Toyota Recalls More Cars Over Takata Air Bags

Toyota has announced an expansion of global recalls over faulty and potentially dangerous air bags made by Takata. US regulators had ratcheted up pressure on the embattled auto parts maker.

Toyota said Thursday it would recall another 57,000 vehicles globally to replace potentially deadly air bags made by Japanese auto parts producer Takata, indicating that the latter's protracted safety crisis was far from contained.



The announcement by the world's largest carmaker followed a recall by domestic rival Honda for the same problem after revelations of a fifth death linked to dangerous Takata air bag inflators, which can explode with too much force and spray metal fragments into the car.



More than 16 million vehicles have so far been called back into garages worldwide since 2008 when the defect was made public.



Shares take a tumble



Toyota's small-car subsidiary Daihatsu also issued a separate recall in Japan on Thursday, affecting tens of thousands of its Mira mini-vehicles produced between December 2002 and May 2003.



More and bigger Takata-related recalls are certain to come in the days and weeks ahead, following an order Wednesday by US regulators for the auto parts maker to expand a regional response to cover the entire US and not just hot and humid areas where the air bag inflators had been thought to become more volatile.



Takata shares dipped as much as 7.9 percent in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closing down with a loss of 4.8 percent.



hg/cjc (Reuters, AFP)