Honda Cars India on Thursday announced that it will voluntarily replace Takata driver front airbag inflators of 3,669 Honda Accord models manufactured between 2003 – 2006, as part of its precautionary global recall campaign.The replacement will be carried out free of cost at HCIL dealerships across India from April 18, 2019, and the company will communicate with customers affected directly.
Customers can also check whether their cars are covered under this campaign by submitting their 17 character alpha-numeric Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the special microsite which has been created on the company’s website.
The recall by Honda Cars India comes a day later German car manufacturer BMW announced recalling over 3.6 lakh cars in China that had been fitted with defective airbags. It is being said that more 20 people have died in accidents due faulty Takata airbags since 2013. Since the unearthing of the defect, millions of vehicles have been recalled by automakers worldwide.
The long list of automobile manufacturers who have been affected include Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and others.
The airbags were mostly installed in cars from model year 2002 through 2015. According to Consumer Reports, defective airbags could deploy explosively, injuring or even killing car occupants.