Very Urgent Recall on 300,000 Honda Cars

If you drive a 2001-2003 Honda or Acura, you may want to pay close attention to this article.

According to U.S. auto safety regulators, Takata air bag inflators on more than 300,000 unrepaired recalled Honda vehicles show a substatial risk of rupturing. The regulators have urged owners to stop driving the cars until they have been fixed.

Takata air bag inflators have been linked to as many as 14 deaths worldwide, including 13 in Honda Motor Co. The company and U.S. investigators say that they can deploy with too much force which sends deadly metal fragments flying. Nearly 100 million Takata inflators have been declared unsafe worldwide.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also cited new test data that shows some 313,000 2001-2003 model Honda and Acura vehicles have as high as a 50 percent chance of a dangerous air bag inflator rupture in a crash.

“With as high as a 50 percent chance of a dangerous air bag inflator rupture in a crash, these vehicles are unsafe and need to be repaired immediately,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “Folks should not drive these vehicles unless they are going straight to a dealer to have them repaired immediately, free of charge.”

Honda said in a statement that it agreed with the analysis of testing and the 313,000 vehicles “should only be driven to a dealer in order to have their Takata air bag inflators replaced as rapidly as possible.”

The vehicles in this group include the 2001-2002 Honda Accord, Honda Civic, 2002 Honda CR-V, Honda Odyssey, 2003 Honda Pilot, 2002-2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2CL.

Tracking owners down may be hard as these cars are as old as 16 years old and may have changed ownership many times.