Fiat Chrysler Expands Takata Airbag Recall To 3.3M Across The United States

(Ralph Krawczyk Jr)

After months of pushing back, Fiat Chrysler is finally following the lead of other major automakers. Bowing to pressure from federal regulators, the company is massively expanding their recall of vehicles with potentially defective Takata airbags that have been linked to at least five deaths so far.

The New York Times reports that Fiat Chrysler will recall 3.3 million additional cars equipped with Takata-produced airbags that can spew metal fragments at drivers and passengers upon deployment.

Chrysler’s expanded recall covers certain model year 2004 to 2007 Dodge Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups, Dodge Ram 3500 Chassis Cabs, and Chrysler 300 and Dodge Chargers. Of the recalled cars 2.89 million are in the United States, 259,000 are in Canada, 66,000 in Mexico and 99,000 worldwide.

The massive recall expansion comes just two weeks after Chrysler first expanded the recall by nearly 209,000 vehicles but only in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Before that Chrysler officials limited the recall to vehicles sold or registered in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Chrysler’s latest move puts pressure on BMW, the only automaker that has not heeded the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s request in November to expand recalls nationwide.

Earlier this month, Mazda and Honda announced they would take their recalls nationwide. Honda’s expanded recall covered 2.6 million vehicles in the U.S., while Mazda’s covered about 330,000 cars.

Ford followed suit last week by recalling 500,000 additional vehicles with Takata airbags across the nation.

While automakers have begun to expand their recalls, Takata has firmly refused the same suggestion from NHTSA.

Shortly after NHTSA’s request that automakers and the parts supplier issue nationwide recalls, officials with Takata said during a congressional hearing that they wouldn’t initiate a national recall, in part because they don’t believe that NHTSA has the power to order such an initiative and because testing hasn’t shown what’s really behind the issue.

The airbags have been the center of controversy since early summer when car makers began recalling vehicles after receiving reports that drivers and passengers were hit with flying pieces of metal when their airbags deployed.

In all, automakers have recalled more than 20 million vehicles globally for the airbag issues since 2008.

The airbag issues led to a number of ongoing investigations by NHTSA. One centers on Takata’s processes and the production of the airbag.

In the second case, NHTSA opened an investigation into Honda’s reporting procedures after it was revealed the company didn’t properly notify regulators about issues related to the Takata airbags. The car company currently faces the possibility of a record-breaking $35 million fine for its reporting failures.

It was previously reported that Takata uses an unusual chemical explosive – ammonium nitrate – for the chemical’s ability to make airbags inflate in a matter of milliseconds. Since then the company notified NHTSA of a change in its chemical compound.

Chrysler Yields to Urging on Takata Airbag Recall [The New York Times]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist