Mercedes-Benz, Daimler Vans to Recall 841,000 Cars Over Takata Airbags
CARS.COM — Mercedes-Benz will recall some 705,000 cars in the U.S. over potentially defective Takata airbag inflators, parent company Daimler AG said today. Daimler also will recall some 136,000 commercial vans — sold under various brands, including Mercedes — because of the inflators.
Related: Is Your Car Part of the Takata Airbag Recall?
Mercedes spokeswoman Donna Boland told Cars.com that the recalled vehicles include “various” C-Class, E-Class, SLK-Class and SLS-Class cars and GL-Class, M-Class and R-Class SUVs, all from the 2005-2014 model years. Daimler vans recalled include various Sprinter vans sold under the Dodge, Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz brands from the 2007-2014 model years.
All the cars and trucks are being recalled for driver-side airbags, Boland said. However, she did not provide a schedule for owner notification and offered no more specifics on particular model years or production date ranges for each vehicle under recall.
Gordon Trowbridge, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told Cars.com that he did not have any specific information on which cars or model years were involved. NHTSA will post specific notices on the Daimler recall “as soon as we get them and can process them,” Trowbridge said.
Boland confirmed that today’s recall is part of NHTSA’s massive expansion of Takata airbag recalls last month. The agency’s Jan. 22 announcement detailed two separate filings from the embattled auto supplier that amounted to some 5 million additional driver-side airbag inflators that would require a recall. NHTSA said it would affect Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Vans, among six other automakers, but the agency did not clarify which cars were involved.
Since then, that list has become clearer, though it’s still far from comprehensive. We’ve learned the expansion would include Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickups, Saab luxury cars and a whole mess of Hondas. The Daimler and Mercedes additions bring the number of identified vehicles to around 3.6 million — about 70 percent of the total expansion announced in January.
Prior to Jan. 22, Takata’s recall did not affect any Mercedes-Benz cars.
Editor’s note: This post was updated on Feb. 9 to add Mercedes’ response, which clarified the cars involved in the recall.
