Honda Widens Air Bag Recall to the Whole Country

After pressure from federal regulators, Honda has agreed to expand a recall for exploding Takata air bags nationwide instead of limiting it to regional campaigns in high-humidity areas.

The automaker's announcement came shortly after Japanese supplier Takata spurred a U.S. government order for a similar extension that would recall all air bags in the country, the Detroit News reported.

Takata put the impetus on car companies, saying that automakers are responsible to recall the affected vehicles. The rate of exploding air bags, which can spray shrapnel at the vehicle's occupants, is "approximately 0.000006 failures per air bag deployment--far below the failure rate in the vast majority of the thousands of recalls," according to Takata.

Honda is looking to tap Autoliv and Daicel, two other air bag suppliers, to manufacture enough replacement parts to cover the expanded recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month asked Honda, Ford, Chrysler Group, Mazda and BMW AG as well as Takata to issue national recalls for vehicles equipped with the faulty driver-side air bags.

The agency has been cracking down on carmakers in the wake of the Toyota criminal investigation that was settled to the tune of $1.2 billion earlier this year and the wave of GM recalls following at least 36 deaths connected with faulty ignition switches.

"It's been a bad year for auto safety," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that is addressing the recalls. "The American people deserve to have confidence in the cars that they are drive are safe and that the industry and government are doing everything they can to improve safety."

Honda and BMW will supply loaners or rental vehicles to affected customers as needed, the automakers told the committee.

CEO Shigehisa Takada said in a statement today that Takata will continue to work with U.S. regulators to address the defective air bag inflators. The NHTSA's next step will be to schedule a public hearing to give voice to people injured by exploding air bags.