By Angelo Young - Following Wednesday’s Toyota Motor Corp (TOKYO:7203) announcement that it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles around the world to repair faulty airbags, U.S. safety regulators want to know if the part responsible for the problem made it into any other automaker's supply chain.
The issue highlights the extent to which major players in the auto industry can often rely on a single supplier for components used by their brands, and it's related to an ongoing global investigation price-fixing by Japanese auto parts suppliers.
In this case, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to know if Takata Corporation, a Tokyo based designer and maker of seatbelts, child seats and other car-safety components, sold the faulty air bags to Toyota’s industry rivals.
Toyota’s recall includes 766,000 vehicles in the U.S. affecting 2003-04 Toyota Tundra, Corolla and Matrix; 2002-04 Sequoias and 2002-04 Lexus SC 430. Overall some 3.3 million vehicles worldwide from Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda have been recalled in recent years over the defect.
The NHTSA said in its defect-investigation announcement after Toyota’s recall notice that it has received consumer complaints about Takata-made air bags that ruptured in a 2005 Honda Civic, 2003 Toyota Corolla, and a 2005 Mazda 6. These air bag failures led to three injuries that “appeared to be minor in nature.” The NHTSA also said Takata identified two other incidents, one in a 2004 Nissan Sentra and another in a 2006 Dodge Charger.
“Of note, all six incidents occurred in a high absolute humidity climate (Florida and Puerto Rico.),” NHTSA said. “By way of background, several manufacturers in recent years have conducted safety recalls of vehicles for rupturing airbags.”
Whether this means the other automakers need to issue recalls is the focus of the investigation. The agency points out that Honda, Toyota, BMW, Nissan and Mazda have all issue recalls in recent years over air-bag ruptures.
But, Takata “failed to keep adequate quality-control records, making it difficult to identify vehicles with potentially defective air bags,” reports the New York Times.
Takata spokesperson Toyohira Hishikawa told The Times on Thursday that his company informed their buyers of the defect, but that it was up to them to issue recalls. In 2013 the Japanese company agreed to pay a $71.3 million to settle antitrust charges levied by the U.S. Department of Justice over price-fixing agreements. Three high level executives pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agree to serve time in prison.
Takata is one of many Japanese auto part manufacturers that have been targeted in recent years for colluding to raise prices. Last year Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) became the first automaker to sue a Japanese supplier over the conspiring to overcharge the automaker for electrical components.