STATEMENT ON TAKATA SAFETY RECALL EXPANSION TO THE DIR5 GROUP OF VEHICLES TO EXISTING SAFETY RECALLS 1317F AND 2618F

Mazda North American Operations has filed a Part 573 with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a safety defect, which exists in vehicles equipped with a certain type of passenger frontal air bag inflator, for certain 2009-2012 Mazda6, 2007-2012 CX-7 and 2007-2012 CX-9 vehicles. There are 69,879 U.S. and U.S. Territory vehicles involved in this recall.  This recall is an expansion of Safety Recall 1317F – Passenger Air Bag Inflator Replacement filed with NHTSA on October 12, 2018.

For both recalls, all affected vehicles have been repaired with “like-for-like” inflators from prior Takata recalls. These “like-for-like” inflators were a temporary remedy until a sufficient amount of permanent parts were available. These affected vehicles will now need to be repaired a second time with the permanent remedy inflator.

In the subject vehicles, activation of a non-desiccated ammonium nitrate inflator with degraded propellant may result in an inflator rupture. An inflator rupture may cause metal fragments to pass through the air bag and into the vehicle interior at high speed, which may result in injury or death to vehicle occupants.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through approximately 620 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.