X

It never ends: Toyota recalls another 1.6 million cars for Takata airbag inflators

All in, Toyota's three brands have recalled nearly 5 million vehicles for this reason.

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
See full bio
Andrew Krok
David Dewhurst

A confluence of factors is causing Takata-built airbag inflators to fail, exploding in a cloud of shrapnel instead of inflating the airbag during an accident. Since the news broke, automakers have been hustling to recall all affected vehicles, of which there are many. Today, we can add another 1.6 million cars to that list.

Toyota is recalling 1.6 million vehicles spread across its Toyota, Scion and Lexus brands to get these faulty inflators off the road. Affected owners will be notified by mail, and the fix requires replacing either the inflator itself or the entire airbag assembly, depending on model. It's not likely that replacement parts will be made available for all vehicles at the same time.

Affected Toyota vehicles include the 2006-2011 Toyota Yaris, 2009-2011 Toyota Corolla and Matrix, 2010-2011 Toyota 4Runner and 2011 Toyota Sienna. The sole Scion vehicle featured in this latest recall is the 2008-2011 Scion xB. As for Lexus, it's recalling the 2006-2011 Lexus IS, 2007-2011 Lexus ES and 2010-2011 Lexus GX.

Not every vehicle within that range is subject to the recall, though. Only a select number of vehicles from each model year is usually recalled, typically from within a certain cluster of build dates. You can head to Toyota's website with your vehicle information number (VIN) to see if your vehicle is subject to an open recall.