On November 12, 2010, a Nissan Sentra was parked in the parking lot of a dealership in Evanston, Illinois.
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Nissan The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has warned owners of older cars to give up driving with recalled, unrepaired Takata airbags declare Wednesday.
NHTSA said the Japanese automaker’s “Do Not Drive” alert applies to 83,920 vehicles. Affected vehicles include 2002-2006 Nissan Sentra, 2002-2004 Nissan Pathfinder and 2002-2003 Infiniti QX4 vehicles, which may be equipped with the recalled 2020 Takata airbags.
Nissan shares fell nearly 3% during Wednesday’s meeting following the warning.
“NHTSA urges all vehicle owners to immediately inspect their vehicles for publicly recalled Takata air bags,” NHTSA said in a statement. “If you own one of these vehicles, please do not wait until repairs have been completed and the defective air bag has been replaced. Drive it.”
Nissan and Infiniti will provide affected owners with free towing and mobile repairs, as well as car rental services at select locations. Infiniti is a division of Nissan.
A Nissan spokesperson told CNBC in a statement: “Due to the age of vehicles equipped with defective Takata airbag inflators, there is an increased risk that the inflators will explode during airbag deployment, ejecting sharp metal fragments that may Cause serious injury or death.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 27 people have been confirmed dead in the United States when defective Takata airbags exploded. At least 400 people were also injured, according to NHTSA.
At least 67 million Takata airbag inflators have been recalled domestically, and more than 100 million units have been recalled globally, making it one of the largest automotive safety recalls in history.
Takata filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the United States in 2017 after agreeing to pay $1 billion in criminal fines over alleged fraud in the sale of defective air bag inflators.
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