Nissan expands global airbag recall

An airbag fault that has plagued more than 10 million cars in the last five years has forced Nissan to issue an official recall for 25,941 cars.

The vehicles affected include 10-plus year old Nissan Pulsar, Maxima, Patrol (Y61), Navara, and X-Trail models build between April 2001 and June 2003.

Owners of the vehicles will be advised to contact a Nissan dealer so that the front passenger airbag inflator can be replaced (free of charge).

The problem revolves around the airbag propellant system, which can inflate the airbag with too much force. This then causes an "abnormal deployment" that can blast with enough force to cause injury to those it's supposed to protect, via "metal fragment scatter" according to the government recall notice.

Nissan originally recalled around 11,000 vehicles in Australia in April 2013, but the airbag inflator issue has snowballed into one of the world's biggest vehicle recalls, with more than 10 million vehicles affected.

The faulty part, built by Japanese auto parts supplier Takata, has affected almost 100,000 vehicles in Australia, with Toyota, BMW, Lexus, and Mazda all suffering the same problem. Honda has issued the largest local recall so far – more than 43,000 vehicles.

Takata is one of the world's largest car parts suppliers and its CEO, Shigehisa Takada, has apologised to shareholders for its liabilities. It is possible Takata will be fined up to $500 million for supplying faulty parts.