Urgent car recall: 10 million cars across 14 top brands recalled for Takata airbag repairs

Affected vehicles include those from prestigious manufacturers such as Audi, Ferrari and BMW in the latest in a series of recalls from the now-defunct airbag supplier. Individual manufacturers will assess which models are affected and will contact customers to arrange free repairs.

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  • Over 100,000 BMW models recalled in safety risk

Subaru has already said it plans to recall almost 500,000 vehicles to replace the potentially lethal front passenger airbag inflators.

Models affected include Impreza’s built between 2004 and 2011 as well as popular road cars such as the Forester and Legacy.

Takata recalls are only set to affect motorists in the United States whose motorists have been plagued by issues from the airbag supplier since 2001.

However, this could bring the crisis to an end and is set to be the last recall Takata agreed to in a 2015 settlement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

According to NHTSA documents, Takata’s airbags could explode if materials inside suffer long-term exposure to heat and extreme temperatures.

The airbags could then fire dangerous shrapnel directly at road users in a potential health hazard for motorists.

The NHTSA documents say: “The propellant in some of the subject inflators may degrade over time, which could lead to over-aggressive combustion in the event the airbag is activated.

“Overly aggressive combustion creates excessive internal pressure when the inflator is activated, which may cause the inflator body to rupture.”

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The NHTSA believes at least one percent of the recalled vehicles will suffer from the defect.

According to the agency, 10 million represents the overall total hazardous propellants produced across the US market.

The NHTSA says the affected inflators were installed as interim parts in vehicles sold in the United States by a range of manufacturers.

The report says affected companies are Audi, BMW, Honda, Daimler, Chrysler, Ferrari, Ford. General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota and Volkswagen.

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  • This is the most recalled car brand of 2019

The latest recall comes just over a month after BMW was forced to recall 100,000 of their popular 3-Series models after safety fears involving the airbags.

Just weeks before the German manufacturer was forced to recall 12,000 models from their Australian market after a competition watchdog described the vehicles as posing a critical risk.

Last year, the NHTSA revealed affected inflators were not being replaced fast enough despite repair rates increasing by 30 percent.

The agency revealed one-third of recalled vehicles had still not been repaired with potentially millions of motors at risk of injury due to the fault.

At least 25 people have been killed and hundreds left with injuries after failures from Takata airbags.

However, there have been no reported incidents of injury or fatalities across UK vehicles.

The DVSA has previously said this is because of the milder climate which does not cause the airbags to fail.

The group has still urged manufacturers to produce a plan to recall all affected models for urgent repairs.

Recent data from AutoExpress revealed more than 1.7million vehicles in the UK may still have the deadly airbags in their vehicles.

Their investigation found 3.43 million vehicles in the UK were likely to have been affected by the Takata airbag incident with only half having already sorted out repairs. 

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