Honda said that it would recall another 440,000 cars
HONDA said that it would recall another 440,000 cars around the world because of faulty airbags, as rival Toyota faced further probes over its largest safety crisis.
Honda, Japan's No. 2 car maker, has now recalled close to 950,000 vehicles because of airbag problems linked to one fatality and a total of 11 injuries in the United States.
In the latest of a string of embarrassing product problems for Toyota, US regulators said that they are reviewing dozens of complaints about potential steering problems in newer Toyota Corollas. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is discussing the matter with Toyota to see if a formal investigation is warranted.
Toyota expanded its largest recall on Tuesday, including more than 400,000 of its latest version of Prius and other new hybrid models because of brake problems. It also recalled more than 7,300 late-model Camrys in the US because of an unrelated brake problem.
This comes on top of some 8.1 million vehicles recalled since last September, for problems with floormats and accelerator pedals which have been linked to crashes that killed at least 19 people.
Toyota faces potential litigation over the crashes linked to the problem of unintended acceleration, as well as class-action lawsuits over the brake problems with the Prius.
Honda chief financial officer Yoichi Hojo told Reuters that the recall of 437,763 vehicles will likely cost the company an estimated 20 billion ($315.6 million) to 30 billion yen.
The moves and costs come on top of a recall first announced in November 2008 for 4,200 Accord and Civic sedans because of faulty airbag inflators, which was widened last June to cover an additional 510,000 vehicles globally.
The faulty inflators could produce too much pressure during accidents, thus rupturing their casings and injuring the drivers.
The airbags are made by a U.S. unit of Japan's Takata, a Honda spokesman said.
The latest recall applies to the 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, Pilot, and 2002 Acura TL and CL models in the US, as well as the Inspire, Saber and Lagreat in Japan. All those vehicles are made at Honda's U.S. and Canadian plants.
Last month, Honda announced a global recall of about 646,000 cars due to a fault with a window switch.
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