Honda recalls 2.24 lakh vehicles for faulty airbags

Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) is recalling around 2.24 lakh units of its premium sports utility vehicles-CR-V, sedans Civic, City and hatchback Jazz, manufactured between 2003 and 2012-to replace faulty airbag inflators in the largest such exercise in the country.

Under the recall, which is a part of its parent Honda's global initiative to replace the faulty airbags, HCIL will voluntarily replace airbag inflators of 2,23,578 vehicles of previous generations of CR-V, Civic, City and Jazz, the company said in a statement.

The exercise will cover 13,073 units of CR-V manufactured between 2004-11; 54,290 units of Civic sedan produced between 2003-2012; 1,40,508 units of its popular sedan City made between 2007 and 2012 and 15,707 units of premium hatchback Jazz manufactured between 2009 and 2011, it added.

The replacement would be carried free of cost at HCIL dealerships across India in a phased manner, starting October 12, 2015 and the company will communicate with customers directly, HCIL said.

Globally, Honda had announced recall of over two million units to replace faulty airbags provided by its supplier Takata Corp. Automobile manufacturers have been recalling vehicles on safety issues since industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) initiated a voluntary policy in July 2012.

A total of 10,85,064 vehicles have been recalled so far in India by various companies ever since it started. As per SIAM data, the previous biggest recalls in India were by Ford of about 1.66 lakh units of its Figo and Fiesta classic models in September 2013 and General Motors' recall of 1.55 lakh units of Beat, Spark and Enjoy models in July this year.

In May this year, Honda Cars India had recalled a total of 11,381 units of Accord, CR-V and Civic, manufactured between 2003 and 2007, to replace a faulty part in the passenger and driver side airbags.

The recall covered 10,805 units of premium sedan Accord, 575 units of sports utility vehicle CR-V and one unit of Civic. Last year, the company had recalled a total of 1,338 units of Accord and CR-V, manufactured between 2002 and 2003, to replace faulty inflators in the passenger side airbags.

Later in October, the company recalled 2,338 units of its hatchback Brio, compact sedan Amaze and CR-V, manufactured between September 2011 and July 2014, to replace faulty inflators. Earlier this year, Japanese auto major Nissan had also recalled around 12,000 units of various models, including mid-sized sedan Sunny and small car Micra, manufactured between June 2013 and March 2015 in India as part of its global campaign to rectify engine switch and airbags. It had announced recall for around 2,70,000 cars worldwide on certain models.

Till date, around 24 million vehicles have been recalled globally by Honda due to faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata.