Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, better known as simply Chrysler, has issued a recall order for almost 90,000 Dodge Challengers in connection with the defective airbags from Japanese supplier Takata.
The affected vehicles total 88,346 units, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recall order, which was posted on the website of the NHTSA, said that the Challengers being recalled are those with models year from 2008 to 2010 and were manufactured from September of 2007 to October of 2010.
The announcement of Chrysler's recall for these Challengers further expand the growing list of recall orders related to the potentially fatal airbags manufactured by Takata, which have led to a nationwide recall of vehicles.
The inflators that can be found in the airbag systems in the affected vehicles are subject to malfunction due to moisture. This could cause the inflators of the airbags to rupture when the safety devices are inflated upon a car crash, which would send sharp metal fragments into the interior of the vehicle.
The shrapnel could possible lead to burns, bruises and abrasions on the driver and passengers, and there are five reported deaths caused by the problem from within the United States, along with more than 100 reported injuries.
Chrysler said that it will be replacing the faulty inflators. However, the NHTSA said that the replacements are not currently available, coinciding with earlier reports that car owners that take their affected vehicles back to dealers will have to wait for as long as months before their faulty airbag systems are fixed.
Back in May, the NHTSA announced one of the biggest and most complicated vehicle recalls in the history of the automobile industry due to Takata's faulty airbags. The initial number of cars involved in the issued recall order was 18 million vehicles, but it was almost doubled to 34 million vehicles.
The NHTSA expects the completion of the recall process to take years, and the agency said that it is focusing on identifying the car brands and models that are involved.
Chrysler gave authorization for a recall order that included vehicles that were manufactured from the years 2004 to 2011. However, an audit by the car company released on July 6 revealed that Dodge Challengers with model years 2008 to 2010 were inadvertently left out from the earlier issued recall order, which prompted Chrysler to release a new action.
Photo: Kurush Pawar | Flickr
