GM recalls 200,000 Saab, Saturn vehicles with Takata airbags

(Article from: AutoNews.com)

DETROIT (Reuters) -- General Motors is recalling about 200,000 Saab and Saturn vehicles as part of a wider recall of more than 5 million autos with potentially defective airbag inflators made by Takata Corp.

There will be 180,000 of the vehicles recalled in the United States and another 20,000 in Canada, GM said today.

The models recalled are Saab 9-3 from the 2003-11 model years and Saab 9-5 from the 2010 and 2011 model years, as well as Saturn Astras from 2008 and 2009 model years. These vehicles have Takata PSDI-5 front driver-side airbag inflators.

No injuries, deaths or inadvertent ruptures of airbags in these vehicles have been reported but at least 10 deaths have been linked to Takata airbags, all but one of them in a Honda Motor Co. model.

U.S. safety regulator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said that Takata airbag inflators can explode with too much force, sending metal fragments into a vehicle.

Last week, the three largest German automakers -- Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW -- each recalled about 850,000 vehicles with the same inflator as the vehicles in the GM recall.

Takata said last month that inflators in more than 5 million vehicles were defective and that those vehicles should be recalled.