NHTSA Issues Air-Bag Warning on 4.7 Million Vehicles

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 air bags made by Takata Corp. should have their vehicles inspected as soon as possible. The air bags could fail to deploy properly, the agency said.

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

The warning affects more than 4.7 million vehicles made by Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, BMW and General Motors.

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 air bags.

The Takata air-bag 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.

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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

This article appeared in print in the October 21st, 2014 edition of Hamodia.