Carmakers taking the safe road

Honda's expansion of its global recall for faulty airbags suggests carmakers are turning cautious amid consumer scrutiny of Toyota's safety lapses, a trend that could see more recalls in the coming months.

Honda, Japan's No2 carmaker, has recalled an additional 437,000 cars globally, bringing its 15 month-old recall to nearly a million vehicles.

Intense criticism of Toyota that it was too slow to acknowledge problems and come clean with consumers before recalls involving over eight million vehicles has Japanese corporate chieftains wanting to do everything they can to avoid a similar fate.

"No one wants to be Akio Toyoda," said Kurt Sanger, an analyst at Deutsche Securities in Tokyo, referring to Toyota's president who has apologised repeatedly for his company's woes.

"You're seeing the downside of not doing it," Sanger said of Toyota's recent reluctance to recall vehicles. Carmakers are "obviously going to be motivated to be more aggressive on these things."

Showing the chastening effect of bad publicity, Toyota declined to accept a Japanese government energy efficiency award given to its Prius hybrid, saying the honour is not appropriate for a car hit by massive recalls.

Nissan is clearly on guard. The company understands the need to "make maximum efforts toward safety and quality," said chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga, when asked about how his company might be affected by woes at rival Toyota.

"With this crisis, if you will, as a catalyst, we want to further accelerate those efforts and we want to exert even greater caution," Shiga said.

Honda's expanded recall came a day after Toyota said it would recall nearly 440,000 of its flagship 2010 Prius cars and other hybrids due to a braking glitch - further damaging its once sterling image.

Since November last year the world's No 1 carmaker has recalled nearly 8.5 million vehicles for faults that include floor mats that can entangle the accelerator pedal and accelerator pedals that can stick, causing sudden acceleration.

Toyota faces more scrutiny next week, when Yoshimi Inaba, head of the carmaker's North American operations, will be grilled in a congressional hearing called to examine the spate of safety problems.

Honda acknowledges heightened sensitivity among consumers about recalls - but denies that the expanded recall was driven by outside factors, said Natsuno Asanuma, manager of public relations at Honda in Tokyo.

"We are following the normal procedure, so it doesn't mean customers' feelings changed our attitude," she said. "There are strict regulations regarding recalls."

Still, analysts predict that carmakers will err on the side of caution given all the bad publicity Toyota has received, including accusations that it covered up some problems - which the company denies.

Problems that in the past were dealt with by a service campaign notifying owners to drop by the repair shop at their convenience may be raised to the level of full-fledged recalls, they say.

"All carmakers are going to be wary about this," said Ryouichi Saito, analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities in Tokyo. "They're going to be quicker to announce recalls about anything that even appears fishy."

Honda's expanded recall for air bags includes 378,000 cars in the US. around 41,000 cars in Canada and 17,000 cars in Japan, Australia and elsewhere in Asia. It includes certain 2001 and 2002 Accord sedans, Civic compacts, Odyssey minivans, CR-V small sport utility vehicles and some 2002 Acura TL sedans.

Honda said it will replace the driver's side airbag inflator in the cars because they can deploy with too much pressure, causing the inflator to rupture and injure or kill the driver.

Honda said it is aware of 12 incidents linked to the problem - one death in May 2009 and 11 injuries. The company said it is not aware of any problems happening after July 2009.

Since it first announced the recall to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in November 2008, a total of 952,118 vehicles have been recalled.

Honda decided to expand the recall after a company investigation determined that more cars might contain defective airbag inflators, made by supplier Takata, based in Tokyo.

"It took time to come to that conclusion because we had to do many tests," said Honda's Asanuma. The company has tried all along to "communicate everything we have found out," she said.

Last month, Honda recalled 646,000 Jazz hatchbacks worldwide because of a glitch that could cause water to enter the power window mechanism, causing components to overheat.

- AP