airbag

Last month, parts manufacturer Takata Corporation acknowledged that a defect exists in its airbags and agreed to expand its recall on defective airbag inflators to a record 34 million vehicles in the US.

Following on this, automakers with models covered by this expanded scope have begun issuing recalls for affected vehicles. Last last week, BMW announced that it was recalling 420,661 vehicles in the US equipped with problematic Takata driver-side front airbag inflators.

A total of 20 models are involved in the exercise - according to news reports, the list is made up of 2002-2005 model year 325i/325xi/330i/330xi; 2002-2005 model year 325xi/325i Sports Wagon, 2002-2006 model year 330Ci/325Ci/M3 Convertible; 2002-2006 325i/330i/M3 Coupe, 2002-2003 M5/540i/525i/530i, 2002-2003 540i/525i Sports Wagon and 2003-2004 model year X5 3.0i/4.4i.

The reports add that BMW's voluntary recall of these vehicles raises its total of affected vehicles to 420,661 from 140,696. On a related note, BMW Malaysia says that no local cars are affected by a recall.

At the same time, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Ford also added more vehicles to that already identified as having issues pertaining to airbags - FCA said it was recalling 4,066,732 vehicles from the 2004 to 2011 model years that are equipped with a dual-stage driver frontal airbag.

As for Ford, its expanded safety recall on vehicles equipped with Takata airbag inflators now covers 2005-2014 Ford Mustang and 2005-2006 Ford GT (for driver airbag inflators) and 2004 Ford Rangers/2004-2006 Ford Rangers built at separate plants for passenger side airbag inflators. This brings the total number of Ford vehicles recalled for Takata airbag inflators to just over 1.5 million vehicles to date.