Faulty Takata airbags force Mitsubishi to make car recall in Vietnam

By Staff reporters   November 1, 2017 | 01:42 am PT
Faulty Takata airbags force Mitsubishi to make car recall in Vietnam
A technician holds a recalled Takata airbag inflator in Miami, Florida. Photo by Reuters/Joe Skipper
The defective airbag inflators have been linked to 19 deaths and more than 180 injuries worldwide.

Mitsubishi is recalling 2,519 of its Pajero models in Vietnam to replace potentially deadly defective airbag inflators.

All cars imported between 2007 and 2016 should be taken to the company’s showrooms to receive free replacement inflators, it said. The service can take more than two hours.

The cars were installed with parts from Japanese supplier Takata, which announced that there were faults with its products in April 2013.

Takata said that propellant chemicals were mishandled and improperly stored during assembly, which supposedly caused the metal airbag inflators to burst open due to excessive pressure inside. It also blamed humid weather for making the situation worse.

The announcement came in the wake of massive global recalls, including those made by Toyota in June and October.

The defective inflators have touched off the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, involving 42 million vehicles, the Los Angeles Times reported in July. The fault has been linked to 19 deaths and more than 180 injuries worldwide, it said.

Takata, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June, expects 125 million vehicles fitted with the faulty parts to be recalled worldwide by 2019, Reuters said.

 
 
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