Takata airbag saga: SA affected in global Nissan recall

Tokyo, Japan - Japanese automaker Nissan has said it will recall more than 3.8-million vehicles, mostly in North America, because the passenger-side airbag may not deploy in a crash due to a defect in the seat sensor.

The Japanese automaker said the global recall would cover 2013-2017 including some Nissan Altima, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, Pathfinder, Sentra and Rogue models.

SA models affected

Nissan South Africa says about 17600 Tiida models are affected.

The local automaker said: "South African Tiida customers are being contacted for the voluntary recall to bring their cars in to be checked and fixed at no cost. Nissan SA has had no incidents reported so far due to potential faulty airbags."

The company said in a statement: "This recall will affect approximately 3.5-million Nissan vehicles and approximately 381 000 Infiniti vehicles globally," adding that more than 80% of them were sold in North America.

It said a fault in the sensor not properly registering when the passenger seat was occupied could lead to failure to deploy the airbag in the event of a collision.

The firm said it was developing a fix and would notify dealers in late May 2016.

It was not immediately clear if the recall involves auto parts giant Takata, which was hammered by an exploding air bag defect blamed for at least 11 deaths.