Famous Luxury Auto Brand’s Newest Recall is Latest Chapter in Ongoing Saga

Recently one well-known luxury automotive company issued a recall for potential safety issues that could affect an entire line of the company's vehicles.

Recalls in the automotive world are nothing, plenty of recalls are issued every single year, however, this particular recall is only the latest chapter in a recall saga that has been ongoing for well over a decade.

BMW 3 Series Recall

BMW is a famous performance and luxury auto brand based out of Germany and recently they issued a recall on their 3 and 5 series vehicles including their sedans and wagons.

The recall is for a potentially faulty airbag inflator installed in the steering wheels of the affected vehicles. The vehicles that this recall applies are the 3 Series sedans from 2006-2011, the 3 Series Sportswagons from 2006-2012 and the 5 Series 2000-2004.

BMW as well as various other outlets have reported the issue and a "Do Not Drive" warning is out for the vehicles. Drivers of these vehicles may visit BMW's website to identify whether or not their vehicle may be affected by the same issue.

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This recall is not a stand-alone issue though which makes it much different and much more complicated than your standard recall. The airbags in question were manufactured by a company called Takata and over the last decade, Takata's airbags, specifically a defect found in the airbags have caused an overwhelming number of auto manufacturers to issue recalls for all vehicles that had Takata airbags installed in them.

Virtually no auto manufacturer or name-brand car you can think of has been spared in encountering issues with these airbags and over the course of a decade, millions of vehicles have been affected across the country.

Takata Airbag Details

Consumer Report did a detailed deep dive on the entire Takata airbag saga making note of every event from 2010 to the present day.

From here we will highlight some of the major moments mentioned but I'd encourage anyone who wants to see the entire timeline to read the Consumer Report for yourself, which you can do by accessing the provided link.

To emphasize how big of a deal this airbag issue has been, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called it the "largest and most complex safety recall in U.S. history". The Consumer Report article states that the majority of the vehicles impacted by the various recalls for airbags were between the 2002-2015 model years.

The NHTSA determined that the "heart of the problem" was the airbag inflator. The inflator is "a metal cartridge loaded with propellant wafers, which in some cases has ignited with explosive force. If the inflator housing ruptures in a crash, metal shards from the airbag can be sprayed throughout the passenger cabin...".

Essentially, the device that is supposed to protect occupants if they are in a motor vehicle collision didn't do its job and caused injury. To date, 27 people have died in these incidents and another 400 were injured.

Consumer Report notes that an estimated 67 million airbags and 42 million vehicles were affected by the various recalls over the last decade. The NHTSA estimates that in the last decade 88% of vehicles have been either repaired or replaced, though that still means millions of cars on the road still need repairs.

Regions of Priority

All of the recalls have been issued in a series of waves based on priority. certain vehicles were determined to be at a higher risk than others with the airbags like the 2001 to 2003 Honda and Acura models equipped with “alpha” airbags, and the 2006 Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickup trucks among others. These high-risk vehicles all received "Do Not Drive" warnings until fixed

The airbag problem also seemed to present itself more commonly in places with consistent heat and humidity. With that in mind the 50 United States and other territories were broken into 3 zones in dealing with repairs.

Zone A includes Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan), and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Zone B includes Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Zone C includes Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Legal Ramifications

The issues at hand also created many issues for Takata that needed to be addressed in a courtroom. In 2017, Takata filed for bankruptcy. As the years went by and more and more vehicles were being recalled, it required Takata to make more deals.

One example came in 2018 when Takata and Ford reached a class-action settlement agreement where Ford owners would receive free "loaner cars" while waiting on repairs to their main vehicle in addition to cash payouts for out-of-pocket expenses. This was one of several deals that Takata agreed to with the class-action lawyers that handled the claims of the 19 car companies.

To reiterate, we encourage everyone to read the Consumer Report yourself for every major event in the saga, which includes a timeline going back to when this issue first became a major problem and gained attention in 2014. You can also read from our previous coverage of another recall linked with the Takata airbags below.

Related Coverage: 'Urgent Life Saving Do Not Drive' Warning for Many New York Drivers

The consumer report also has a detailed list of every vehicle, every brand and every auto company that was impacted by this issue.

Those companies would include...

• Acura
• Audi
• BMW
• Chrysler
• Ferrari
• Ford/Lincoln
• General Motors
• Honda
• Infinity
• Jaguar/Land Rover
• Lexus
• Mazda
• Mercedes-Benz
• Mitsubishi
• Nissan
• Subaru
• Tesla
• Toyota/Scion
• Volkswagen