Why Continental Automotive recalled 5 million air bag control units

Mercedes also recalled 126,260 C-Series cars from 2008 and 2009 and GLK350 vehicles from 2010 a year ago due to the issue.

Just weeks after releasing the 2016 Civic, Honda had to implement a stop-sale order on the cars and issue a recall of 34,000 that had already been sold.

As is the case with any supplier-defected part, it is the responsibility of the vehicle manufacturer to conduct the recall.

Defective Takata inflators have been linked to nine United States deaths since 2004, all but one of them in older Honda vehicles. Unfortunately, the automaker won’t have enough parts in stock to begin repairing vehicles until this summer. Continental says it is notifying the manufacturers, which each will issue individual recalls. The company says that no PSDI-5 inflator ruptures have been reported in either Honda or Acura vehicles.

We expect to find out more in the coming days, and we’ll keep you posted once we obtain further information.

Honda is recalling another 440,000 cars in Japan over air bag inflators made by Takata that can explode and hurl shrapnel into the vehicle.

“I would classify this as a more traditional recall”, said Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Rebecca Lindland. Honda said about 2.2 percent of revenue this fiscal year has been reserved for quality-related expenses, up from 1.9 percent in earlier years.

“No one deserves to have an exploding airbag installed in their vehicle”, said Mark Rosekind, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. As a result, owners of affected vehicles will be informed of the recall in an initial mailed notification letter in mid-March 2016.

“This is the largest, most expensive recall problem in history and it will take the longest time to resolve”, said Kart Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

Honda, whose vehicles account for roughly half of the 50 million vehicles recalled over the Takata issue since 2008, said it was recalling a total of 13 vehicle models, almost half of which are Fits. The repairs will then expand later this year. For the moment, it is unclear whether these defective airbag control modules have led to the injury or death of people in accidents.

The company plans to replace the recalled inflators with new parts from an alternative supplier free of charge to Honda and Acura vehicle owners.