Honda recalls 41,580 cars in India to replace airbag inflators

CHENNAI: The Takata impact continues to hit Indian car consumers with Honda announcing the latest tranche of recalls of some vehicles made in 2012.
According to a statement released by the Honda Cars India Ltd, the company has announced that it will voluntarily replace Takata passenger front airbag inflators of 41,580 vehicles of previous generation of Jazz, City, Civic and Accord as part of Honda’s precautionary global recall campaign concerning Takata front airbag inflators.
The replacement will be carried out free of cost at Honda dealerships across India. The replacement of inflators for the affected models would begin immediately and the company would communicate with customers directly, said the statement. This is the fifth Takata-related recall initiated by Honda.
The company has announced that 7,265 units of 2012-made Jazz will face the recall. And 32,456 units of the company's best-selling sedan City made in 2012 will be affected. The recall will also include 659 units of the 2012-manufactured Accord, and 1200 units of the Civic made in the same year.
The Takata recall has been a global phenomenon with Japanese car companies being particularly badly hit by its faulty airbags. Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Nissan have gone in for recalls to fix the Takata airbags and the Takata-triggered recalls have been among the biggest car recalls in India .
Globally Takata is facing investigations with reports suggesting that the company will fork out up to $1 billion to settle US criminal probe.
Voluntary recalls have become quite common in India ever since apex body SIAM started the practice four years ago to improve safety levels. In the past couple of years, top automakers from Honda to Volkswagen have initiated recalls as part of their global service programme regarding a variety of issues including faulty airbags from Japanese Tier 1 supplier Takata.
In 2016, Honda recalled 1.9 lakh cars , the fourth Takata-related recall by the company in less than a year. Maruti recalled more than 75,000 units of the Baleno and some Dzires – the company’s biggest recall since the A Star recall six years ago involving over one lakh vehicles.
Ford too had two recalls this year involving a total of nearly 90,000 vehicles though its biggest recall was in 2013 involving 1.6 lakh vehicles.
India’s largest recall was by Volkswagen involving 3.24 lakh cars. It happened in December 2015.