The feds are recalling another 2.12 million vehicles in the never-ending airbag disaster after it was discovered that the fix originally offered wasn't good enough and airbags were blowing up in the absence of a crash. About half are in a different Takata recall and thus could send shrapnel into the faces of people in these vehicles.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the fix originally offered for more than two million Dodge, Jeep, Acura, Honda, Pontiac, and Toyota vehicles wasn't good enough. Specifically:
NHTSA discovered through the monitoring of incoming data from consumers and automakers that some vehicles remedied under the previous recalls may have experienced inadvertent deployments. NHTSA urged all three automakers to issue new recalls to implement a more effective remedy. NHTSA has identified about 40 vehicles in which airbags deployed unexpectedly after receiving the original remedy.
This recall is so bad they're re-recalling cars. The list includes the Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Corolla/Matrix/Avalon.
To be clear, the recall is related to parts supplier TRW and an electronic component that may trigger an airbag explosion. This is worse, because the recalled vehicles include about one million possibly defective Takata airbags.
Here's where it gets really confusing: The old remedy for this recall didn't work that well, so if you took your car in for a recall you will have to take it in again to get it fixed. However, if your car hasn't been fixed yet you should still get the imperfect fix because it's better than nothing NHTSA's new administrator Mark Rosekind said in a telephone press conference this morning.
Also, for a million of these vehicles, they need to be fixed under the Takata airbag recall. So it's possible you'll need to take your car in three times.
Photo: AP