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Nissan has issued a recall of 250,000 of its vehicles over concerns regarding Takata airbags. It’s the recall that just keeps ongoing. If you’ve been following the auto industry over the last decade, you’ve likely heard the name “Takata.” Probably in connection with “airbag recall” more times than you can count.
Nissan is the go-to choice for people who know how to pick the best car insurance, most reliable cars, and best value. However, the Takata recalls put a blemish on the normally reliable automaker. Since the early 2010s, now-shuttered Takata’s airbags have been a massive source of recalls in the auto industry.
Like almost all other Takata recalls from the past ten years, this recall is due to a faulty airbag inflator. The inflator, which uses ammonium nitrate that can apply far too much force, is very dangerous. In an accident, these inflators can expel large debris at high rates of speed. This increases the risk of injury during an accident.
This hardware malfunction has been determined to have been in place in Takata’s airbags since as early as 1998. It went undetected due to the nature of the malfunction. it’s hard to determine what the exact cause of a passenger’s death was in the aftermath of a rough car crash. An unknown number of people could have been killed by Takata’s airbags. Their deaths have been blamed on the conditions of the crash, not the safety equipment.
Takata is responsible for the malfunction and is at the center of so many lawsuits. The company has since been subsumed by other automakers. Additionally, numerous Takata executives have been sentenced to jail time for their role in knowingly hiding these hardware failures from regulators.
The Nissan recall applies to the 2013 through 2015 Nissan Titan truck, the 2013 through 2015 Armada large SUV, some 2012 through 2017 Nissan NV Cargo and Nissan Passenger vans, as well as 2011 to 2012 Infiniti QX56 SUVs. According to official papers filed with regulators, the recall is directly related to the Takata airbags being filled with too much ammonium nitrate.
Nissan will alert owners of affected vehicles by mail later this month. Following that, people affected by the recall will be able to bring their vehicles to Nissan dealerships for repairs and replacements for all of their airbags.
