6 automakers part of massive recall of 3.4 million airbags

General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda and BMW are recalling about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide, including more than 200,000 vehicles in Canada, due to a problem with a Japanese supplier's airbags — the inflator may burst and send plastic pieces everywhere.

The affected airbags all came from Takata Corp. They may deploy with too much pressure, causing the interior to rupture and possibly send out projectiles.

Honda is recalling 1.1 million vehicles, including more than 107,000 in Canada, and Toyota is recalling 1.7 million vehicles, including 75,000 in Canada. Honda says it knows of one crash attributed to the airbag problem, but no one was injured or killed in relation to that incident.

Nissan is recalling 480,000 vehicles, including 20,000 in Canada, and Mazda is recalling 45,000, but Mazda Canada says it appears as though there are only 26 affected vehicles in the country.

General Motors added itself to the recall later in the day on Thursday, saying 55,000 Pontiac Vibes in North America from the 2003 model year are affected. The company has not yet broken down how many within that figure were sold in Canada specifically.

In Canada, the Honda recall covers almost 81,000 Civics and about 11,000 Acura 1.7 EL vehicles from the 2001-03 model years, 6,140 CR-V vehicles from 2002-03 and almost 10,000 Odysseys from the 2002 model year.

The Toyota recall also includes 490,000 vehicles in Europe and 320,000 in Japan. Affected models include the Corolla, Tundra and Lexus SC produced between November 2000 and March 2004.

Transport Canada said that it has received no complaints about the problem and prior to receiving verbal notification on Wednesday it had no knowledge of the issue.

The federal agency said owners should take their vehicles to a dealer as soon as they receive notification from the vehicle manufacturer and the problem will be fixed for free.