Honda Urges Customers To Repair Vehicles For Defective Airbags

(RTTNews) - Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. (HMC) will launch a multi-million dollar advertising campaign next week, asking U.S. customers to take recalled vehicles that are equipped with defective Takata airbags to dealers for repair.

The new campaign will urge Honda and Acura owners to immediately check for open recalls and safety improvement campaigns, for free repair of airbag inflators made by Japanese parts supplier Takata Corp.

The faulty Takata airbag inflator has caused the airbags to rupture on impact. The issue of the airbag rupture was first reported in 2008 and about 17 million vehicles have reportedly been recalled in the U.S. since then. Five deaths have been linked to faulty airbags around the globe.

Honda will begin the campaign on Monday, March 16, with full-page, color advertisements in more than 120 newspapers as well as 30-second radio announcements in more than 110 markets.

In addition, sponsored, customized Facebook posts that mention the specific vehicle owned by each identified user will appear on owners' timelines.

The campaign will prioritize 11 states and U.S. territories that have been identified by the company as representing greater risk to the affected owners.

Honda said consistent high absolute humidity levels are present in those regions, and high absolute humidity contributes to a greater risk of inflator rupture in certain older-model Takata front airbags.

Honda has recalled more than 6 million vehicles in the U.S. due to the faulty airbags made by Takata. However, the company estimates that one-third of all recalled vehicles in the U.S. have not yet been repaired, though the problem is more prevalent among older model vehicles.

The recalled vehicles include 2001-2007 Accords, 2001-2005 Civics, 2002-2006 CR-Vs, 2003-2011 Elements, 2002-2004 Odysseys, 2003-2007 Pilots, 2006 Ridgelines, 2003-2006 Acura MDXs, 2002-2003 Acura Tls, 2003 Acura CLs and 2005 Acura RLs.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. (TM, TYT.L) in late November 2014 had initiated a recall of more than 57,000 vehicles globally, for possible airbag defects. Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NSANY.PK) had also been plagued by similar recalls.

In October 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA too had urged owners of certain Toyota (TM), Honda, Mazda, BMW (BAMXY.PK, BAMXF.PK, BMW.L), Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors (GM) vehicles to act on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags.