 2003 Infiniti QX4
2003 Infiniti FX

Mazda: (18,050)
2003 – 2004 Mazda6
2004 Mazda RX-8

BMW: (573,935)
2000 – 2005 3 Series Sedan
2000 – 2006 3 Series Coupe
2000 – 2005 3 Series Sports Wagon
2000 – 2006 3 Series Convertible
2001 – 2006 M3 Coupe
2001 – 2006 M3 Convertible

General Motors: (133,221)
2002 – 2003 Buick LeSabre
2002 – 2003 Buick Rendezvous
2002 – 2003 Cadillac DeVille
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Impala
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Venture
2002 – 2003 GMC Envoy
2002 – 2003 GMC Envoy XL
2002 – 2003 Oldsmobile Aurora
2002 – 2003 Oldsmobile Bravada
2002 – 2003 Oldsmobile Silhouette
2002 – 2003 Pontiac Bonneville
2002 – 2003 Pontiac Montana

Twitter: @misterfleming

Advertisement