Toyota to review nearly 125,000 cars in Spain over Takata airbags

The crisis surrounding defective airbag inflators designed by Japanese Takata is flaring up again this summer. Although the scandal has not affected it as negatively as Honda, Toyota keeps adding to its list of vehicles that must go to the workshop so that the part can be replaced and further incidents avoided, although no new ones have been reported during the latest campaigns.

On 16 June, the manufacturer asked to analyse 1,370,000 in the United States after its road safety authorities urged Takata to detect more potentially deficient inflators. This week another 2,860,000 worldwide are added. Most of them -1,729,000 units- are in Europe, and in Spain 124,832 are counted, according to a spokesperson for Toyota’s European division speaking to Automotive News Europe.

The models covered by the warning are the Yaris, Corolla, Avensis and Avensis Verso built between April 2003 and December 2008. It also includes units of the Lexus SC430 convertible produced during that same period. Toyota still has not confirmed the specific cause of the flaw in these inflators, but it is known that it only affects the device that inflates the passenger airbag.

Spain is the fifth European country where the most cars are at risk of this defect. The United Kingdom bears the brunt with 214,115 units, which is logical given that the Corolla and Avensis have been or still are assembled locally at its Burnaston plant in Derbyshire County. Germany is close behind with 212,898 vehicles, followed by Italy, where 159,456 will be inspected, 133,676 in Belarus and Russia, and last France, where 114,078 models may suffer from this defect.

Mitsubishi and Nissan have also announced that they are expanding their respective campaigns globally. The former, whose alert affects 198,000 cars, will carry out the necessary work on the Navara built between April 2007 and December 2008. The latter has yet to specify more details, but its warning concerns 120,000 vehicles worldwide.

Source | Automotive News and BBC