Nissan Motor Co. has issued a recall of over 100,000 Infiniti G35 sedans and coupes from model years 2005-2007 after discovering a connector problem that causes airbags to fail to deploy during a crash. Although no accidents involving injuries have been reported to the company as a result of the defect, Nissan is taking the precaution of an early recall in the wake of the Toyota scandal. Despite knowing of numerous unanticipated acceleration problems causing accidents and injuries, Toyota failed to timely notify the public of the problem and now faces numerous lawsuits and federal fines.
Federal safety officials have said that in the Nissan situation, the wiring that holds the airbags in place may wear down enough to interrupt the signal to deploy the airbags. It appears from this preemptive action, Nissan has learned from the mistakes Toyota made and is erring on the side of caution and consumer safety.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
