Honda to recall 58,000 cars for airbag inflators

Car maker's 6th recall in India in 20 months

Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co on Friday said it would recall 57,676 vehicles, mostly the City, to replace driver-side air-bag inflators free of cost. This is a part of Honda Motor's global recall campaign on air-bag inflators. This would be the car maker's sixth recall in the Indian market in 20 months.

The company said it would recall 49,572 units of City made between January 2012 and June 2013; 7,504 units of Jazz made between February 2012 and February 2013; and 600 units of Civic made between January 2012 and August 2012. An inflator inflates airbags in case of a major collision.

In September last year, the car maker announced its biggest recall in India, to replace air-bag inflators in 223,578 units of City, Civic, Jazz, and CR-V, made between 2003 and 2011.  This was the second-biggest recall in India after Volkswagen's recall of 323,700 vehicles in December last year. The car maker, which sells 16,000 vehicles in the domestic market every month, has recalled 382,635 units so far in the current financial year. Globally, Honda Motor is recalling millions of vehicles to solve the air-bag inflator problem.

The car maker said, "The replacement would be carried out free of cost at Honda Cars India (Japanese car maker's local unit)'s dealerships across the country in a phased manner, starting from February 20. The company will communicate with customers directly."

India does not have a mandatory recall policy for vehicles, but companies have voluntarily announced recalls from time to time. Over 1.5 million passenger vehicles have been recalled by domestic companies since July 2012, when Siam (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) announced a voluntary recall code for its member companies.