Japanese Auto Makers Recall 3.4 Million Vehicles in U.S., Japan and Europe for Faulty Airbags

Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co. and two other Japanese auto makers are recalling 3.4 million vehicles sold around the world because airbags supplied by Takata Corp. could catch fire or injure passengers.

The move announced Thursday affects models in North America, Japan and Europe and is the largest recall for airbags made by Takata, the world's second-largest supplier of airbags and seatbelts.

The recall also includes vehicles produced by Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Mazda Motor Corp., covering some of the auto market's best-selling cars --- Toyota's Camry and Corolla, Nissan's Maxima and Honda's Civic.

All of the recalled vehicles were manufactured during or after 2000.

Takata said it learned about the faulty airbags back in Oct. 2011, from an auto maker it did not name, and has been investigating the issue since.

And once the cause of the flaw was determined, the airbag supplier alerted its auto maker clients, who then enacted the recall.

So far, Toyota, Honda and Nissan report no known injuries or deaths linked to the defective airbags.

Honda said it became aware of the airbag problem after a. Oct. 2011 crash in Puerto Rico, in which a passenger front airbag deployed with too much pressure and caused the inflator casing to rupture.

A U.S. spokesman for the Japanese automaker could not confirm that specific accident was the first case to bring the issue to Takata's attention.

Takata spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa said some non-Japanese automakers were also supplied with the faulty airbags, though he declined to name which automakers he was referring to.

General Motors Co. indicated Takata is a supplier and that the problem affected only about 55,000 Pontiac Vibe cars from model year 2003  for the U.S. and Canadian markets --- and already included in Toyota's recall tally, since they were built at a plant in Fremont, Calif., previously run as a joint venture between GM and Toyota.

BMW said it has an undetermined number of vehicles affected by the recall, a U.S. spokesman for Takata said.

Officials from Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, PSA Peugeot Citroen , Renault SA and Volkswagen AG all said they were not affected by the recall because they did not use the flawed airbag system. India's Tata Motors Ltd. and its Jaguar Land Rover said they too were are not affected.

Toyota said it planned to recall about 1.73 million vehicles produced between November 2000 and March 2004. That includes 580,000 units sold in North America and 490,000 sold in Europe.

The Toyota models involved in the recall include the Corolla, Tundra, Yaris and Camry.

Honda said it will recall around 1.14 million vehicles worldwide, including 561,400 vehicles in the U.S. and another 107,800 in Canada.

Nissan said 480,000 of its vehicles globally will be recalled, with more than 265,000 of those in the U.S. The Nissan models recalled are the Maxima and the Cube.

Mazda said it's recalling 45,500 vehicles worldwide.