For the first time in since the Takata airbag defect saga began nearly two years ago, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz have recalled more than 1.5 million vehicles equipped with shrapnel-shooting safety devices made by the Japanese parts maker.
VW announced Wednesday that it would recall 680,000 cars, Reuters reports, while Daimler said late Tuesday that it would recall 840,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and vans because of the ongoing safety defect.
The VW recall affects unspecified models built between 2006 and 2014. Daimler did not specify which models were affected by its recall other than it involved 705,000 sedans and 136,000 vans.
Reuters reports that the German company estimates that the recall will cost a total of $383 million to resolve.
The new recalls from VW and Daimler come less than a month after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Takata airbag recall list would expand by 5 million vehicles.
At the time, the agency said that many of vehicles set to be recalled were manufactured by companies that previously weren’t connected to the safety issue; those include Volkswagen, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz.
The expansion was in part triggered by the Dec. 22 death of a man driving a Ford Ranger pickup. A lawyer representing the man’s family says “there is no doubt airbag shrap (shrapnel) metal killed my client, as this has been confirmed by death certificate and autopsy report.”
The death is the 10th worldwide linked to Takata airbags and the first in a vehicle not produced by Honda.
Just days later, Ford announced it would expand its recall list to include 391,000 Ranger trucks.
VW recalls 680,000 brand cars in U.S. over airbag problems [Reuters]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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