Ford, Mazda Issue Do-Not-Drive Warnings For 457,000 Older Vehicles

Ford Motor Co. and Mazda North American Operations have issued a "Do Not Drive" advisory for owners of certain vehicles equipped with non-desiccated Takata airbags. The warning, announced on Tuesday (August 13), affects over 457,000 vehicles that have not yet been repaired following several Takata airbag recalls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) supports the advisory, urging owners to stop driving the affected vehicles immediately until the faulty airbags are repaired or replaced.

The advisory covers 374,290 Ford vehicles , including Lincolns and Mercurys, from 2004 through 2012 model years and 82,893 Mazda vehicles from model years 2003 through 2015. The vehicles are equipped with airbag inflators manufactured by Takata, which could explode in a crash after being exposed to heat and humidity, causing metal shrapnel to shoot into the car’s interior.

According to the NHTSA, at least 27 people have been killed by the airbag inflators in the U.S. among all affected cars and automakers, including at least 400 others who have allegedly been injured. The defective airbags have led to the largest series of automotive recalls in U.S. history, with 67 million inflators recalled by the NHTSA since 2019.

Owners of the affected vehicles can check if their car is part of the recall by entering their vehicle identification number or license plate number on the Ford or Mazda website. Both automakers have assured that the airbags on vehicles affected by the recalls will be repaired or replaced for free.

You can see a complete list of the vehicles under the advisory here .

You can check to see if your car is under recall by going to nhtsa.gov/recalls and entering your 17-digit vehicle identification number.