The Takata airbag woes continue with Toyota announcing a massive recall that would affect about 5.8 million of its vehicles sold worldwide.
The latest move comes in the wake of the airbags found to run the risk of imploding on its own when exposed to hot conditions for a prolonged period of time. What is even more depressing is that some of the airbags that have been found to be at risk forms part of the replacement units that were replaced during an earlier recall carried out in 2010.
The faulty airbags make use of a chemical compound that tends to explode when left exposed to hot condition for the considerable amount of time, according to Reuters. Also, apart from the impact of the explosion, the various shrapnel that gets ejected has also been the cause of most injuries, with some proving to be fatal as well. At least sixteen deaths have been reported so far owing to Takata airbag explosion worldwide with most of them happening in the US.
The U.S. authorities have been piling immense pressure on Takata to declare more of its airbags as unsafe in the U.S. and elsewhere. The latest round of recall is however targeted at Toyota vehicles sold in Japan, China and Europe.
Further, the latest recall mostly concerns the Toyota Corolla which happens to be one of the biggest selling models for the company worldwide. Among the other cars being recalled include the Yaris or Vitz, Hilux pickup truck and the Etios sedan, according to TulsaWorld.
Also, it is the driver's side and passenger's side airbags fitted in these cars that have been found to be defective. The defective cars were produced between May 2000 and November 2001, and April 2006 and December 2014. The latest round of recall will peg the total cars recalled so far owing to defective airbag inflators to a staggering 23.1 million.
As per an estimate put forward by an airbag analyst, the total cost of covering the entire replacement drive would amount to a huge $20 billion.
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