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 About 16.2 million vehicles — roughly one out of every 16 cars on
U.S. highways — may have one or two defective air bags supplied by
Japan’s Takata Corp <7312.T>, vehicle manufacturers confirmed to
Reuters. How many times those vehicles may have to be repaired is
still unclear.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday said
it has not counted the absolute number of vehicles, but said it was
aware of 30 million potentially defective Takata parts that need to
be replaced. The agency's website still referred on Wednesday to the
recall of 34 million vehicles with defective Takata parts.
As some regional Takata recalls are expanded nationally, the number
of affected vehicles could grow to 20 million or more, according to
the Reuters analysis.
The uncertainty about how many vehicles in the United States need to
have one or more air bags replaced illustrates the challenges the
U.S. government faces in responding to a safety crisis that has
linked at least six deaths and hundreds of injuries to Takata air
bag inflators that could rupture suddenly and spray shrapnel into
vehicle interiors.
 NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind told a congressional hearing last
week that the Takata case was possibly "the largest and most
complicated" product recall in U.S. history.
In terms of total vehicles, however, other automotive recalls have
been larger. Ford Motor Co <F.N> in 1981 recalled 21 million cars to
repair defective parking gears.
"We have not yet gone through and said, okay, what is the number of
vehicles" on the road that need to be repaired, said NHTSA spokesman
Gordon Trowbridge on Wednesday. "Some issues have to be worked out
before we come to that final number."
The first Takata-related recall for defective air bags, by Honda
Motor Co <7267.T>, was issued in November 2008.
As the crisis has spread to include 10 manufacturers and millions of
vehicles, the U.S. safety regulator has struggled to define how many
vehicles may have defective parts, the exact cause of those defects,
how many times those vehicles may need to be repaired, when the
replacement parts may be available and how many consumers will have
to get replacement air bag inflators again.
Takata in May told NHTSA that it shipped nearly 34 million
potentially defective inflators for driver- and passenger-side air
bags to 10 vehicle manufacturers. Those manufacturers have issued
dozens of recalls since 2008 covering millions of vehicles equipped
with those parts, often multiple times for the same vehicle.
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A review of NHTSA records shows that some vehicles may have been
counted as many as eight times — one for each Takata-related recall.
An undetermined number of consumers have vehicles with two defective
inflators. In some cases, one or both inflators have been replaced.
Takata has said it has shipped 4 million replacement parts, and an
estimated 400,000 of those parts are defective and will have to be
replaced again. That means some owners may have to make two or three
trips to the dealership service department for repairs — but NHTSA
cannot say for sure.
NHTSA said it has focused on how many potentially defective Takata
inflators need to be replaced, based on filings by the automakers.
Trowbridge on Wednesday said NHTSA did not maintain a database of
vehicle identification numbers for vehicles affected by the Takata
defects, and thus could not easily tell which vehicles may have one
or two defective air bags.
Instead, when consumers use the Vehicle Identification Number lookup
tool on NHTSA's website, they are linked directly to a vehicle
manufacturer's database, Trowbridge said.
Reuters combed through dozens of defect reports -- called "573"
notices -- filed since 2008 by the vehicle manufacturers. It
confirmed Takata-related vehicle totals with each of the
manufacturers.
A Takata spokesman on Wednesday referred questions regarding the
number of vehicles affected by defective air bags to the vehicle
manufacturers.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Joe White and
Tomasz Janowski)
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