WASHINGTON — Nearly 34 million cars and trucks nationwide were declared defective Tuesday because of deadly air bags made by auto-parts giant Takata, in what is expected to be the biggest recall of any consumer product in U.S. history.
The expanded recall doubles the number of vehicles believed to have the air bags, which can blast out sharp metal shrapnel when deployed, a flaw that has been linked to six deaths and more than 100 injuries.
The nationwide recall effort is expected to be a logistical nightmare for the auto industry, costing billions of dollars and potentially overwhelming automakers, parts suppliers and dealerships already struggling to find enough safe replacement parts.
It could be days before vehicle owners hear from automakers about whether their models are covered by the recall, officials said, and analysts expect that it could take years to complete the needed repairs.
In the meantime, millions who drive some of the most popular models from BMW, Ford, Honda, Toyota and other carmakers could remain behind the wheel with a defect that lawmakers have deemed a “public safety threat.”
“How long is this going to take (to resolve)? Nobody knows that yet,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration head Mark Rosekind said.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx added that it was “probably the most complex consumer safety recall in U.S. history.”
This outpaces General Motors’ recall last year of 30 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches and other problems and surpasses the biggest consumer recall, in 1982, of 31 million bottles of Tylenol amid a poison scare.
Federal officials said years of humid weather, along with other factors, could cause the propellant in driver- and passenger-side air-bag inflators to burn hotter than it should, leading to shard-blasting ruptures that Takata blamed on “over-aggressive combustion.”
But an investigation by Takata, automakers and independent researchers has yet to point to a definitive cause behind the ruptures.
Takata, a Tokyo-based parts manufacturer, supplied an estimated 30 percent of the world’s air bags to several global automakers, and its defective parts have been found in dozens of car and truck models made since 2000.
Federal officials said they did not yet know exactly which makes and models were covered in the recall. Nearly a dozen automakers, including Honda, Toyota and Ford, have recalled 17 million potentially defective vehicles across the United States and more than 36 million worldwide.
Takata bitterly resisted an expanded recall for months.
In February, the NHTSA began fining Takata $14,000 a day for failing to cooperate with its investigation. That fine has reached about $1.2 million and was suspended Tuesday.
Takata, which runs 56 plants in 20 countries and employs 36,000 workers worldwide, has said it could make millions of new air bags a year, but not tens of millions.
Automakers such as Honda, believed to be the most affected, have signed deals with other suppliers and manufacturers, including Autoliv and TRW Automotive, for replacement parts. Even so, some automakers were telling drivers that it could be months before their cars are repaired.
“A recall of this scope illustrates the potential for massive automaker expense and consumer inconvenience when a common, mass-produced part is defective,” said Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “Ironically, the use of common parts across markets and manufacturers is meant to save money, yet a recall of this size will cost the industry billions.”
