How to tell if your older vehicle has a potentially dangerous Takata air bag under recall

DETROIT (AP) — Despite a long string of recalls that began more than two decades ago, about 6.2 million vehicles with potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators remain on U.S. roads today.

On Wednesday, Nissan warned drivers of about 84,000 older Nissan and Infiniti vehicles not to drive them because the front passenger inflators can explode with too much force in a crash, spewing metal fragments that could kill or injure people.

The Nissan recall includes cars and SUVs as old as the 2002 model year that were recalled in 2020. In some cases, the fragments hit more than one person in a vehicle.

In all, 67 million front driver and passenger inflators were included in what turned out to be the largest automotive recall in U.S. history. About 100 million inflators were recalled worldwide.

But despite years of publicity, recall letters and phone calls from automakers, about 9% of the recalled vehicles remain on the road without repairs.