Recall campaigns, there are several hundred a year, and some are a little more important than others. The one that interests us today concerns a model that has not been marketed for more than 15 years, since it is the first generation of Mazda3. The Japanese firm has just launched a major recall with 260,915 copies invited to go through the workshop box.
This recall concerns very exactly the Mazda3 produced between 2003 and 2006 for a problem already known for a few years. About six years ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency responsible for road safety in the United States, investigated cases where the logo on the steering wheel of these Mazda3s could break when the airbag was deployed. As a result, fragments of plastic could be thrown and injure the driver in the face.
As a result, Mazda did recognize a problem with this material, polyurethane to be more precise, but that it did not pose such a significant safety risk. Despite everything, in June 2006, Mazda changed its logo by opting for a polyester version which, for once, no longer represented any danger for the driver.
Nevertheless, between 2015 and 2019, around ten incident reports were filed with the American body, and it was a serious case that occurred in 2019 that relaunched the investigation. Following this, the NHTSA indicated that it would be necessary for the Japanese firm to organize a global recall so that this problem does not recur. Owners of affected models will be notified by mail by the end of the summer and will be invited to visit their Mazda dealership to have the defective logo replaced free of charge.
