Honda and Acura are advising owners of certain older models not to drive their vehicles because the Takata airbag inflator recall still affects them. The automaker warns there is a 50 percent chance of rupture in a collision where the airbag deploys.
The Do Not Drive warning applies to vehicles that don’t already have the driver-side airbag inflator recall repair. The automaker estimates the total population to be about 8,200 cars. The specific models are the:
NHTSA advises:
“If you own one of these vehicles and still have an open Takata air bag recall, do not drive it until this urgent, lifesaving recall has been completed. Replacement parts are available now for free for this recall.”
At around 20 years old, these unrepaired vehicles are most at risk of having an airbag inflator rupture. If this happens, then metal fragments explode toward the driver’s face. This can potentially kill a person. To date, there have been 24 deaths and at least 400 injuries in the United States from these faulty parts.
If you think there’s a possibility that you own one of the unrepaired vehicles, anyone can enter their vehicle’s VIN onto the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration site to see if there are any open recalls for the model. For these Takata airbags, Honda is willing to tow an affected car for free to perform the repair. Mobile repairs are also possible.
According to Honda, it has made roughly 18.3 million outreach attempts to advocate for owners to get repairs for vehicles with recalled Takata airbag components. This process has included mailed notifications, emails, phone calls, and even door-to-door canvassing in some areas.
The Takata recall does not just continue to affect Honda. In November 2022, Stellantis issued a Do Not Drive warning for unrepaired examples of the Dodge Challenger, Charger, Magnum, and Chrysler 300. In December 2022, a 2010 Chrysler 300 crashed, and the Takata driver’s side airbag inflator ruptured resulting in a fatality. Volkswagen recalled 37,588 examples of the 2015-2016 Beetle in January 2023 to fix the faulty components.
