Mazda Says Do Not Drive These 2004-2015 Vehicles With Deadly Takata Airbags

The airbags in these vehicles could spray metal shards throughout the passenger cabin, a potentially deadly outcome from a supposedly lifesaving device. High humidity, high temperatures, and time can increase the risk. 

The faulty airbags, made by the now-defunct Takata Corporation, have been associated with 27 deaths and more than 400 injuries in the U.S.

“The age of these vehicles, some over 20 years old, makes it increasingly possible that airbag inflators will explode and cause sharp metal fragments to strike the driver or passengers resulting in serious injury or death,” Mazda said in a statement. 

Although some of these vehicles were first recalled in 2016, the automaker says that nearly 80,000 of them still haven’t had their airbags fixed despite multiple attempts to reach owners. 

Over 67 million faulty Takata airbags have already been replaced in vehicles made by 34 brands, an effort that NHTSA has called “the largest and most complex safety recall in U.S. history.”