Accords sold in India to be a part of Honda’s global recall

Japanese car major Honda Motors has decided to extend the Takata recall globally; and this probably includes the Accords sold in India as well. Honda is likely to recall the Accord sedan units that were sold in the Indian car market during the first half of the past decade. This would form a part of the larger global vehicle recall from Honda in order to resolve the faulty airbags problem.

The Honda vehicle recall is again a part of a much larger multi company global recall involving the same faulty airbags supplied by Takata Corporation of Japan, and involves other Japanese car majors such as Toyota Motors and Nissan Motors. The multi-company vehicle recall program is of severe importance, as involves safety issues in the vehicles. The involved faulty airbags may not only deplode in an improper way causing injury to the passengers, but could also possibly explode and cause fire in some instances.

At present, Honda Motors’s Indian subsidiary, Honda Cars India is determining all the affected units of the Accord sold in the domestic car market prior to announcing the recall. The Japanese car maker has sold about 27,000 Accords in the Indian auto market till date. However, as per some company executive, the number of the affected Accord units with the faulty airbags is expected to be very small in India.

Honda India launched the premium Accord sedan in the domestic market back in the year 2001. However, owing to poor market performance the company has discontinued its sales in India last year. As for the global car market, Honda Motor has revealed that it will have to call back over two million vehicles that are fitted with the faulty airbags and were manufactured in the period between August 2000 and December 2005.

Honda Motor along with its other Japanese fellow car manufacturers Toyota and Nissan are all recalling the vehicles that were equipped with the faulty airbags manufactured by the car component company Takata Corp. Toyota Motor’s Indian joint venture, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said that the company has not yet any information from the Japanese company regarding any affected vehicles that were sold in India. On the other hand, the third Japanese car maker, Nissan had started its Indian operation much later than the other two Japanese car makers, and thus its cars in India are not expected to be affected by this recall.

Honda Motor’s global car recall includes other car models as well apart from the accord, such as the CR-V SUV and the Jazz premium hatchback. However, there are yet no reports regarding the possible recall of the CR-V or the Jazz in India.

A senior executive at Honda Cars India said that the company is waiting for confirmation from the global headquarters regarding the recall and is yet to decide on the affected cars.

German luxury carmaker, BMW is also investigating on a possible global recall, as the company used airbags from Takata for some of its cars.