Nissan is recalling 9,000 units of the Sunny and the Micra as a part of its global recall initiative after it was found that 2,60,000 Nissan cars have been affected because of faulty airbags.
The airbags in question have been made by Takata Corp and because of some fault in manufacturing of the driver side airbag, there is a possibility that it might end up spraying shrapnel on the occupants. While more than 1 lakh of these affected cars are from Japan, 30,000 are from Europe while 11,000 are from China.
India registers its recall log at 9,000 units according to Economic Times. These cars have been manufactured in the time period of 2008-2012. So far 7 lakh cars have been voluntarily recalled by manufacturers in India since July 2012 as per SIAM’s directive. The company will be contacting customers soon and the defective airbag inflator will be replaced absolutely free of cost.
Takata Corp, which contacted Nissan once it came to know of the fault is in for fighting some major law suits in the United States as the US Safety Regulators have filed cases against them. So far 7.8 million (78 lakh) cars by 10 manufacturers, with Takata airbags have been recalled in the US alone.
Recalls in India has finally begun to be perceived positively, assuring the customers that the manufacturers are not going to disown them once they have bought their cars. The most recent recall has been the one by Maruti Suzuki, when they recalled 69,555 units of Dzire, Swift and Ritz. While recalls are so far voluntary in India, the government is in works of formulating a mandatory recall policy where manufacturers will also be penalised under the new Central Motor Vehicle Rules.
