Killer Safety Feature

Honda has announced that nearly 900,000 Honda vehicles may have faulty airbags that could explode unexpectedly, causing injury and possibly death. The automaker is issuing a recall for 273,000 2001-2003 Honda and Acura models to replace the airbags.

They're supposed to save your life, but sometimes might kill you instead.

Honda will also inspect an additional 600,000 vehicles that may be affected by the killer airbags and will “replace those parts as necessary,” according to a notice posted on Honda.com.

“Affected driver’s airbag inflators may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture and could result in injury or fatality,” Honda says.

The recall will apply to some 2001 and 2002 Accords, 2001 and 2002 Civics, 2001-2003 Odysseys, 2002-2003 CR-Vs, 2003 Pilots, 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TLs and 2003 Acura 3.2 CLs.

“When Honda identifies concerns of this nature, nothing is more important to the company than fulfilling our obligation and responsibility to alert our customers,” Honda says. “To this end, in addition to contacting customers by mail, in late December, owners of these vehicles will be able to determine if their vehicles require repair by going on-line or calling."

Honda owners can go to www.recalls.honda.com or call (800) 999-1009 and select option 4; Acura owners can go to www.recalls.acura.com or call (800) 382-2238 and select option 4.